Monsoon Mobile Wedding
October 2006
The latest mobile telephone networks can suffer badly from extreme weather conditions unless highly-skilled engineers are managing them on a minute-by-minute basis. The recent sale of Genesis Consultancy, the UK-based provider of such network management services, to an Indian telecoms group means the UK market leader will soon be providing the same peace of mind to Indian mobile phone users .
Eager buyers from Britain, America, Continental Europe, Australia and Singapore all expressed interest in acquiring Genesis, but Livingstone’s Indian Global M&A partner, Meghraj, suggested a potential purchaser with a compelling strateigic rationale.
According to Livingstone deal leader Daniel Domberger, Mumbai-based GTL Ltd was “the perfect buyer, offering the most compelling strategic fit” - a group with a wealth of resource that would help Genesis’s highly-skilled technical staff capture further managed services opportunities around the world.
David Edmonson founded Genesis in 2000, to support network deployment and ongoing services with highly-skilled telecommunications staff, and immediately established a strong relationship with Nokia. Two years later, the first 3G engineers were initially deployed to work on integrating network elements and, over the following two years, Genesis expanded rapidly in the UK and Asia-Pacific regions, and then into the USA.
A move to a new building in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and the development of its NIOSC (network integration and operations service centre) gave Genesis the capacity to continue to grow at over 50% per year.
Having locked Genesis into a steep growth curve Mr Edmonson sought the help of Livingstone to identify a complementary partner that could continue to develop the business and help capture new opportunities in the increasingly global managed services market.
Following a worldwide research exercise through Global M&A, the international partnership of independent investment banking boutiques, Domberger worked with Global M&A’s Indian partner Meghaj – also based in Mumbai - to bring the deal to fruition.
He says: “We believe this is going to be the shape of things to come, as global resources are used to service local opportunities. GTL has tremendous technical capacity which it can now deploy in previously-closed markets. Genesis has a strong relationship with Nokia, which it can now exploit to the full. We, and our Indian partners, are expecting more cross border deals in this direction in the coming months.”
David Edmondson comments: "Livingstone and Meghraj did an excellent job- initially to find a perfect strategic buyer - and then to guide us through the process. It was quite a challenge, given the cultural differences and the distances involved. ”Daniel's hard work made the whole thing much easier for us. He understood the business well, and was always working to improve our position and keep things moving. Without him, we couldn't have got such a great deal for both parties. Furthermore, having Meghraj on the ground in Mumbai meant we also had someone local to speak to when we needed it”
Rahul Desai, Head of Risk Management at GTL adds: “Livingstone ran a very professional process. This was our first acquisition as a team, although we hope to make more, and even though they were on the other side, Livingstone's project management helped us complete on time."
For further information contact:
Daniel Domberger
T: +44 20 7484 4700
E: domberger@livingstonepartners.co.uk
