Mitel, which has a base in Caldicot, Monmouthshire employing 155 people, has completed a merger with Aastra Technologies Limited.

With $1.1bn of combined annual revenue and 60 million customers worldwide, Mitel now has one of the largest global footprints in the industry and is driving consolidation in the $18bn business communications market.

Richard McBee, president and chief executive officer of Mitel, said the firm was well positioned to capitalise on a massive global growth opportunity as the market begins a long-term migration to cloud-based services.

He said: "With this merger the combined annual revenue of Mitel exceeds a billion dollars, which we believe creates the financial scale and operational leverage to drive shareholder value and profitable growth in an opportunity-rich consolidating market. We now have double the talent, tools and range of solutions to aggressively compete for a greater share of our market."

Mitel offers a comprehensive portfolio covering digital to IP to Cloud.

With a $100m annual R&D budget as a combined business, Mitel has the resources needed to support ongoing innovation and a broad range of global and regional solutions, protecting customers by limiting the risk of stranding them and their investment.

In conjunction with the closing of the merger, Mitel also completed financing of a $405m credit facility consisting of a $355m term loan maturing in January 2020 and an undrawn $50m revolving credit facility maturing in January 2019

Steve Spooner, chief financial officer, Mitel, said: "We are pleased to have secured new credit facilities on these very favorable terms, which significantly reduces our annual interest cost and enhances our operating flexibility. Our new capital structure, combined with the enhanced cash flow generation we expect from the merger, positions Mitel with one of the best financial platforms in the industry."

A spokesman for Mitel said: "In a merger of this size there are immediate, near term and long term opportunities to integrate the two companies into a unified organisation. This is a process that requires a careful balance of thoughtful planning and timely implementation. It is not a process that will take place overnight or with abrupt disruptions to our channel partners, customers or other stakeholders."