Comms Group acquires Sydney-based Next Telecom

ASX-listed cloud communications provider Comms Group has acquired Sydney-based telco and managed service provider for $8.67 million.

Next Telecom is a business telco specialising in SME and mid-sized corporate businesses, offering corporate data services (corporate fibre and NBN), cloud IP telephony, managed IT services, managed security offerings and other telco services.

Comms Group said the acquisition is “transformational” for the company, with a significant increase in scale, product offerings and customer base.

“There is strong strategic rationale for the acquisition of Next Telecom,” Comms Group chief executive and managing director Peter McGrath said.

“The acquisition provides a complementary customer base, expanding and diversifying the Comms Group’s customer base with significantly less reliance on any one customer, particularly in the corporate mid-market sector (100 seats plus).

“There is also good product and technology fit across Voice, Data and Managed Services. Comms Group’s domestic telco business CommsChoice will also provide additional products and service offerings that Next Telecom can take to market. Importantly, Next Telecom has strong and award recognised service levels.”

As part of the deal, Next’s whole staff will join Comms Group, with sales and operations execs Gavin Roache and Mark Manion running the business as co-CEOs following the acquisition. Current executive chairman and CEO Ryan O’Hare meanwhile will step down and will join Comms Group’s board as a non-executive director.

“We are really pleased to welcome Next Telecom to the Comms Group overall business. Next Telecom are a leading and innovative service provider targeting mid-sized corporate customers with a strong reputation for high levels of customer service,” McGrath added.

“We are also very pleased to receive strong levels of support for the capital raising from a range of new institutional and sophisticated investors.”