New Commander hails its troops

Commander Telecom Group (CTG), the shadowy group of investors which has teamed up to buy beleaguered company Commander's telco arm, has written to employees explaining its intentions following the acquisition.

(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)

In an introduction on the Commander internal website, seen by ZDNet.com.au, the new owners said that while the company would get new a CEO and CFO as part of the acquisition, the company's current management team and staff would "form the base for the future direction of the group".

"We envisage there to be a seamless transition for most of you while CTG maintain the majority of strategies devised by management prior to the insolvency event," the note continued.

An appointment announcement for the CEO and CFO positions would follow within the next two weeks, according to CTG, as well as notifications for the appointment of post-settlement directors.

CTG said that it intended to focus on what the Commander brand "has previously been great at", namely being a specialist provider of telephony and telephony services, banking on the 28-year-old brand to bring market advantage.

A key part of the Commander business for the new company would be its franchise model, which CTG considered to be unique in the segment Commander operated in. CTG would be working with franchisees in the next few months to fine tune the model.

Although the group of investors previously denied any link to the Steggall family, which was involved in a failed bid to take over New Tel when it went into administration in 2003, the employee memo mentioned that CTG had appointed RSI Corporate as advisors, which has Neil Steggall listed as a director.

Commander went into voluntary administration in August this year. The second meeting of creditors was scheduled to be held today in Sydney.