The awards, held by North West Business Insider, saw Daisy succeed in the AIM deal of the year category before going on to claim the main accolade of overall “Deal of the Year” for its £204 million reverse takeover of Freedom 4 and flotation on the Alternative Investment Market.
Accepting the award, Daisy’s corporate development director Steve Smith said the win was not only recognition of the company’s reverse takeover and flotation, but more importantly an acknowledgement of the platform and subsequent opportunities it had provided for Daisy.
He said: “It was brilliant to get the recognition with this award. I’m not sure how many people have followed the Daisy story but what was important about the reverse takeover and flotation was the position it placed us in to carry out key acquisitions and the strength it gave us to stay ahead of our competitors.”
The deal, completed in July, freed up £50 million and allowed Daisy to pursue its strategy of consolidating the reseller market, with the acquisitions of Vialtus, Eurotel, AT Communications and Redstone Telecom able to be completed in quick succession.
Daisy Group CEO Matthew Riley paid tribute to those that had made the deal possible.
“To be awarded ‘Deal of the Year’ is a great achievement and is testament to the efforts of a very hard working team that has so far made 2009 a successful year,” he said.
“Daisy’s ambition has always been to be one of the largest providers of telecoms services to the SME market and this year’s flotation and subsequent acquisitions mean we are closer to reaching this goal and provide us with the solid foundations for our plans for future growth.”