Kartesia supports Firstcom Europe on their acquistion of Calteq Ltd

Today Firstcom Europe, the leading Pan European telecoms company based in Bolton, announced the acquisition of Calteq Ltd, located in Hertfordshire and Suffolk. The deal adds an extra £6.2m of turnover and £1.2m of EBITDA to the Firstcom group and expands both its UK geographical reach and range of products. Recurring revenues at Calteq are very strong at 80% of total.

Christian Bleakley, CEO of Firstcom Europe, said that he was impressed by the low customer churn and professionalism of the Calteq team, almost all of whom will be joining Firstcom Europe. “I am looking forward to working with Calteq who have been successfully trading for 19 years and have built up a great reputation and a loyal customer base with strong revenues. Their expertise in offering multi-site and bespoke solutions will complement our unified communications products and enhance our ability to grow the business organically.”

“One of the reasons we were keen to join with Firstcom is the opportunities it provides my colleagues to progress,” said Mike Stephenson, founder and director of Calteq. “With Firstcom Europe’s product set, our customers will be able to transition seamlessly to cloud based solutions, meaning both my colleagues and our customers will benefit. I am looking forward to working with the team as the enlarged business delivers on its ambitious growth targets”.

Since first investing in Firstcom Europe in August 2020, Kartesia has committed over £30m to the business to refinance its existing debt arrangements and support its ongoing buy and build strategy. With Kartesia’s funding, Firstcom has acquired two businesses in Germany and a number of customer databases in the UK, in addition to today’s acquisition of Calteq. Kartesia will continue to support the acquisition strategy, with a number of exciting M&A opportunities in the pipeline.

Bleakley added: “I am delighted to have the continued support of Kartesia and enjoy working with them as we continue our strategy to convert more customers to new technology”. Firstcom received legal advice from Knights on the acquisition, with David Easdown and Ryan Tweedale leading the team comprising of specialists from the technology, media and telecoms group.