Sheffield – LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – DLA Piper has advised telecoms company Kingston Communications in its drive towards corporate expansion. This has included three major acquisitions in six months, worth more than £46 million.
Most recently, the Hull-based business acquired leading Internet service provider Mistral for £19.6m. The company provides a range of products and services connecting UK businesses to the Internet, hosting and protecting their data
The deal forms part of Kingston’s ongoing strategy to broaden its capabilities and extend its range of value added services to businesses and public sector organisations.
Six months ago Kingston Communications also acquired Smart421 for £24.2m, a company which provides software integration consultancy and services for firms such as O2 and Norwich Union. This was followed in December by a £2.56m deal to purchase JAM IP Limited, which provides software to contact centres and call centres.
Catherine Simister, a partner in the corporate group at DLA Piper’s Sheffield office said: “We have worked very closely and successfully with the in-house legal team at Kingston to complete these major acquisitions.
“Our long-standing relationship with Kingston and the strength and depth of our respective legal teams has enabled us to establish a way of working together efficiently and effectively, jointly delivering value for the expanding Kingston Group.”
As well as providing a range of communications services to small and medium businesses and selected consumer markets across the UK, Kingston also provides unified communications and network integration solutions to blue chip organisations through its national Affiniti business.
Elizabeth McDonald, Group Head of Legal Services at Kingston, said: “Working together in the way we have been doing, as a fully integrated team, has the added advantage that once the transaction has completed my internal team already know a great deal about the legal issues relating to the newly acquired business.
“This can help speed up the integration of the business into the Group and also ensure that we can more effectively manage the legal risks going forward. The partnership with DLA is a long standing one and they provide my team with support in several different areas but it has been particularly effective in relation to corporate transactions.”
ENDS
For further information:
Claire Lees, Media Relations, DLA Piper, Tel: +44 (0)20 7796 6176 or email claire.lees@dlapiper.com
