The entrepreneur who has grown Daisy Group into one of the UK’s largest communications service providers has moved to acquire part of Sungard UK, the data management operator that has collapsed.
Sky News understands that Daisy founder and chairman Matthew Riley has entered into an agreement to transfer key Sungard customers, including major banks and other financial institutions, to his private company on Wednesday.
In a letter from administrators at Teneo Rest Structure, customers were told that Sungard’s workplace restore sites “cannot continue as a routine concern and the best outcome for the customer customers at these locations, they will convert their services to facilities operated by Daisy Service Trading Co., Ltd”.
“Daisy has significant expertise in providing these services and is recognized as the market leader in the UK for business continuity and operational resilience,” the letter read.
Teneo advises Sungard customers to agree to new contract terms with Daisy within one month, after which the services provided by Daisy will be discontinued.
Sky News reported in March that rising energy costs and an impasse with landlords over rents had forced Sungard’s UK operations to go live.
This nearly 300-employee business provides cloud-based services as well as physical data centers, a need that has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Availability services Sungard UK – which fell into insolvency – is said to have been in talks with the landlord since the start of the year, but was unable to reach agreement on improved payment terms.
It is the latest in a series of deals Mr Riley has made, the most recent of which was the £210m purchase of rival XLN Telecom in February.
XLN’s addition of 120,000 small business customers, which provides business broadband, phone and card payments, puts Daisy second only to BT Group in the UK SME telecom market.
Mr. Riley sought to grow Daisy by placing it at the heart of the transition to digital telecommunications services for greater access to speed, reliability and security.
Daisy, the founder who became one of Britain’s wealthiest people, was at one stage listing on the public market in London before going private again in 2014 with the backing of Toscafund. Asset Management.
Lancashire-based Daisy manages mobile, cloud and other services for corporate customers and describes itself as the UK’s largest independent provider in this area.
Daisy declined to comment.
