TUNBRIDGE WELLS telecoms business AdEPT has continued its relentless drive to expand with a £12million acquisition aimed at opening the door to lucrative public sector contracts.
The purchase of the Orpington-based Atomwide by the AIM-listed company means AdEPT will now supply information technology solutions to over 4,000 UK schools, local authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia with over two million users.
This latest deal is the company’s fifth acquisition in the last two years, and the eighth major transaction carried out with the advice of local law firm Cripps since 2013.
Cripps Partner Nigel Stanford, who led the multidisciplinary team involving eight other lawyers, said his firm was working on a ‘tight schedule’ to get the ‘complex deal’ completed.
In order to meet the deal funding requirements, AdEPT secured £7.3million from the Business Growth Fund [BGF], with Cripps negotiating all of the agreements and dealing with BGF’s due diligence requirements.
The remaining funds were obtained by AdEPT through their existing banks, with Cripps again negotiating the detailed changes required to the company’s current debt facilities.
Ian Fishwick, Chief Executive of AdEPT, said: “Over the last two years we have completely transformed AdEPT from its origins as a telecoms company providing calls and lines to a managed services business providing complex solutions involving IT and telecoms.”
