TelePacific to Acquire Tel West

LOS ANGELES, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. TelePacific Corp, which does business as TelePacific Communications (TelePacific), a communications and network services company, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Tel West Network Services Corporation (Tel West).  

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Tel West, recognized as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in Central Texas by Austin Business Journal, provides telecommunication service to approximately 3,400 small and medium sized businesses, enterprise customers and government accounts across the state of Texas. Tel West service offerings include high speed internet and other ancillary telecommunications services.

Jeff Swickard, President and CEO of Tel West said, "This transaction represents a compelling opportunity for our current customers and employees. TelePacific brings with it a customer-centric culture that drives best-in-class customer satisfaction ratings. Our management team and employees are excited to be joining forces with a rapidly growing company supported by significant resources."

TelePacific, headquartered in Los Angeles, has the largest revenue market share for small and medium size business customers in California and Nevada after AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink. Today, the Company and its 1,300 employees manage over 38,000 business accounts with more than 1.2 million access lines in service.    

This transaction follows TelePacific's recent announcement to purchase the assets of Telekenex which includes a nationwide PCI compliant MPLS/OC-192 backbone, cloud-based security services, managed network services and a robust hosted PBX platform. TelePacific plans to leverage these additional capabilities to Tel West through TelePacific's new managed services channel.

"The acquisition of Tel West will provide TelePacific with a solid foundation for future growth in Texas," said Dick Jalkut, President and CEO of TelePacific. "Tel West's success with its customers, employees and infrastructure creates an ideal platform to leverage TelePacific's expanded services and create the leading communications network service provider in Texas."

TelePacific, whose largest shareholders are private equity investors and affiliates of Investcorp SA and Clarity Partners L.P., has completed eight highly accretive, in-region acquisitions since 2002.

Lars Haegg, Managing Director at Investcorp and Clint Walker General Partner at Clarity Partners joined in the following statement: "The acquisition of Tel West represents an important strategic milestone for TelePacific. Several years ago after significant analysis, management and the Board of Directors identified Texas as a very attractive expansion state in part due to its 20% population growth and 15% business growth over the past 10 years. TelePacific currently serves deep and dense population centers in California and Nevada and with the addition of Texas will cover approximately 20% of the small and medium businesses in the U.S. We are very excited to be in a position to leverage Tel West's outstanding employees, network and dense metro fiber assets to build a substantial communications company in Texas."

The combined company will continue to be headquartered in Los Angeles and led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dick Jalkut. Tel West will continue to operate under its own name and the leadership of Jeff Swickard who will continue as President of Tel West.

Closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and conditions.

The exclusive financial and legal advisors to TelePacific were Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, respectively. The exclusive financial and legal advisors to Tel West were RBC Capital Markets and Kendall, Koenig & Oelsner, respectively.

About TelePacific Communications
TelePacific Communications (www.telepacific.com) is a network services company that serves business customers throughout California and Nevada. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Company is the leading competitive carrier in its footprint. TelePacific offers a host of IP, voice, data and Internet services, as well as business continuity and managed network security solutions.

About Tel West

Tel West Network Services Corporation (www.telwestservices.com) is a facilities-based Internet, data and voice communications provider that specializes in cost-effective telecommunications services for small, medium and enterprise businesses.  Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company's local network presence spans 6 major metropolitan areas including Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, and Corpus Christi.

About Investcorp
Investcorp (www.investcorp.com) is a leading provider and manager of alternative investment products. It has offices in New York, London and Bahrain and is publicly traded on the Bahrain Bourse (INVCORP). Investcorp has three business areas: corporate investment in the US, Europe and the Gulf, real estate investment in the US and global hedge funds.  As at March 31, 2011, Investcorp had $11.8 billion in assets under management.

About Clarity Partners L.P.
Clarity Partners, L.P. (www.claritypartners.net), headquartered in Los Angeles, is a private equity fund focused on communications, media and business services sectors. Clarity is also a Co-General Partner of Clarity China, a China-based private equity fund focused on natural resources, renewable energy, and other general industries.

SOURCE TelePacific Communications