Conduit Europe, an Irish call centre specialist set up three years ago, has raised £3.5 million (#4.4 million) in private funding from individual and institutional investors.
The private placing, which was handled by NCB Stockbrokers, is believed to have been oversubscribed by a multiple of three. ICC is said to have taken a stake worth more than £1 million (#1.26 million). Investor interest in the company has been primarily fuelled by a number of key contracts Conduit recently secured. These include a directory assistance service for telecommunications company, Orange, in Switzerland where it is the second mobile phone operator, and a similar service in Austria for One, the third mobile phone operator.
The company, which was founded by Mr Liam Young, and entrepreneur, Mr Eddie Kerr, is also understood to be the front runner to win a £20 million (#25.4 million) contract to provide Orange's directory inquiry services for the whole of the UK over the next four years.
This week a spokesman for Conduit would neither confirm nor deny whether it had been selected. British Telecom and Cable & Wireless are believed to be the other main contenders for the contract, the winner of which will be announced shortly.
Conduit's latest cash injection will be used to fuel rapid growth at its East Point Business Park premises where 250 people are currently employed.
This year Conduit will generate sales of around £7 million (#8.8 million), a substantial increase on last year's figure of £2 million (#2.5 million). According to Mr Young, Conduit's expected sales for next year will be around £14 million (#17.7 million), and it is in the process of finding adequate premises for its workforce which it expects will reach 600 in 2000.
"We've picked a niche area and run with it. There's lots of room for improvement in the directory services area, so it's very easy to deliver high quality service," Mr Young says.
At the end of May, Conduit launched its 11850 directory inquiries service. Following an extensive advertising campaign, Mr Young says it now holds around 15 per cent of the telephone inquiry services market, which it shares with Telecom Eireann.
He predicts within 18 months it will have taken 50 per cent of the market after Telecom Eireann's 1190 service ends on December 31st this year. That service will then be replaced by a new number following a ruling from the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) designed to open up competition in the directory services market.
Conduit currently conducts all the directory assistance services for Esat Telecom, Esat Digifone, and COLT (City of London Telecom) a fixed telecoms operator in the UK.
Between them, Mr Young and Mr Kerr hold a controlling shareholding in Conduit, and according to industry observers the latest placing would value the company at around £18 million (#22.9 million). Mr Young says plans for future financing remain unclear at this stage.
"All options are open to us. We've just done the private placing and want to concentrate on the business now. But I wouldn't rule out any form of financing in 12 to 18 months time," he said.
Mr Young saw the opportunity to establish a completely Irish call centre while working with British Telecom in Ireland three and a half years ago. Together with the IDA, he was involved in regular presentations to overseas investors looking to locate call centres in Ireland.
Conduit was set up in 1996 after Enterprise Ireland invested £35,000 (#44,440) and took a 10 per cent stake. A separate arm, Conduit Software, has also been developed to design products for future requirements in the call centre industry. With a staff of around 15, its clients include Nortel Networks, and it designs products which allow the simple transmission of text information to fixed lines, mobile phones and the Internet.
