Firm forecasts 5% growth for newly acquired telecoms business

Electrical wiring

Engineer Renew has bought wireless telecoms engineering firm Clarke Telecom Limited for 拢17m.

In a statement to the City, the firm announced it paid 拢11.9m for the firm yesterday and will pay a further 拢5.1m at the end of May 2014.

It said it had funded the acquisition from its cash reserves and a 拢12m four year loan from HSBC bank.

Clarke Telecom is based in Oldham and operates all over the country.

It provides site acquisition and design, construction, installation and site optimisation services for the wireless telecoms industry.

Following the acquisition the current management team of Clarke will be kept in place and the firm鈥檚 managing director Nigel Newton will report to Renew鈥檚 engineering services director Paul Scott.

In the year to 31 October 2013 Clarke reported 拢32.9m of revenue and operating profit of 拢3.5m

In its statement, Renew said the Clarke business had a 鈥渞ange of excellent growth opportunities鈥 and it expected Clarke to grow revenue by around 5% in the year to 31 October 2014.

It said: 鈥淭he wireless telecoms infrastructure market is currently experiencing growth as demand for mobile internet access and communications is outstripping the capability and capacity of the existing mobile network infrastructure alongside the introduction of 4G services.

鈥淭his is resulting in a growing need for network operators to add new infrastructure, upgrade existing networks and decommission redundant assets.鈥

Roy Harrison, chair of Renew, said the acquisition was 鈥渆arnings enhancing鈥.

He added: 鈥淐larke Telecom is a leader in a field which is enjoying strong structural growth and broadens Renew鈥檚 activities in the Infrastructure market.鈥