STP.L Regulatory News (STP)

11 February 2010

SPIRITEL PLC

("SpiriTel" or "the Group")

Acquisition of Mobotel Management Limited - Tenth Acquisition Since 2006

SpiriTel plc, (AIM: STP), the business communications service provider, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Mobotel Management Limited ("Mobotel" or "the Company"), for an initial consideration of £1.15 million. The acquisition is SpiriTel's tenth since 2006. 

Mobotel is a specialist mobile voice and data reseller, based in Fulham, London. Mobotel focuses on the provision of converged mobility services to corporate customers in the legal and financial services sectors. Over 90% of connections include BlackBerry services. The Company also provides a suite of mobile applications to several of its larger corporate customers. Mobotel has a high value customer base with an average spend of almost £50 per connection per month, which is significantly higher than the industry average. The Company's client list includes well known names such as Mishcon de Reya solicitors, Houlihan Lokey, the NHS Confederation, Eden Financial Limited and Storm Models, Britain's leading model agency.

Since 2006, SpiriTel has been an active consolidator within the highly fragmented reseller market and has selectively acquired and rapidly integrated high quality telecoms resellers and service providers as part of its 'acquire, integrate, grow' strategy. Mobotel is a strong fit with SpiriTel's existing Mobile line of business and significantly, has not previously sold fixed line voice or data services or IP telephony systems. The acquired customer base therefore represents significant potential for cross selling of SpiriTel's 'complete business communications' offering.

Under the terms of the acquisition, SpiriTel has agreed to pay £1.15 million in cash on completion. Performance-related earn-out payments of up to £1.0 million may also be payable in cash if the Company meets rigorous growth targets over the next two years. Based on the current performance of the business, no earn out consideration would be payable. The vendor of Mobotel will also receive a payment of £1.0 million from Mobotel's cash deposits at completion. As at 31 December 2009, Mobotel had net assets of approximately £1.0 million, including a cash balance of £1.25 million. In the year ended 31 March 2009, Mobotel had revenues of £2.1 million and profit before tax of £0.3 million. 

SpiriTel will use its tried and tested integration framework to incorporate Mobotel into its SpiriTelBusiness Division which has offices in London, Wigan and Swansea. The Directors expect to realise significant operational synergies and anticipate that the acquisition will be immediately earnings enhancing.

Commenting on the acquisition, Alastair Mills, Chief Executive of SpiriTel said: "Mobotel is a well established provider of mobile services and solutions. The customer base is particularly attractive in that most connections are BlackBerry and the ARPU is well above the industry average. The acquisition, our tenth since 2006, strengthens our own Mobile line of business which has recently delivered strong organic growth and also provides an excellent cross sell opportunity for our rapidly expanding Business Division."

 Richard Smith, Managing Director of Mobotel said: "This is a very exciting partnership for Mobotel and our customers. SpiriTel is recognised as a leading provider of converged communications to business customers and, having worked hard to develop market leading mobile services, we are looking forward to offering our customers an expanded, integrated product set as part of SpiriTel's Business Division."

For further information please visit www.spiritelplc.com or contact:

Notes to Editors

SpiriTel is a business communications group which is taking advantage of the opportunities created by rapidly changing telecoms markets in the UK as the migration to Internet Protocol (IP) based services accelerates. The Group is a consolidator of the highly fragmented UK telecoms reseller market and is building a substantial customer base and scale through selective earnings-enhancing acquisitions. We are organised into two divisions, SpiriTel Technologies - focused on our infrastructure and IP products and services - and SpiriTel Business, which provides our fully integrated range of voice and data services direct to business customers.

Today, the Group offers our 'complete business communications' portfolio to a customer base of small and medium sized enterprises and an increasing number of larger national and international organisations. We are a recognised leader in the provision of new, but proven, Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions that are firmly based on the old-fashioned service values, which run throughout the Group.