Knight CF advised the shareholders of Pink Telecom on a sale of their maintenance base and network services company to Chess. Following a competitive sales process, Chess emerged as the preferred buyer as they were keen to enhance their telephone systems capability with the acquisition of Pink’s engineering expertise.
Whilst Knight CF is best known for achieving successful exits for its clients, it also helps it clients build value through acquisition and fund-raising. Knight worked with Elite Telecom to secure a £11.5m bank facility with Lloyds TSB for its client Elite Telecom. Elite completed 4 transactions last year and the new funding facility will provide Elite with the ability to undertake further acquisitions over the next 12 months. Knight’s Rob Burbidge led the negotiations with Lloyds and was able to generate a surprisingly strong level of competition, which suggests that the banks are finally realising that telecoms businesses are able to deliver growth and secure high quality earnings.
Elite principle Matt Newing commented “arranging bank finance is never easy in this sector but Knight ensured that the banks fully understood what a great opportunity this was for them and created a level of competition that we had never experienced before”.
Finally, in its largest deal so far this year, Knight advised the shareholders of managed services provider Worldstone on its disposal to Jersey Telecom, Similar to the Pink deal, it represents a significant strategic moves for the buyer and Knight was once again able to match client expectations with motivated buyers.
Worldstone principle Suresh Punjabi commented “Knight led the transaction for us and ensured that we not only met our personal aspirations as shareholders, but also found the right partner to take Worldstone forward to the next stage of its development. It was through Knight’s unique industry contacts that opened up the opportunity with Jersey Telecom and they showed exceptional professionalism throughout what was a lengthy and often emotional process”.
Commenting on the deals Knight CF Director Paul Billingham said “Reaching this milestone demonstrates how Knight is evolving alongside the sector. More of our deals are now strategic and focussed on delivering new growth with new services. The outlook for transactions continues to be strong bolstered by an increasing level of funding in the market.”
Knight CF are sponsoring the seminar theatre at Convergence Summit South where readers can meet the Knight CF directors