LINK Mobility Group AS enters the UK market by acquiring HSL Mobile
LINK Mobility Group AS (“LINK”), Europe’s leading and fastest growing provider of B2C mobile messaging and mobile services, has today entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of UK mobile messaging company Hay Systems Ltd (“HSL Mobile”).
HSL Mobile was established in 1999, and is located in Edinburgh, Scotland. HSL Mobile is known as a reputable and highly reliable mobile messaging provider for organisations in the UK and worldwide, with its own carrier connected SMSC.
“I am happy to announce that we have now taken our first and very important step into the UK market through the acquisition of HSL Mobile. This important European market experiences strong growth and high demand for advanced mobile messaging and solutions services. HSL Mobile has a strong mix of both Enterprise clients and SMB clients in the UK, and we see a good potential to grow the overall customer base in the UK through increased penetration of both existing and new services. LINK has now expanded its customer base in Europe through organic growth and acquisitions over the last twelve months from 10,000 to more than 20,000 customers”, says Arild E. Hustad, CEO of LINK.
Mark Hay, CEO/CTO and Founder of HSL Mobile, says: “Our acquisition by LINK Mobility Group is a truly great step for HSL Mobile and our customers. Both companies have similar values and strive to deliver technically rich mobile communication services on which customers can depend. As part of LINK our service portfolio will greatly increase, and this, along with our existing services and expanding team, will result in us quickly becoming the number one mobile messaging provider in the UK”.
Aabø-Evensen & Co Advokatfirma and DLA Piper UK has acted as legal advisors to LINK Mobility Group AS, and DWF LLP has acted as legal advisors to Hay Systems Ltd in connection with the transaction.
For further information, please contact:
Arild Hustad, CEO
LINK Mobility Group AS
arild.hustad@linkmobility.com
Mob: +47 95 24 19 30
About LINK Mobility Group AS
LINK Mobility Group AS is Europe's leading provider within mobile communications, specializing in messaging, digital services and data intelligence. The Group offers a wide range of innovative and scalable solutions across industries and sectors, creating valuable digital convergence between businesses and customers, platforms and users. The Group is headquartered in Oslo/Norway and is owned by Abry Partners, located in Boston, US. LINK Mobility continues to experience strong organic growth as clients move more business activities onto the mobile platforms. In 2017, LINK Mobility had a total turnover of 1,294 billion NOK with offices in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Poland, France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
About Abry Partners
Abry Partners is an experienced and successful media, communications, business and information services sector focused private equity investment firm in North America. Since their founding in 1989, they have completed over $77 billion of leveraged transactions (including many roll-up investment strategies) and other private equity, mezzanine or preferred equity investments. Currently, they manage over $5.0 billion of capital in their active funds.
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