In a bid to expand its reach into regional Australia, Hostech reported that it had concluded its seventh acquisition in a trail of acquisitions the firm has undertaken in 2010. Hostech, the Australian data centre company, said it had bought the D2K client base in Townsville for an estimated A$90,000 and about 1.1 million Hostech shares besides the firm’s initial fiscal postings.

As its seventh acquisition this year, Hostech’s takeover comes after others such as 5 Star Telecommunications, Officelink Plus, Anittel Pty Ltd, Accord Technologies, Axxis Technologies and Aspirence. As it stands currently, Hostech has spent about A$9.1 million cumulative investment worth in the acquisition of the firms, in a period of four months starting January to April.

The move for increased acquisition investments comes after Hostech’s chief executive chairman, Peter Kazacos, told shareholders during the firm’s shareholder  meeting that the company would undertake an aggressive investment campaign to enable it reinforce and expand its presence into regional Australia.

According to Kazacos, Hostech’s aim is to offer the Australian expanse a diversified and technically competent team that can offer converged ICT solutions that cater for the under-served SME industry in regional Australia. Thus, according to the statement issued by Kazacos, the company is keen on taking advantage of the SME industry that is currently lacking in IT and telecommunications services.

From the agreement terms of the deal, D2K principle, Mathew Drane, is expected to be responsible for the transition of Townsville customers between D2K’s data centre and Hostech’s own Anittel customer service solutions. As a result of the acquisitions, Hostech now has 320 employees, a big jump from its staff pegged at 30 in 2009.

Further to that, Hostech’s presence straddles 15 locations across Australia and provides a variety of telecommunications and data centre solutions as well as managed services for wireless networks. Kazacos himself is a product of merger and acquisitions, having joined Hostech after a A$4.97 million merger between Hostech and his firm, Anittel.

He was subsequently appointed Hostech chairman in May this year. The trail of acquisitions has seen Hostech’s revenues rise from A$2.4 million in the previous fiscal year to A$19.4 million in the fiscal year ended 30th June 2010. Further to that, Hostech’s full year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization pegged at A$1.2 million. Even so, Hostech’s contracted voice and data market had an impressive year, raking in A$5.2 million in revenues.

30 Aug 2010.