Profits surge at Unicom
SME telecoms provider Universal Utilities recorded a 10% increase in pre-tax profits last year to £20.2m.
The Manchester business, which trades as Unicom, was sold by founders Simon Clarke and Stephen Palmer to private equity firm Vitruvian Partners for £136m in 2011.
Newly-filed accounts show it enjoyed a 8% rise in revenues to £60m in the year to the end of April, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, adjusted for the cost of acquiring customer lists, were up 20% to £22.9m.
Consolidated results for the whole group are held within a vehicle called Etihad Topco Ltd. In its accounts turnover increased 11% in the year to £69.4m and adjusted EBITDA grew almost 25% to £25m.
Unicom offers phone, broadband and most recently mobile communications services to SMEs. It is now led by former operations director Chris Earle after the departure of the founders following the sale.
His strategy is to grow sales to £100m in the next five years and is planning to expand into the gas and electricity supply market over the next two years. A year ago it bought Timperley-based Economy Gas for £1.5m.
In the accounts the directors said they expect, “current levels of trading performance to continue for the foreseeable future”.
The business is owned by a subsidiary of private equity firm Vitruvian Partners called Etihad Acquisitions which the accounts show secured a loan of £42.5m against the company’s assets in April 2011. Last November this loan increased to £65m with an additional revolving credit facility of £5m.
The business employs 500 people in Northenden and across 10 regional bases.
