Dan Corby CEO 118 trades appoints Austin Owens and Associates as Corporate Financiers

Daniel Corby, the founder and CEO of 118 Group, which includes 118 trades, the leading directory service, has appointed Corporate Financiers, Austin Owens to help advise and groom the business for the planned AIM float in 2007 / 2008

[ClickPress, Sat Aug 12 2006] Fast growing, Essex based 118 Group, which operates a leading directory service under the 118 trades brand has announced the appointment of Austin Owens and Associates as its Corporate Finance boutique as it prepares for an AIM float in 2007 / 2008.

Speaking about the appointment, founder and CEO Dan Corby said “we have appointed Austin Owens and Associates as our Corporate Finance boutique to help us prepare a strategy to raise development capital and effectively groom the business for AIM floatation in 2007 / 2008. We held a beauty parade for Corporate Finance houses to see us, and we have now announced the appointment of Austin Owens. We believe that they have taken the time to understand our various business models and we believe that they have the necessary skill and resource pools required to help 118 Group grow. Austin Owens has a combined 40 years worth of Corporate Finance experience and we will be able to draw from that depth of experience as we seek to grow our business. 118 Group was founded in 2005 and operates a number of high growth, high margin businesses in the UK b2b sector.

The largest trading division of the group is 118 trades, the UK’s leading directory service of tradespeople and businesses with checkable references and this business accounts for a substantial share of the groups sales.

Other trading divisions recently launched by 118 group include a reseller of memorable telephone numbers, 118 telecom, which connects the full range of 0800, 0808, 0845 and 0870 numbers and has developed some cutting edge technology to route and connect numbers within seconds of being sold.

118 gethitched is a wedding directory service, similar in design to 118 trades, but covering all of the classifications of the wedding industry and Fido Local is a new launch, free to use, advertising led local magazine, which is being planned for a National roll-out once the concept has been fine tuned”

Daniel Corby added “we have been advised that our business is ripe for an AIM float, and the object of the exercise is to raise additional funding to help grow the business through further acquisitions. We are completely committed to building 118 trades into a huge directory service and aim to create a true brand leader within the next year. I believe that the appointment of Austin Owens will help us to shape the business ready for AIM”

Notes of Editors

118 Group was founded by CEO Daniel Corby in 2005 and includes 6 trading divisions. The group is already profitable and is seeking an AIM float in 2007 / 2008.

118 Group has recently announced the creation of 400 new jobs at a Chelmsford call centre, due to open in September 2006 at Chelmer Village.

118 trades is the UK’s leading directory service of tradespeople and businesses with checkable references and has in excess of 40,000 active members and covers around 70% of the UK population and is aiming for national coverage by December 2006.

118 trades is the only directory service of its kind in the UK.

Austin Owens Corporate Finance was appointed in July 2006 to advise the group on corporate structure and to assist with financing in readiness of AIM float in 2007 / 2008.

Daniel Corby was previously Sales Director at high street mobile retailer, phones4u.

www.118trades.com
www.the118group.com
www.118gethitched.com
www.118telecoms.com

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