Leeds telecoms firm snapped up by acquisitive group

A £16m-turnover telecommunication business headquartered in Leeds has been bought by an acquisitive group headed up by a North West Business Insider 42 under 42 alumnus, creating a group with sales of £50m.

Elitetele.com, a unified communications provider, has taken over Nexus Telecommunications in its largest deal to date. The acquisition is Elite’s 15th since 2008.

Nexus will be rebranded under the Elitetele.com name and its 35 staff will remain at the business’ Leeds office.

Matt Newing, Elite’s founder said: “Nexus has a great reputation in the industry and is a perfect complement for Elite.

“We share a similar high-service culture, and we believe the combination of our two companies’ unified comms and IT products and services will deliver the strongest client offering in the industry.”

Elite will now have revenue in excess of £50m with underlying EBITDA in excess of £8m, representing growth of 37 per cent and 43 per cent over Elite’s FY7/16 results.

The group will also have 165 staff across seven locations, with Nexus contributing £16m of revenue.

Rob Sims, chief executive of Nexus Telecommunications, will stay on with the business following the acquisition and joining the group leadership team.

He said: “Nexus’ culture of service excellence, flexibility and customer choice make us a great fit with Elitetele.com.

“Our customers will benefit from Elite’s wide range of services, including hosted IT services, PCI Compliance, SIP services, phone systems and numbering services, which will complement the Nexus offering, giving our customers even better service.”

Elite’s internal M&A team and internal legal counsel completed the acquisition. Leveraged finance was provided by the company’s existing lender, Lloyds Banking Group. Financial due diligence was undertaken by the Manchester office of Mazars, led by Neil Robinson, Jeremy Booth and Hayley Brightmore.

Nexus was represented by Hull law firm Gosschalks led by corporate partner Paul Plaxton.