Last-mile broadband firm Satellite Solutions Worldwide Group PLC (LON:SAT) has expanded its presence in Australia and Norway after making its first acquisitions of this year.
SSW is buying Aussie satellite broadband provider BorderNET, as well as the customer bases of Norwegian broadband solutions providers NextNet and AS Distriktsnett, for a total of £1.8mln.
That £1.8mln will be paid in a mixture of cash and shares, with the cash element to be financed by Satellite’s new HSBC credit facility which it announced last week.
“Having established strong hubs in Norway and Australia last year, we can now readily acquire sub-scale, local businesses and rapidly turn them into profitable assets by integrating them onto our global platform,” said chief executive Andrew Walwyn.
“We continue to grow user numbers and revenues in these territories and to actively pursue acquisition opportunities, in line with our global strategy, as we continue our consolidation of last mile broadband across Europe and Australasia.”
BorderNET has around 3,500 residential and business customers in Australia and specialises in providing broadband services to farming and remote communities.
SSW will pay £1.15mln for the Aussie group, which will be satisfied by an initial cash payment of £895,000, plus approximately £257,000 worth of Satellite shares.
BorderNET posted a loss of £16,500 in its most recently prepared accounts, although with annualised revenue run rate of over £1mln, SSW expects the company to be profitable under its ownership.
The two Norwegian firms – NextNet and ASDN – are both fixed wireless broadband solutions providers, although NextNet also has a focus on ADSL broadband as well.
SSW will pay an initial £489,000 for the roughly 1,680 NextNet customers, as well as a further £19,000 for stock and other infrastructure assets.
Like BorderNET, NextNet also made a small loss in its latest accounts, although SSW is confident it will be a profitable business once it comes into the group.
ASDN has around 330 residential and business customers in the west of Norway, for which Satellite will pay £81,000 for.
Last summer, SSW boosted its presence in both of the regions after it snapped up Norwegian firm Breiburg and Aussie group Skymesh for a total of £11.7mln.
Those deals were completed just a few weeks after Satellite took out its UK rival Avonline for £10mln.
SSW shares closed at 9p on Friday.