Ex Virgin Media executives to snap up struggling telcos
Thursday, March 5, 2015
05 March 2015 | Laura Hedges
Former executives at Virgin Media have revealed plans to buy, fix and sell struggling telecoms companies in the rapidly consolidating European market.
Virgin Media’s ex-finance director Eamonn O’Hare – prior to its acquisition by Liberty Global in 2013 – said last night that he will look to raise money on the London Stock Exchange’s junior market, Aim, for the acquisitions. O’Hare has teamed up with Virgin Media’s former strategy chief Robert Samuelson to create an investment vehicle named Zegona to put his plan in motion. "We will have a buy, fix and sell approach," O’Hare told the Financial Times. "We think that the opportunity at the moment is incredible." Zegona will allegedly target businesses with enterprise values of between £1-3 billion, but will initially start with a relatively small placing of £30 million.
The company has reportedly identified around 50 potential acquisitions, but O’Hare stressed that it would only buy one business at a time. A spokesman for Zegona told local reporters: "The current dynamics of the European sector, with the rapid growth of data consumption, convergence of services and consolidation of operators, create multiple investment opportunities and the potential to realise attractive returns with Zegona’s "Buy-Fix-Sell" strategy."