8th Sep 2015 08:40
LONDON (Alliance News) - Gamma Communications PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit was higher in the first half thanks to higher revenue, driven by higher user numbers and strong growth in its customer base.
The company, which provides communications services to the UK business market, said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was GBP7.6 million, up from GBP7.2 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose to GBP92.4 million from GBP83.6 million, and the group's gross profit margin improved to 42.4% against 38.3%, but the effect on pretax profit was tempered by higher share-based payments and more depreciation and amortisation costs. Stripping that out, gross profit for the company rose 23% to GBP39.2 million from GBP32.0 million.
The company, which listed in London around a year ago, also said it will pay a maiden interim dividend of 2.2 pence per share.
Gamma said it has continued to build up its customer base over the half, with the number of installed SIP trunks, its VoIP service, up 21% and the number of users on its Cloud PBX service rising 34%. It said it has seen strong revenue and margin growth in its direct sales and won some major contracts in the half, including with housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC and price comparison service Moneysupermarket Group PLC.
The group also said it has made good progress on developing its mobile service and expects this to launch in the first half of 2016.
"We are pleased with the progress we have made in the first half of 2015. Our current strategic products have continued to grow well in both Channel and Direct markets. Good progress has been made with our pipeline of new products, with our multi-site data network launched on time at the end of June," said Chief Executive Bob Falconer.
Shares in Gamma were up 6.9% to 295.00 pence on Tuesday morning.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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