WebCentral reports revenue increase

The company also posted a net profit of $1.3 million for the period, almost trebling the $400,000 profit achieved last year. EBIDTA increased from $3.9 million in 2001 to 2002 to $6 million in 2002-2003.

WebCentral CEO Lloyd Ernst, said a key aspect of the company's success has been its enterprise level business unit, WebCentral Complex which broke-even in its first six months of operation. “Our focus on this emerging market is really beginning to reap returns with several major contracts signed this past year, including a $20.3 million contract with Education Queensland,” Ernst said in a statement.

He added that WebCentral Complex is seeing “heightened activity” in corporate and government sectors, with growing numbers of customers outsourcing their hosting requirements. “We attribute this to pressure on capex budgets and increased security risks. We have seen our high level corporate clients increasingly requesting much more than hosting, with specialised requirements such as managing business-critical custom applications and Exchange servers,” he said.

Its Complex business unit would catapult the company into the next level of growth over the upcoming 12 months, Ernst claimed. This division contributes more than 25 percent of WebCentral's monthly revenue, he claimed.

Meanwhile, competing Web hosting outfit Hostworks reported a loss after tax and before amortisation of goodwill of $99,285 for its year ending June 30 compared to a loss of $2.2 million the previous year.

Its second half however, produced a profit after tax and before amortisation of goodwill of $119,229. Operating revenues increased by 46 percent from the previous year to $12.35 million, the company said in a statement.