TeamTalk hires Cameron Partners for strategic review

Wednesday 10th August 2016

TeamTalk has hired investment bank Cameron Partners for a strategic review of the telecommunications company just three weeks after appointing a new chief executive.

The investment bank will review TeamTalk's "strategy and the subsequent evaluation of different options", the Wellington-based company said in a statement. Its appointment follows the appointment of former Alcatel-Lucent NZ boss Andrew Miller as CEO on July 20, with a starting date of early September.

"It is the right time to bring in the capabilities of Cameron Partners who can assist our new chief executive with one of his top priorities which is a deep strategic review of the business," chairman Roger Sowry said.

TeamTalk's managing director and founder David Ware announced his exit in April, saying that after two decades he'd stayed on too long and acknowledged some of his behaviour had been "sub-optimal" and attracted complaints.

TeamTalk overhauled its operations through the second half of the 2015 financial year as it struggled to embed its Farmside acquisition into the wider business, forcing it to write down the value of the rural internet provider. Since then it cut earnings guidance and said it wouldn't pay a dividend after signing a multi-year contract with Optus Satellite to provide improved internet speeds via satellite.

The shares sank as low as 38 cents on July 8, and last traded at 47 cents, down 33 percent and valuing the company at $13.9 million. The shares traded as high as $3.20 in January 2013 after TeamTalk completed the $42 million acquisition of Farmside.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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