Dubai: Britain-based internet service provider New Call Telecom has acquired a leading international wholesale voice business — WaveCrest — for a deal valued at around $240 million (Dh882 million).
The company made its first acquisition in India after buying a 70 per cent stake in Netherlands-based and India-headquartered cross-platform mobile calling and messaging app Nimbuzz in October in a deal valued at around $250 million.
WaveCrest, headquartered in London, has offices in Dubai, New York, Milan, Paris and Frankfurt and generates revenues approaching $120 million.
Nigel Eastwood, CEO of New Call Telecom, told Gulf News that there are considerable synergies between the two companies and this acquisition is in line with our international expansion strategy.
The company is investing $100 million as seed capital in India and it is expected to acquire four companies soon.
He did not disclose the name of the firms but the next acquisition is expected to be New Delhi-based WiFi operator Ozone Networks.
“The WiFi acquisition is a key part of our ‘My Digital Life’ platform. We are going through regulatory approval from Foreign Investment Promotion Board right now in India. It is expected to be approved soon,” said Eastwood.
He said the acquisitions are “complementary” to our strategy. Telecom is our key focus but we will look into anything that supports the infrastructure we are creating.
“We don’t have a predefined numbers. We are investing $100 million in India. Moving forward, we have access to capital and that is not a challenge. The challenge is finding the very best talent,” he said.
When asked about an IPO, he said that the public markets are very isolated in the West and they have flattened in the last three to four months. There will be a time but not now.
“We are very much self-funded”.
“We see a huge potential for new revenue streams in internet, broadband, instant messaging and data sharing markets in India and hope to generate and expand a number of new revenue streams as e-commerce gathers pace,” he said.
Nigel Eastwood, CEO of New Call Telecom, said: “We will collaborate with the telco operators and assist them to help them in monetise in different ways. We are in talks with different operators in the region in order to create mutual benefits and value-added services for both the parties”.
He said that New Call is in a unique position to create next-generation internet operation.
“We have a firm objective of internationalising New Call by creating synergies cross borders across South East Asia and Europe. We are very focused on that,” he said.
