Value-added reseller for the Telecoms industry, “Daisy” is apparently planning a substantial sale sometime in the spring of this year, if the Financial Times is to be believed. According to the well-respected publication, the group will be going up for sale as early as this month, with an expected price of over £1 billion.
Apparently, the organisation is hoping to make the sale part of it’s plan to double in size and potentially take on other providers like BT in the small to mid-sized business market. Last year, Daisy appointed Oakley Advisory and UBS – a process which leads to plenty of gossip that it might be planning a sale sometime in the future. However, at the time, Daisy refused to comment on any rumours – a practice that they’re repeating today.
Daisy Has Blossomed in Recent Years
Up until now, Daisy has built itself into a larger and more competitive company through the acquisition of smaller rivals. In fact, it racked up a total of 46 deals before a £500 million buy-out convinced the brand to go private in 2014. Since then, the organisation has continued to target new takeovers, including the purchase of Alternative Networks, and Phoenix IT.
By March, experts predict that “earnings before interest”, depreciation, taxation, and amortisation should hit the £120 million mark for this year, compared with £57.9 million in the year leading up to March 2014 when the company was last defined as a listed business. Neil Muller, the chief executive of Daisy has declined to comment on the potential of a sale, but he has been happy to confirm that the brand has been doubling its revenues since it delisted and shifted its focus in the Telecoms world.
The Financial Times claims that Daisy is hoping to close a deal within three months if they are going to market, but there’s still no certainty at this point.
Who Would Be Interested in Buying Daisy?
If the rumours are true and Daisy does go up for sale soon, then Virgin Media and Vodafone have both expressed interest in buying the company in the past. A purchase form one of these rivals would allow Matthew Riley to go and focus on other ventures. He has been growing Daisy for 17 years so far, ever since he launched the company in his garage in 2001.
Currently, Daisy has a reseller channel of 1,400 companies selling to smaller businesses, while direct sales to large and mid-sized companies also make up around 60% of the brand’s total revenue.
