Powwownow acquires Conference Genie with £2.5m loan from Barclays

Powwownow, the UK’s leading free conference call provider, has acquired Conference Genie, with a £2.5m three year loan from Barclays, under the National Loan Guarantee Scheme (‘NLGS’).

Set up in 2003, Powwownow which sits under Via-Vox Limited, operates in 15 countries including the UK, US and major European markets and offers customers conference calling facilities with the ethos of ‘no booking, no billing, no fuss’. The customer only pays for the cost of their own call, which is added to their standard telecoms bill. The company ranks sixth in the conference provider industry in the UK. Conference Genie will continue to operate under its own brand.

As part of the NLGS, businesses which access the initiative through Barclays will receive the full benefit of the NLGS discount immediately in the form of an upfront cashback on their loan. This is calculated as a one percentage point discount on their loan price over the first five years, rather than receiving the same benefit spread over the lifetime of the loan.

The Barclays Cashback Finance Scheme means Powwownow is able to receive an immediate cashback injection on its funding package of over £39,000. It will use this extra funding to bolster marketing activity in the second half of 2012.

Sarah Sergeant, Relationship Director in Barclays TMT team, commented: “The European conference call provision market is set to more than double in size by 2014 compared to 2010. With its global offering, this acquisition will see Powwownow become the market leader in this space.”

Simon Curry, CEO of Powwownow, comments: “We have been growing revenues at 30 percent year on year so far this year, the acquisition of Conference Genie will help accelerate this further and enable us to capture a record share of this dynamic and growing market.”

Ends

Notes to Editors:

We use a Net Present Value calculation to work out the cashback. This means the amount of the cashback would be less than 1% because payment now for a discount applied for a number of years increases the ‘real’ value of the cashback when paid up front. For example, a 100bps discount over five years on a £1m non-amortising loan with a repayment would be £50,000 over the life of the loan. Once discounted to net present value, the actual cashback received would be approximately £46,500. The amount payable will vary according to the terms of the loan. Reference to ‘price’ does not include fees.