The UK’s Cellnet Mobile Communications Ltd has acquired the consumer and small business subscribers of its two shareholders, British Telecommunications Plc and Securicor Plc, and formed a new division to handle the sales and support of 1.5 million out of its total of 2.8 million customers. BT, the 60% shareholder in Cellnet, has sold its 600,000 BT Mobile customers for an undisclosed sum, while Securicor, which owns the other 40%, sold off its Securicor Cellular Services Ltd division, getting 33m pounds ($53.3m) for the customer base and 5m pounds ($8.1m) for additional assets. As BT and Securicor’s customers already use the Cellnet network, the sale won’t change the total number of Cellnet users, but Cellnet will become responsible for the direct sales and customer support of an extra 854,000 customers. Cellnet, and its rival Vodafone Group Plc, were originally obliged by government legal restrictions to sell off wholesale capacity on their networks for others to sell on for a profit, but as the UK market opened up the restrictions were lifted, and network operators have been stepping up their direct business. Securicor, meanwhile, has been keen to get rid of its troublesome mobile business, which made a loss of 3.9m pounds ($6.3m) on revenues of 225m pounds ($363m) for the six months ending March 1997. It is currently also finishing negotiations with Martin Dawes Telecommunications Ltd for the sale of its corporate mobile customers, for around 8m pounds ($13m) in cash. Both transactions are expected to be completed by September 30, and Cellular Services will be wound up early in 1998, with an 18m pound ($29m) amortization charge and an exceptional loss of 17m pounds ($27m), due to the writing off of dealer payments. Securicor says it will use the net cash to reduce its debt. In a separate deal, Securicor also disposed of another loss making subsidiary, its ISDN and virtual networking business Securicor 3net, which goes to Illinois-based Teltrend Inc for 9m pounds ($14.5m). Securicor will take a 5m pound ($8.1m) exceptional charge in year end results over the deal.
