Swiftel, People deal complete

The merger between Western Australian data communications and Internet provider Swiftel and privately owned voice services company People Telecom Limited has gone through.

Nearly 200 million shares were issued to shareholders in People Telecom Limited as part of the merger.

In addition, Swiftel directors Dr Saliba Sassine, Chris Gale and Adrian Paul have all resigned from the board. Barry Hamilton will be People Telecom’s new chairman, with Ryan O’Hare as chief executive officer. Brendan Fleiter has been appointed a non-executive director.

The other board members are David Vilensky, Colin Marland and Malcolm Dick, who are all non-executive directors.

The merger is a reverse takeover, allowing People Telecom to use the listed Swiftel vehicle to go onto the Australian Stock Exchange.

In a statement to the ASX, Swiftel said the new entity would be one of Australia’s largest full-service telecommunications groups with more than 30,000 business and private customers across Australia.

Swiftel’s shares last traded in mid June at around 10 cents a share. That gives the new entity a market capitalisation of about $41.9 million.