Released: 05/07/2006
RNS Number:6960F
Spiritel PLC
05 July 2006
For immediate release 5 July 2006
SPIRITEL PLC
("Spiritel" or "the Company")
Issue of Convertible Loan Notes and Strategy to Broaden Routes to Market
by Acquisition
Spiritel plc (AIM: STP), the telecommunications services business, is pleased to
announce that Penta Capital Partners Limited, of which Steven Scott, a
Non-Executive Director of Spiritel, is a director, has subscribed for
convertible loan notes with an aggregate value of £350,000 through the Penta
Fund 1 Limited Partnership. The loan notes are convertible into ordinary shares
of 1p each in the Company at a conversion price of 2.75p per share at any time
before 30 June 2007.
Spiritel is also pleased to announce that it intends to broaden its routes to
market by gaining a direct relationship with the end-users of VoIP (Voice over
Internet Protocol) products and services to complement its current strategy of
marketing via resellers. The Company intends to achieve this objective by
embarking on a series of acquisitions of telecoms companies that have a direct
relationship with their customers thereby benefiting from the potential
acquisitions' existing sales and providing a platform through which Spiritel's
products and services can be cross-sold.
To date, Spiritel has chosen non-exclusive relationships with resellers as its
primary route to market for its emerging VoIP products and services. This
approach potentially offers a rapid and far-reaching route to market as it
leverages the resellers' existing customer bases. In addition Spiritel believes
that having direct relationships with customers will prove to be an important
differentiator for the Company as end-users increasingly migrate to VoIP
services.
Spiritel has already identified a number of potential acquisition targets,
typically small, privately held businesses that offer telecoms products and
services directly to SME and corporate customers. Spiritel proposes to complete
a series of such acquisitions and believes that, with its leading-edge VoIP
products and services, the Company is well placed to play a significant role
during the migration to VoIP telephony.
To facilitate the broadening of the Company's routes to market, Spiritel intends
to reorganise its operating structure into two divisions: Spiritel Wholesale and
Spiritel Retail.
Spiritel Wholesale will comprise the Company's existing call termination
business, Expo Communications, and Spiritel Technologies, which has developed
the Company's suite of VoIP products and services. The Spiritel Retail division
will comprise the Company's planned direct-to-customer initiatives.
Alastair Mills, Spiritel's Chief Executive, commented: "By complementing our
reseller strategy with a direct relationship with customers we have the
opportunity to drive a step change in the speed at which our VoIP products and
services are adopted by the market. We have identified a number of acquisition
targets that would allow us quickly to build our own customer base and I look
forward to providing further details in due course."
For further information:
Spiritel plc 020 7160 0100
Alastair Mills, Chief Executive
Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000
Mark Court
Mary-Jane Johnson
Notes for Editors:
About Spiritel plc
Spiritel plc (AIM: STP) is a telecommunications services and products company
that joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in July 2004. Its
services include call termination and in addition it has developed a suite of
leading-edge VoIP products, positioning the Company to benefit from the
migration from traditional telephony to VoIP services.
For further information please visit www.spiritelplc.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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