11th Oct 2016 08:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - RedstoneConnect PLC, which provides technology for smart buildings and commercial spaces, on Tuesday said profit surged in the half-year to the end of July as costs related to acquisitions and integration booked a year before turned positive.
The company, formerly known as Coms, booked a GBP340,000 gain on integration and transactional costs in the first half of its financial year, compared to a GBP326,000 charge made a year before. This primarily relates to a reversal of a provision booked against the company's property assets.
This helped pretax profit rise to GBP840,000 from GBP23,000 a year before in the six months to July 31, as revenue edged up to GBP20.8 million from GBP20.5 million.
RedstoneConnect said the integration of Connect IB, the smart building software firm it bought in March which precipitated its name change, was now complete, with revenue synergies now starting to benefit the business.
OneSpace, the firm's occupancy management software platform, had a good half, boosted by a three-year framework agreement contract win with Swiss bank UBS AG. A series of cross-selling opportunities between the Redstone and Connect IB businesses have been identified, including a contract win for smart technology software with an unnamed major UK shopping centre.
Current trading, RedstoneConnect said, remains strong, and its order book and pipeline are both robust, giving confidence it will meet its expectations for the year to the end of January.
"RedstoneConnect has produced a strong first-half performance as we continue to deliver on our strategic objectives following the refocussing of the group. Our priorities as we move into 2017 are on working with existing and new clients to deliver high value opportunities, particularly those that will deliver higher margins and annuity-based recurring revenues," said Mark Braund, RedstoneConnect's chief executive.
"Our pipeline of sales opportunities is strong, a clear indication of our ability to leverage our traditional IT and smart infrastructure experience alongside our newer software solutions," he added.
Shares in RedstoneConnect were up 1.5% at 1.65 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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