http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2706-1299491,00.html
Winner put his shirt on telecoms
By Elizabeth Judge
TELECOMS and T-shirts are not natural bedfellows. But like most entrepreneurs, Peter Dubens, the Alternative Investment Market Entrepreneur of the Year, has an eye for an opportunity in every sector.
Mr Dubens, 38, received his award last night for building Pipex Communications, the broadband internet and web-hosting company of which he is chairman, into one of the leading broadband providers.
But he is best known for the heat-sensitive T-shirts that became a cult clothing item in the 1980s. He sold T-shirts worth more than $26 million (14.6 million) in the first year of trading, and then sold the business to Coats Viyella for a few million.
Pipex Communications, formerly GX Networks, has been created through assembling smaller players. It has bought eight companies since 2002.
In its first-half results last month, the company revealed its first positive earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of 4.9 million with net losses narrowing to 1.9 million from 3.8 million a year earlier.
Mr Dubens, a boxer who is also chairman of Ukbetting, the online betting firm, frequently describes himself as the fittest fat man you are likely to come across.
His success, he says, is mainly down to good luck and quiet aggression.
Mr Dubens left the ceremony clutching two trophies: Pipex Communications also scooped the title of Best Use of AIM Award 2004.
One of Pipexs most recent acquisitions was Nildram, the dot-com company owned by Sean and Ruth Stephenson. The couple made 11 million from the sale of their broadband business to Mr Dubens.
Analysts believe that Pipex could itself now become a target for bigger players, such as Cable & Wireless.