WebCentral revenues up

WebCentral Group reported revenue of $28.72 million and net profit after tax of $2.20 million for its half year ending 31 December, a five-fold revenue increase over the same period last year.  

The improvement in revenue was attributed to the consolidation of the WebCentral investment, which became a 100 percent owned subsidiary within the group, the company said.

“This is a validation of the decision to purchase the remainder of WebCentral in August last year,” said company CEO Andrew Spicer.

“We have emerged from a post-acquisition phase a much stronger, more scalable company,” he said in a statement.

EBITDA was $7.02 million up from $750,000 in the previous corresponding period, the company said. Earnings per share for the half year soared to 5.89 cents from 1.02 cents.

Operating revenue growth grew 26 percent for the half. “Looking beyond the one-off boost attributed to the consolidation of our WebCentral division, real revenue growth was a pleasing 26 percent despite the negative impact of the US dollar exchange rate on the revenue from our US operations,” Spicer said.

During the half year, WebCentral strengthened its managed hosting business picking up contracts with Cricket Australia and Flight Centre. Operating division FTR was also awarded a $7 million contract to supply recording systems in more than 1470 hearing rooms for the US Social Security Administration.

The company has $3.74 million cash, compared with $3.99 million for the previous half year, with $2.5 million in debt retired reducing the group’s debt level to $8.5 million.