The awards ceremony, held in London, recognised mergers and acquisition achievements from across the business community, in what organisers called “some of the most challenging market conditions”.
Now in their fourth year, the award recognised Matthew Riley’s achievement in successfully growing Daisy Group, a provider of integrated voice and data to businesses, during very challenging times.
Having completed the £204 million reverse takeover of Freedom 4 and flotation on the Alternative Investment Market in July last year, Daisy went on to complete six acquisitions in the last financial year, taking the total number of deals done by Riley and his team to 30.
And Riley said the win was not only recognition of the company’s ambition and performance, but more importantly an acknowledgement of the platform for further growth that it had provided for Daisy Group.
He said: “This award is testament to the Daisy team that work tirelessly to ensure the company can continue with its strategy for growth. The reverse takeover and flotation allowed up to carry out key acquisitions and gave us a real foothold to stay ahead of our competitors and gain ground on BT.”
Flotation on AIM freed up cash for Daisy and allowed Riley to pursue a strategy of consolidating the reseller market, with the acquisitions of Vialtus, Eurotel, AT Communications and Redstone Telecom able to be completed in quick succession, with synergies of £17m achieved through the integration of the deals.
And since the turn of the year the company has also completed the acquisitions of Managed Communications Ltd and BNS Telecom.
Unable to attend, Riley’s award was received by Daisy Group General Legal Counsel and Company Secretary David McGlennon, who himself paid tribute to the firm.
He said: “Daisy is an exciting place to work and there is huge growth potential here. There’s definitely more to come from the business and I’d like to think that we will be invited back to the awards next year!”
Riley added: “Daisy’s ambition has always been to be the only alternative to BT for UK businesses and we are closer to reaching this goal, with solid foundations for our plans for future growth. The fact that we have been able to do this in one of the worst downturns this country has ever seen is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved with the company.”