NCC turnover up 60% at 10-month mark

IT security specialist NCC Group has reported group revenues 60% ahead of last year, as recent acqusitions boost performance.

The listed Manchester company said group revenues stood at at £166.1m in a trading update for the 10 months to the end of March 2016 (2015: £104.1m). Of that, organic growth was 21% (March 2015: 14%).

The group’s net debt has decreased to £18.5m (March 2015: £37.5m), following its £126.3m fundraising last year, which partially financed the acquisition of Fox-IT in November 2015.

Rob Cotton, group chief executive, said: “This has been another period of strong and controlled revenue and profitable growth, organically and by acquisition. We have also comprehensively expanded our product portfolio and geographic reach as we continue on our path to become the largest global, services led, cyber security business.

“The opportunities we are seeing from Fox-IT, which has been part of the group for five months and the fully integrated Accumuli business, acquired in May last year, are very exciting. We plan to start the global roll out of some of Fox-IT’s products and services during the next financial year.”

He added that he is confident the group will be able to maintain double digit organic growth and said that further “suitable acquisitions” would also be on their way.

“We are exceptionally well positioned to take advantage of the growing services led markets in which we operate,” he said.

Revenue grew by 8% (March 2015: 6%) in the group’s Escrow division and renewals are forecast to be £19.3m for the current financial year.

The Assurance division has seen a 74% increase in revenue (March 2015: 18%), 24% on an organic basis. Its overall combined order book and renewals base currently stands at £73.6m (April 2015: £36.3m).

Meanwhile, NCC said it is seeing the benefits of the acquisition of Accumuli, which will be rebranded to NCC Group from May.

Newly acquired Fox-IT has widened and diversified the group’s products and services and it plans to deliver additional capabilities to Fox-IT customers locally, whilst rolling out Fox-IT’s services and products to other parts of Europe and North America.

NCC said the Domain Services Division continues to operate in a challenging market where ICANN delays, poor consumer understanding and lower than expected demand for domains have continued to prevail.

Despite this, revenues increased by 127% to £6m (March 2015: £2.6m) and losses will not exceed £1.7m in the current financial year. The division is expected to break even in the next financial year, NCC said but warned that  it would implement a strategic review if this proves unachievable.

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