'I'm still kissing frogs and looking for our prince' - Auxilion CEO on UK M&A following £4m investment

The Irish MSP is still on the hunt for an acquisition in the UK as it pursues its expansion plans

Auxilion today announces the completion of phase one of its UK expansion strategy with a £4m investment in its managed services centre of excellence in Sheffield.

The centre will be a hub of innovation for the Irish MSP, with part of the investment going towards new tools and technologies that will drive increased efficiencies.

Auxilion recently secured a new £8m IT managed services contract with a global health and life sciences multinational to be delivered out of its Sheffield service operations centre (SOC).

The expanded SOC doubles the company's UK capacity and has already created 34 new roles in 2023.

Auxilion's headcount currently stands at around 500 people after tripling its Sheffield team over the past year, adding 40 people in the last six months.

The investment is part of Auxilion's £15m plan for the UK market, which includes an acquisition.

In October, Auxilion CEO Philip Maguire revealed the company was in search of a "smaller version of itself" in the UK after admitting it "doesn't have enough customers" here despite an organic growth push.

Speaking with CRN, Maguire gave an update on his hunt for an acquisition in the UK.

"I'm still kissing frogs but one of these days I'm going to find a prince," he said.

"We're continuously meeting people, but things were a bit slow during the summer.

"We are in discussions with two or three people at the moment. But we've been in discussions with people and they fall off or circumstances change."

Maguire opened up on what qualities he needs to make the glass slipper fit, which includes the right customer base, sales capabilities, and the ability to give Auxilion more market presence in the UK.

"We need to get it right, and for us, that's somebody who's working in that corporate, small enterprise space. That's the most important thing.

"We're not looking for people in the SMB space. So it's somebody who maybe has a managed service provider or who has a background in dynamics and that kind of arena that we can add on and bring our amount of service capability to them.

"We're very much in the market and we're very much looking for people all the time, but we haven't found our prince."