Square One Law advises Utilitywise on acquisition of Czech call centre operator, ICON Communication Centres
Commercial law firm, Square One Law has advised South Shields-headquartered Utilitywise plc on the English law aspects of the acquisition of ICON Communcation Centres, the operator of a multilingual call centre based in the Czech Republic. The firm worked in partnership with Utilitywise’s Czech law advisers, Havel & Holasek Partners.
ICON Communication Centres employs 150 people and in the last year reported revenue of £3 million.
The deal is worth an initial cash consideration of €1.08 million and a further €1.2 million to be paid by April 2015, subject to Prague-based ICON meeting certain performance targets.
Geoff Thompson, chief executive of Utilitywise, commented: “Our initial testing of the European market is showing early positive results and the addition of ICON to the Group provides us with a European footprint from which to expand our services in Europe to the full intermediary procurement model that we employ in the UK.
“While the opportunity in the UK remains large and our primary focus, we are encouraged with the positive reception to our offering in the European energy markets and look forward to pursuing this opportunity.”
In addition to its existing business, the call centre operation will be used to cater for two large contracts that Utilitywise are carrying out in partnership with oil and gas giant, TOTAL’s TGP division.
James Bryce, head of the energy team and partner at Square One Law said: “We were delighted to work with Utilitywise on a further acquisition, in particular the first overseas acquisition. We were able to advise alongside prominent Czech commercial law firm Havel & Holasek, and delivered a great result for our client. It is very satisfying to see a North East based success story continue to grow and expand its reach across Europe.”
Square One Law has developed a dedicated energy team dealing with all aspects of power generation, consumption and the supply chain.