Group CEO Riley admits it may dip into untouched £200 million banking facility in the right circumstances
Daisy Group CEO Matthew Riley has hinted that more acquisitions by the firm in the mobile industry are likely, after admitting he wants to strengthen this area of the business.
Riley (pictured) was speaking at the firm’s first ever Wired? partner conference earlier this month.
Daisy said the aim of the event was to provide an insight into the different types of technology used in the communications industry and to find out how it can best assist its customers.
The conference was attended by more than 100 Daisy customers and by partners including BT, O2, Vodafone, Virgin Media Business, Kcom, Avia, Cisco and Mitel. It covered various topics such as mobile, cloud, fibre broadband, BYOD and remote working.
When asked if mobile was something he was looking to bolster, Riley told Mobile News he is “always looking for strategic acquisitions”.
The telecoms provider has not purchased a mobile specialist for three years, having acquired Anglia Telecoms Centres for £17 million in August 2009 and Fone Logistics for £3.6 million in June 2010.
The two acquisitions led to the formation of Daisy Distribution in January 2011.
In March, Daisy Group signed a new three-year banking agreement with six banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, Yorkshire Bank and ING – to increase its facilities to £200 million. Each bank is contributing £33.3 million.
Since then, the firm’s chequebook has remained closed.
“We haven’t done anything yet, but we are always looking for strategic acquisitions,” Riley said. “We would really like to strengthen parts of our mobile business, as well as areas of our Wi-Fi and connectivity businesses. It has to be beneficial for shareholders and either add numbers of customers or a technology or skill set we don’t currently have.”
Full report in Mobile News issue 541 (June 17, 2013).
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