Colt Group S.A.

Colt Group S.A.
(trading as Colt Technology Services)
Société anonyme in Luxembourg
Traded as LSE: COLT
Industry Telecoms, Managed services
Founded 1992 (London)
Headquarters London, England, United Kingdom
Key people
 Simon Haslam (Chairman)
Carl Grivner (CEO)
Revenue €1,495.5 million (2014)[1]
€21.0 million (2014)[1]
€(28.2) million (2014)[1]
Website www.colt.net

Colt Group S.A. (trading as Colt Technology Services, formerly COLT Telecom Group S.A.)[2] is a multinational telecommunications, and data centre services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom and with its registered office in Luxembourg.

Colt provides services to city-based large enterprise, small and midsize business and wholesale carriers in 28 countries across Europe. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Fidelity Investments in August 2015.

History

Colt was founded in 1992 by Jim Hynes with funds provided by Fidelity Investments as City Of London Telecommunications.[3] The company began to construct a telecoms network in London.[3] In 1993 it was awarded a licence to compete with British Telecom and Cable and Wireless in voice and data transmission.[3] It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996.[3] The group later expanded into Europe, building networks in major European cities over the next 10 years.[3] In 2001 Fidelity helped the Company to raise a further £400m to finance its future activities.[4] In 2005 the company reached its first year of positive cash flow, and in 2007 its first year of profit. In April 2009 Colt completed an Open Offer raising €199.1m (including a €9.7m foreign exchange gain) before expenses with the issue of 211.0 million shares.[5] In 2010 Colt rebranded from COLT Telecom to Colt Technology Services, deleting the acronym City of London Telecommunications to reflect its paneuropean nature. In May 2011 Colt acquired a majority shareholding in MarketPrizm, a provider of low latency market data and trading infrastructure services.[6] On 12 November 2014, Colt acquired KVH, a Japanese Telecom service provider, helping Colt to expand its capability in the growing Asian market.[7]

In August 2015 the company was acquired by Fidelity Investments.[8]

Operations

Colt has offices in 22 European countries, the US, India and Asia. The parent company is registered in Luxembourg but its main centre of operations is based in the United Kingdom. Colt is organised into three lines of business: Network Services, Voice Services, and Data Centre Services.[9]

Colt network services are “focused particularly on selected network intensive market segments: capital markets, media, cloud service providers and fixed and mobile network operators”.[10]

Colt sells voice services that support “transition from traditional to next generation voice services with a particular focus on Enterprise Voice, including IN services and IP Voice opportunities”.[10]

Colt Data Centre Services “operates 34 carrier neutral data centres across Europe and Asia, with connectivity to over 580 data centres across the globe and the largest cloud footprint in Europe. Colt is one of the world’s most connected data centres." Their data centre network covers 56,000m2, with a choice of secure connections to application and cloud service providers in addition to providing connectivity to 200+ carriers across Europe and Asia.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Preliminary Results 2014" (PDF). Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Colt Technology Services. "Colt name change". Colt.net. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Colt Technology Services. "Colt History". Colt.net. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  4. ↑ Kapner, Suzanne (2001-10-04). "Fidelity Investments Agrees To Help Rescue Colt". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  5. ↑ "Colt Telecom Group". Grace's Guide. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  6. ↑ "Colt to buy MarketPrizm". Finextra.com. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  7. ↑ "Colt expands into Asia with KVH acquisition". telecomasia.net. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  8. ↑ "Colt declares Fidelity takeover unconditional". channelnomics. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "Colt to exit carrier voice market". Total Telecom. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 "Colt interim 2014 report". August 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
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