Melbourne, Feb 25, 2008 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Further to the announcement made to ASX on 4 February 2008, M2 Telecommunications Group Limited (ASX: MTU)("M2") today confirms that Completion of the Share Sale Agreement with Unitel Australia Pty Ltd ("Unitel"), the wholesale network services business of Commander Communications Ltd (ASX:CDR) occurred on Friday 22 February 2008.
In completing the Unitel acquisition, M2 has settled (in full) the agreed Base Consideration of $10 million (less adjustments) and effective Friday 22 February has assumed effective ownership of the wholesale network services assets of Commander.
The Unitel acquisition is a highly strategic step for M2's fast growing wholesale network services business ("M2 Wholesale"). The acquisition is forecast to be substantially earnings accretive for MTU, with consolidated Earnings Per Share (EPS) expected to increase by close to 50% or 2.9 cents per share (on an annualised basis), on approximately $37 million in additional annual revenue. M2's annualised revenues are expected to rise to approximately $140 million per year.
Commenting upon the completion of the Unitel acquisition, Vaughan Bowen, M2's CEO/Managing Director said, "In the few weeks following the initial announcement of our agreement to acquire Unitel, the reaction from Unitel staff and management has been very positive and most supportive. The process of communicating with Unitel's customers has commenced, during which we are explaining our commitment to building upon to these existing relationships and to substantially expanding their available wholesale product suite, particularly in the areas of mobile and high speed data services".
Unitel is to be integrated within M2 Wholesale. As stated previously, the Unitel management and partner support teams are to remain with the business, supported by the broader M2 Wholesale account management, product development and customer support teams. With the addition of Unitel, M2 Wholesale is now positioned as a "one stop shop" provider of wholesale network services to telecommunications service providers and Internet Service Providers, now offering a full suite of fixed line/Local Access Resale services, ADSL/ADSL2+ broadband services and third generation ("3G") mobile voice/data services.
Contact
Vaughan Bowen
Managing Director / CEO
Tel: (03) 9674 6555
Kellie Dean
Company Secretary
Tel: 0407 359 590
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