As there is now a conflict of interest we are unable to let Channel Events exhibit at Mobilexpo said Mobilexpo exhibition director John Stuttard.

We need to ensure that Mobilexpo remains the UKs leading event for the mobile communications trade Stuttard added.

Channel had planned to hype its magazines and events at Mobilexpo which takes place next week at the NEC (May 9-11).

Channels chief executive Richard Hease has now been warned by Reed that anyone working for the company will be stopped from entering Mobilexpo. Hease has been told the Reed ban also applies to anybody handing out his companys magazines or promoting its events within or outside Mobilexpo.

The deal is still conditional on the approval of European Telecoms shareholders at an Extraordinary Meeting on May 16.

But as ET chief executive Warren Hardy is a major shareholder (45 per cent) there is not much likelihood of the deal being rejected.

European Telecom is planning to raise 19 million through the issue of 4.8 million new shares of 420p each to pay for the acquisition and provide working capital.

Banner Telecom made sales of 63.1 million pre-tax profits of 1.8 million and as at 29 February 2000 had net assets of 4.5 million.

Banner was approached informally by European Telecom last October. By Christmas the discussions were formal.

Banner Telecom joint managing director Mike Sharpe who owns around 35 per cent of Banner stays on. But co-founder John Gardiner leaves Banner to concentrate full time on developing e-Pay the electronic top-up solutions company which has been approved by One 2 One and Vodafone.

Sharpe told Mobile News:

The time was right to sell. We had a couple of offers on the table. European Telecoms offer made the most sense with the synergy and knowing the company. No redundancies have been discussed as yet. Its likely well have even more opportunities.

Sharpe said a main advantage of the deal was that Banner could now distribute phones from all four networks. (Cont. P2)

Previously it had no direct trading relationship with BTCellnet and Vodafone.

It gives us stronger buying power. We hope to pass those benefits on to the dealer channel. Weve got some big plans for the dealer channel. With ETs backing we can move that forward.

European Telecom chief executive Warren Hardy added:

Since we floated weve made efforts to strengthen our position and develop further value-added services. Weve made a real effort to develop relationships with the PCN operators. From being nowhere we are now the second-fastest growing operator with one of the PCN operators.

We felt if we acquired Banner it would give us the number one position in the UK with PCN GSM and UMTS which will be a specialist retail sale. We now have 20 per cent of the specialist channel in the UK.

Ironically neither European Telecom or Banner had Motorola distribution. Thus the combined company is still unable to officially supply Motorola handsets with Motorolas blessing.

Hardy says :

Not having Motorola has not worried us in the past. We continue to get closer to Motorola but the ball is in their court. We havent been banging on the door. Were not affected by the fact we dont have direct supply.

The Carphone Warehouse also scooped the Best Customer Service award which was presented at a gala black-tie Awards dinner/dance hosted by the UKs top comedian Jim Davidson at the Hilton on Park Lane on March 23 and attended by 1100 guests. (Full results P34 Pictures P36).

Banner joint managing director Mike Sharpe told Mobile News:

We are in discussions with a company who are interested in buying us.

Weve signed confidentiality and exclusivity agreements up to January 31 which gives them time to do their due diligence and make a firm offer if they are interested.

Avenir became one of the first mobile GSM telephone distributors in 1994 when it opened its first phone shop in Marseilles-Provence airport. It claims to have 33 per cent of the French accessory market.

The first two products have been targeted at specific markets utilising Siemens GSM handsets and two mini notebook PCs giving business mobile office capability connected to the World Wide Web through a bespoke business services portal.

Initial sales channels will be High Street Retail IT Distribution and mobile phone dealers with a specialist focusing on corporate sales.

European Telecom has posted a pre-tax profit of 1.4 million on turnover of 112 million for the six months to the end of September.

This is a 119 per cent increase over the pre-tax profit of 643000 on turnover of 111 million for the same period in 1998.

The company invested a further 500000 in its Racal joint venture Global Telematics.

The UK sales distribution division increased sales by 30 per cent and gross profit by 137 per cent against the same period last year. Turnover in the export sales division was down by some 30 per cent in the first half of the year but the gross profit contribution was down by only 16 per cent. Over 75 per cent of European Telecoms export turnover is now with European network operators and service providers.

The accessories (Cont P2) division TAG almost doubled its turnover compared with the same period last year resulting in a 53 per cent increase in gross profit contribution. European Telecoms South African subsidiary formed last year made an operating loss.

We have recently re-negotiated our exclusive contract with MTN one of the two South African Network Operators and can now market and sell TAG accessories to the entire South African market said European Telecom chairman and chief executive Warren Hardy.

The ServiceXpress repair business increased turnover by 97 per cent during the period. European Telecom is believed to be looking for a new financial director after the most recent one tendered his resignation last month.

Administrator KPMG confirmed that there had been a great deal of interest in potential purchasers for the shops including one approach from a foreign player in the mobile comms industry.

KPMG joint administrative receiver John Dare told Mobile News there had been about 60 responses to an advertisement in the financial press offering the Talk! shops for sale.

Dare said it was expected a deal would be tied up before Christmas. But he said it was highly unlikely that any unsecured creditors would get their money back.

TCL was set up in 1984. Despite a turnover of 21 million in the year to June the company ran into trading difficulties and lost its battle with its bank to continue its lending.

As well as providing handsets MArtin Dawes will be setting up a private wire system that will allow mobiles to be accessed as internal extension phones with a four digit internal number.

The service billed through Cellcom allows people to run a mobile phone without having to sign a contract or buy pre-pay vouchers.

After an initial charge of 39.99 for the Mitsubishi Trium phone the package costs 6 a month inclusive of calls. After this calls cost 25p a minute peak rate and 12.5p off peak up to a limit of 16.

Credit is topped up by calling a Carphone Warehouse phone line or visiting a Carphone Warehouse store. A text message warns users when they have 2 left to go on their 16 limit.

We think the gap between prepay and subscription is too big. But there are lots of people who still want the reliability of a subscription but dont want to pay 17.50 a month said Dunstone.

This was planned before Virgin Mobile came on the scene. Were buying the airtime wholesale from One 2 One and paying Cellcom as a facilities house to provide the billing. It is being promoted as a separate brand. There is no credit check. They buy the phone on their credit card. We charge 6 every month and give 6 of calls. There is 30 days notice to cancel. If they make calls over that we bill them by SMS not paper. You can go into any of our stores and print off a copy for itemised billing.

By Virgin coming into the market the market has changed to an extent. There are now other people being virtual networks so were adapting to that he said.