5th Jul 2006 07:01
Spiritel PLC05 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 toannounce that Penta Capital Partners Limited, of which Steven Scott, aNon-Executive Director of Spiritel, is a director, has subscribed forconvertible loan notes with an aggregate value of £350,000 through the PentaFund 1 Limited Partnership. The loan notes are convertible into ordinary sharesof 1p each in the Company at a conversion price of 2.75p per share at any timebefore 30 June 2007. Spiritel is also pleased to announce that it intends to broaden its routes tomarket by gaining a direct relationship with the end-users of VoIP (Voice overInternet Protocol) products and services to complement its current strategy ofmarketing via resellers. The Company intends to achieve this objective byembarking on a series of acquisitions of telecoms companies that have a directrelationship with their customers thereby benefiting from the potentialacquisitions' existing sales and providing a platform through which Spiritel'sproducts and services can be cross-sold. To date, Spiritel has chosen non-exclusive relationships with resellers as itsprimary route to market for its emerging VoIP products and services. Thisapproach potentially offers a rapid and far-reaching route to market as itleverages the resellers' existing customer bases. In addition Spiritel believesthat having direct relationships with customers will prove to be an importantdifferentiator for the Company as end-users increasingly migrate to VoIPservices. Spiritel has already identified a number of potential acquisition targets,typically small, privately held businesses that offer telecoms products andservices directly to SME and corporate customers. Spiritel proposes to completea series of such acquisitions and believes that, with its leading-edge VoIPproducts and services, the Company is well placed to play a significant roleduring the migration to VoIP telephony. To facilitate the broadening of the Company's routes to market, Spiritel intendsto reorganise its operating structure into two divisions: Spiritel Wholesale andSpiritel Retail. Spiritel Wholesale will comprise the Company's existing call terminationbusiness, Expo Communications, and Spiritel Technologies, which has developedthe Company's suite of VoIP products and services. The Spiritel Retail divisionwill comprise the Company's planned direct-to-customer initiatives. Alastair Mills, Spiritel's Chief Executive, commented: "By complementing ourreseller strategy with a direct relationship with customers we have theopportunity to drive a step change in the speed at which our VoIP products andservices are adopted by the market. We have identified a number of acquisitiontargets that would allow us quickly to build our own customer base and I lookforward to providing further details in due course." For further information: Spiritel plc 020 7160 0100Alastair Mills, Chief Executive Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000Mark CourtMary-Jane Johnson Notes for Editors: About Spiritel plc Spiritel plc (AIM: STP) is a telecommunications services and products companythat joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in July 2004. Itsservices include call termination and in addition it has developed a suite ofleading-edge VoIP products, positioning the Company to benefit from themigration 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 ExchangeRelated Shares:
STP.L