Earnings growth for deal-hungry Daisy Group
ACQUISITIVE SME-focused IT and communications provider Daisy Group overcame a fall in revenues to grow first half earnings, and said it intends to increase its dividend payment as a mark of its confidence.
The Lancashire company, which is one of the biggest employers in Nelson, where it is headquartered, said it is still ready to buy more businesses having completed three deals this year.
During the half year to September 30 Daisy bought data specialist for £7.5m in cash and then added MoCo, an independent distributor and reseller of business mobile and telecommunications, for £1.9m.
Most recently – and in the second half – it acquired Indecs Computer Services for up to £18m. Indecs provides technical maintenance and support services for business critical, IT server and cloud storage facilities.
In the period revenues fell from 178.1m to £173.9m as a result of a “continued and expected” decline in fixed line network services and an agreed change in contractual terms with a key mobile partner.
Daisy said changes in the mix of business and good cost control had delivered adjusted EBITDA growth of 2% to £27.8m. Loss before tax from continuing operations was £15m, compared with £13.8m last year.
Chief executive Matt Riley said: “Looking forward, we remain cautiously optimistic and expect to see continued progress and strong free cash flow generation during the rest of the current financial year.
“In line with this, we intend to increase our total dividends for the year by 15%. We are focused on driving organic growth whilst investigating strategic acquisitions that provide clear value for our shareholders.”
Executive chairman Peter Dubens added: “The group remains focused on driving further organic growth through cross-sell opportunities across its customer base.
“We are confident that our recent acquisitions will continue to perform strongly and we will continue to investigate strategic acquisitions that provide clear shareholder value.
“There are still opportunities to acquire good businesses in a fragmented market and we have the financial structure, the people and the processes in place to be able to continue to execute quickly and efficiently.”
