NETTWORX plc TO JOIN AIM
Nettworx plc ("Nettworx"), a newly-incorporated company that intends to invest in the fast-growing area of voice and data networks, announces today that it is to seek admission to AIM via an Initial Public Offering.
The Company intends to raise at least £5 million through the issue of shares via an institutional placing. Canaccord Capital (Europe) Limited is acting as the Nominated Adviser and Broker.
The Company has been formed to take advantage of the increasing convergence between voice, video and data, fixed line and mobile networks. Networks are coming together; operators are using a combination of fixed and mobile assets and users expect to retrive their content - emails, spreadsheets, presentations, music even video - wherever they go. The rapidly increasing penetration of broadband, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 3G and Wi-Fi, is accelerating this trend.
While the Board of Nettworx believes that most services will in time be offered over IP, the industy will still rely on fast, efficient networks to deliver content. Nettworx plans to buy existing telecom and network companies, integrate them and improve their performance to create the type of rich, high-performance, flexible services that today's operators and users expect.
The
Company has identified a number of network companies with existing customers
and revenues, that lack either the scale or the technological skill sets
to capitalise on the convergence of technology and telecommunications.
Nettworx has assembled a board of experienced technology investors, managers and entrepreneurs that will identify and execute acquisitions as well as providing the requisite skills.
The Company is headed by Jonathan Rowland, founder of jellyworks, the internet investment company, and Jason Drummond, founder of Virtual Internet, the web hosting company, and Co-Founder and Chairman of Gaming Corporation, the operator of the world's leading gaming search engine.
The executive team is assisted by two high calibre non-executive directors, Charlie Muirhead, the founder of Orchestream, the IP telecoms software company and Nexagent, the telecoms process automation software company, and Julie Meyer, Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital and founder of First Tuesday. In addition Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com, has agreed to be a founder shareholder in the business.
Nettworx intends to seek the appointment of a senior non-executive chairman early in the New Year, and to recruit further executive directors to the board when appropriate.
Jonathan and Jason commented: "We are extremely pleased to be working with Charlie and Julie on this exciting new project. We have assembled a great team to explore this very promising area. We look forward to working together to identify attractive acquisitions, to integrate and improve their performance and build a significant business in this space."
Nettworx
Tel: 020 7493 9116
Jason Drummond
Jonathan Rowland
Canaccord Capital (Europe) Limited
Tel: 020 7518 2777
Mark Ashurst
Jason Woollard
Maitland
Tel: 020 7379 5151
Neil Bennett
Brian Hudspith
Notes to editors:
Nettworx Board of Directors
Jason Drummond, Executive Director
At 18, Jason Drummond established
IDL Communications Limited, a distributor of cell phones and fax machines.
He spent approximately three years outside the United Kingdom, establishing
and running distribution and new media companies in emerging markets such
as Russia and Africa and returned to the United Kingdom in 1995, prior
to establishing Virtual Internet (UK) Ltd, an online intellectual property
protection and web hosting services company.
Virtual Internet plc ("VI") listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in January 1999 and became the first web hosting company to list on a primary European market. In April 2000 VI combined a £25 million fundraising with a move to the official list of the London Stock Exchange. In February 2002, VI was acquiring in a recommended cash offer by Register.com Inc. (Nasdaq: RCOM), a leading provider of global domain name registration and Internet services.
In September 1999 Jason Drummond co-founded Xworks Ltd on e-business incubator providing funding, services and business management to businesses operating in the digital economy. Xworks listed on the AIM market of the London stock exchange in April 2001. In August 2002 Xworks changed its name to Gaming Corporation plc (LSE:GMC) to reflect its focus on its principal business "casino.co.uk" (the UK's most visited gaming site). In March 2005 Gaming Corporation plc raised £10 million in an institutional placing. In May 2005 Gaming Corporation acquired Gambling.com for $20 million; Gambling.com is the global leader in searching casino, poker, and sports betting sites.
Jonathan Rowland, Executive Director
Jonathan Rowland was a founder director and chief executive of Jellyworks
plc from its flotation on 21 December 1999 until it was purchased by Shore
Capital Group plc in August 2000. He has spent the preceding 5 years as
an executive of Rowland Capital Limited. Mr Rowland has wide investment
experience and over the last ten years has focused on listed investments,
private equity and assisting companies with re-structuring and financial
advice. His role has been to identify and evaluate such investments. More
recently he has been a founder Director of Resourceworks plc and Latitude
Resources plc which have been very prominent in the mining sector.
Julie Meyer, Non-Executive Director
Julie Meyer has 17 years of investment and advisory experience, helping
start-up businesses and industry standards to emerge and establish themselves.
As Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital, she has overall general and financial
management responsibility for the group which she founded in August 2000.
Julie is well-known for founding First Tuesday, the largest global network
of entrepreneurs, which many credit for igniting the Internet generation
in Europe . It was sold for $50 million in cash and shares in July 2000.
Julie has raised more than $100 million of capital for start-ups in addition
to overseeing another $150 million of seed capital found for start-ups
through First Tuesday. From 1998 to 1999, Julie was part of the team at
NewMedia Investors (which became NewMedia Spark, an early stage investment
firm, in October 1999) where she helped several companies, including lastminute.com,
WGSN and Arc Cores, raise significant venture capital financing and internationalise.
Each of these businesses has had successful exits for their investors.
She previously, worked for Andy Cunningham in Boston , Massachusetts ,
and through Cunningham Communication she consulted for Motorola, Inc,
on the PowerPC initiative. She has also consulted for Hewlett Packard
and 3Com in France . Named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic
Forum" and one of the top 30 most powerful women in Europe by the Wall
Street Journal, Julie's mission is to back the best entrepreneurs in Europe
with global ambitions. She was awarded "Entrepreneur of the Year" Award
in October 2000 by Ernst & Young U.K.
Charlie Muirhead, Non-Executive Director
Having already successfully started up three organisations, Charlie Muirhead
is a proven entrepreneur and specialist in the telecoms industry at just
30 years old.
In the past ten years, Muirhead has engaged and listened to the needs of more than 100 carriers, many of the world's leading integrators and virtual netowkr operators and over 50 global enterprises. This has enabled him to gain a unique and true understanding of the complex challenges and needs of carriers and systems integrators.
Today, Muirhead is president of UK technology company Nexagent, which he founded in 2001 with Chris Gre, formerly of Cable & Wireless, and David Page, from Cisco Systems, with funding from investors, including Apax Partners, Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital, Quester apital, Lago Ventures and iGabriel.
Nexagent is the pioneer and market leader in centralised management software and hardware for interconnecting next-generation telecom networks. Prior to Nexagent, Muirhead founded iGabriel NV, in May 2000 - an angel investment network of 30 business leaders providing start-up companies with capital and access to a network of industry leaders and entrepreneurs.
Muirhead's career began in 1996 with the inception, flotation and acquisition of Orchestream, the market leader in IP Service Activation software for MPLS-VPNs, whose customers included AT&T, Vodafone and Energis. The company was acquired in 2003 by another NASDAQ listed OSS software company, Metasolv.