Nelson, Lancashire-based telecoms firm Daisy Group is to buy London-based rival XLN Telecom in a deal understood to be worth around £210 million.

Sky News reported that adding XLN’s 120,000 small business customers will make Daisy second only to BT Group in the UK’s SME telecoms market.

Daisy Group chairman Matthew Riley said: “With so much investment across the UK to improve the fibre infrastructure, Daisy is now well-positioned to help unlock the enhanced speed, reliability and security that customers want in their offices and shops up and down the country.

“There is also a vast opportunity in the creation of jobs as we need more staff to help deliver that service.”

XLN founder and executive chairman Christian Nellemann said: “We have been highly successful in our support of small businesses since our launch.

“We have continually innovated in both products and services which has enabled the company to continue to grow.

“Therefore, we felt the time was right to hand the reins over to Daisy, who have a great track record of investing and enhancing the businesses they acquire; the business and our customers are in safe hands.”

XLN CEO Neil Conaghan said: “Christian and I have known Matthew Riley and members of the Daisy management team for many years.

“Hence, even though both of us are now leaving the business, we have 100 per cent confidence that the XLN business will continue to thrive and prosper under Daisy ownership and guidance.”

Daisy Communications CEO Dave McGinn said, “I’ve always admired XLN and its philosophy of championing small businesses; it’s a great organisation and shares the same passion for customer service as demonstrated by their Trustpilot score.

“Daisy’s strategy has always been to acquire successful businesses and we’re delighted with the recent acquisition of XLN. We’re excited to work closely with the XLN team, to capitalise on our shared portfolio and to bring the best propositions and pricing to all of our customers.

“Ultimately, we want to keep enabling customers, collaboratively, to win in their marketplace.”