GMT acquires MeetingZone for £38.5m

Viktor Lundvall
01 August 2011

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GMT Communications Partners has teamed up with management to acquire UK-based conference and collaboration service provider MeetingZone for a total consideration of ТЃ38.5m.

The company was acquired from the two founders, Tim Duffy and Steve Gandy, and direct secondary private equity specialist Nova Capital Management in addition to other shareholders. Duffy and Gandy will remain significant shareholders in the company and Gandy will continue as CEO while Duffy will take the role of non-executive chairman.

GMT established contact with the CEO of MeetingZone a couple of years ago. The company launched a sales process for the company approximately one year ago, which was arranged by KPMG. A number of potential buyers were believed to have shown interest in the company and MeetingZone is said to have been attracted to GMT's knowledge of the communications sector.

The investor believes that the company will benefit from forecast growth in the UK and European conferencing markets. It also sees opportunities for consolidation in a fragmented market. GMT will support the company in continuing its growth strategy on existing markets as well as pursuing opportunities in new markets in Europe and the Asia-Pacific. An expansion of the company's service offering will also be looked at via potential add-on acquisitions.

Debt
Clydesdale Bank supported the transaction with a debt package.

Company
MeetingZone is headquartered in Thame, Oxford, and is an independent conferencing and collaboration service provider. The company's solutions allow clients to bring together remotely located people into the same conference call.

MeetingZone was established in 2002 and generated revenue of £11m in the financial year ending March 2011. The company has operations in the UK, North America and Germany.

People
Stefan Franssen and Timothy Green of GMT Communications Partners will join the company's board of directors. Vikram Krishna also worked on the deal for GMT. Simon Smith is investment partner at Nova Capital Management.

Advisers
Equity – Weil Gotschal & Manges (Legal).
Vendor – KPMG (Financial due diligence); DLA Piper (Legal).
Debt – CMS Cameron McKenna (Legal).