Anittel will become a reseller for BigAir Group following the Australian fixed wireless company’s purchase of Anittel’s hosting and infrastructure business.
The reseller arrangement follows the December 20 announcement Big Air Group would acquire Anittel Communications Pty Ltd (ACPL) for $6.5 million.
ACPL holds the network infrastructure and telecommunications businesses of Anittel, including its hosted Cloud infrastructure.
According to an Anittel company statement, the reseller arrangement will allow Anittel to retain its ability to service its IT clients in respect of their voice and data networking requirements, along with traditional hosted IT services.
“This will see a continuity of the seamless service arrangements with with anticipated overall benefits to the service being leveraged from BigAir’s scale and focus,” Anittel said in a statement.
“The recent consolidation across the communications sector underscores the increasing importance of scale in this market sector, a factor recognised by this transaction.”
The two companies will also enter into an arrangement around the distribution of Anittel’s hosting and collaboration service offerings via the BigAir distribution network.
Anittel executive chairman and managing director Peter Kazacos said clients would enjoy enhanced benefits both via Anittel’s greater focus and ability to invest.
“Staff who transfer to BigAir will have enhanced career prospects as will the balance of staff retained in the HCS and IT Services focused Anittel,” he said.
“This is a transaction that fundamentally recognises and takes into account market trends and the benefits of scale and focus.”
ACPL will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of BigAir. It operates a national IT backbone with points of presence in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Hobart.
According to a BigAir statement, initial revenue contribution from ACPL is expected to be in the range of $11 million to $12 million annually.
Last August Anittel booked a net loss of $7.3 million, due to a fall in hardware and software revenues of AU$6.4 million for the year.
BigAir chief executive Jason Ashton said the acquisition enabled the company to broaden and strengthen it’s communications services in the corporate market.
“Given the the substantial network overlap there are opportunities to generate network synergies,” he said.
