Nextgen acquires Silk Telecom

Telecommunications carrier, Nextgen Networks, has acquired the assets and issued shared capital of data services provider, Silk Telecom, for an undisclosed sum.

Nextgen managing director, Phil Sykes, said the carrier had been looking to expand its business and Silk was a highly complementary fit.

"We wanted to extend our access network reach. It was an ideal opportunity for us to build our business scale and efficiency," he said. "I think this does position Nextgen as a comprehensive carrier in the corporate and government markets."

The acquisition will see Nextgen, a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings, extend its network reach and range of services to government agencies, corporate organisations, ISPs, utility and electrical companies, Sykes said.

Silk has regional and metro access networks in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.

"Silk has quite extensive fibre right out to business premises and Telstra exchanges. Buying a business was a far quicker way to add that degree of access to our business," Sykes said. "Nextgen's strength is its long-distance fibre asset stretching from Perth to Brisbane, so it's a very extensive network that's geographically distributed. We're the third largest long haul fibre network operator."

Sykes would not indicate whether he will keep all Silk Telecom staff on-board.

"At this stage both businesses are growing rapidly," he said. "Both organisations will be looking at ways to continue that momentum and we've got to go through a planning phase to see what types of resources we need going forward."

Sykes is on the lookout for other complementary businesses to enhance Nextgen's scale.

"We'll be very focused on bedding this acquisition down before we look at other things," he said. "We'll keep our eye on any other business opportunities."