Acquisition hungry VAR looks to go public to raise more cash

Communications VAR Azzurri is planning to float on the stock exchange to arm itself with additional acquisition funds.

Martin St Quinton, chief executive of Azzurri, told CRN: “We are planning an IPO [Initial Public Offering] in June on the AIM [Alternative Investment Market]. We want to go public to raise more funds and to do more deals.”

The reseller, which is backed by investment firm 3i, has already made 15 acquisitions since it started trading. Once it has floated, Azzurri will return to the acquisition trail.

“In the second half of the year we will make more acquisitions,” St Quinton said. “These will be of slightly bigger firms than before. We have already acquired some big customer bases, and we’ve done a good job of cross-selling into these.”

He added that Azzurri has used its acquisitions to expand its capabilities to incorporate voice, data and mobile sectors.

Bernie Dodwell, European security manager at distributor Westcon, said: “Azzurri is an aggressive, acquisitive company, and the easiest way to raise money is to float. It is a good time to float because the stock exchange is strong at the moment.”

Scott Dobson, managing director of distributor Vcomm, said it is a brave move from Azzurri.

“Azzurri has grown through acquisitions of telecoms VARs and firms to give it a geographical reach across the UK,” he said. “Azzurri will need more money for an IP strategy because its current skill set is based on traditional telecoms.”

Jens Montanana, chief executive of Datatec, said: “Azzurri has been highly acquisitive, and 3i will be keen to cash in, either through selling or through going public. Other channel firms that have gone public are Computacenter, Morse and Compel, but Azzurri is more of a voice and networking firm.”

Keith Humphreys, managing consultant at research firm EuroLAN, said: “After seeing what Computacenter went through trying to buy itself back, I’m nervous about any firm floating. Often financial institutions don’t understand the business of channel players.”