Livingbridge Announces Sale of Southern Communications

Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, has agreed the sale of Southern Communications, one of the UK’s oldest telecoms firms. The investment was originally made from the Livingbridge 5 fund.

Founded in Basingstoke in 1965, Southern Communications provides SMEs across the UK with a range of services including fixed-line, data, mobile and cloud-based services alongside its proprietary MyPhones platform.

Livingbridge first invested in Southern Communications in 2016, having identified the potential to build on the firm’s strong buy-and-build strategy and further consolidate a fragmented market through strategic M&A. Since then, Southern Communications has successfully executed 16 add-on deals across the UK, significantly expanding its customer base and service offering. A large proportion of these deals were off-market, showcasing the team’s strong network and robust track-record in working with and incentivising entrepreneurs.

Led by CEO Paul Bradford and supported by a highly experienced management team, Southern Communications has also expanded its product set, augmented its second-tier management team and developed both its technology platform and customer retention strategy during this time, cementing its reputation within the industry and its target client base.

Since Livingbridge’s acquisition, Southern Communications has been awarded the High Growth Tech Business Award and the Tech Leadership Team Award at the Thames Valley Tech Awards; named in The Business Magazine’s ‘The Southern Tech 100’ list; awarded the ‘Best Mid-Market Management Team’ award at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Management Team Awards; and currently boasts some of the highest Trustpilot scores in the market.

Matthew Caffrey at Livingbridge, said:

“It has been a real pleasure to support Paul and his team in successfully pursuing Southern Communications’ ambitious acquisition and capability enhancement strategies, which has transformed the firm into one of the UK’s largest providers of business-to-business telecoms services. We wish them the best of luck in the next chapter of their growth journey.”

Paul Bradford, CEO of Southern Communications, said: “We could not be happier with the results achieved from our collaboration with Livingbridge. The team’s experience, guidance and financial support have given us the firepower we needed to significantly improve our offering and presence in the industry. We are excited about the next stage of our journey and look forward to building on our already strong position in the market.”