Daisy back door sniffers bag extension to come up with the cash

CEO Riley and crew yet to show the money

It may be third time lucky for Daisy Group CEO Matthew Riley and his fellow consortium bidders, who were today granted yet another extension to show their money to the LSE-listed firm’s shareholders.

Riley, along with Toscafund and Penta Capital, made advances to acquisitive B2B comms and tech supplier Daisy in August, but have since sought three extensions to buy more time to prepare a bid.

The prospective buyers were due to get an offer on the table by supper tonight but Daisy confirmed this morning the saga is set to run for another fortnight at least, with the new deadline set for 20 October.

“Following the receipt of a request from the consortium, the Independent Directors have sought the consent of the panel for an extension of the current deadline,” Daisy stated.

Of course there is no guarantee that Riley and his fellow bidders – which collectively own 51.5 per cent of Daisy already – will decide to push ahead with firm offer in two weeks' time.

Daisy rose to prominence in the UK ICT sector on the back of dozens of acquisitions, including several 2e2 data centres and Indecs Computer Services.

The business turned over £352.7m in the 12 months to 31 March 2014, up 0.3 per cent, and it reported a loss of £15.6m, better than the previous year’s loss of £16.4m. ®