Rapid recovery for listed cyber security business
Bradford-based cyber security provider, ECSC, has reported revenues of £2.61m, down 1% on the prior period’s £2.63m.
The company has published its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2020, in which it highlights a return to profit and a positive cash flow.
Its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) division’s recurring revenue is up 25% to £1.17m (H1 2019: £0.94m), with an MDR order book of £2.9m (30 June 2019: £2.7m).
And the company’s Assurance division (testing, standards and certification services) has seen its revenue rise 4% to £1.24m (H1 2019: £1.19m).
ECSC made an adjusted EBITDA profit of £52,000 (H1 2019: £184k loss) and completed a successful placing in April 2020 which raised £0.5m (gross).
The firm says it is now continuing to see a strong return of Assurance revenue, with July 2020 up 33% on the quarter two average. And its Assurance division total bookings for mid-September 2020 are up 75% on the half one average.
Ian Mann, chief executive officer of ECSC, said: “We are delighted to report a return to Adjusted EBITDA profit with record levels of recurring revenues and orders within our Managed Detection and Response division, partly driven by an increase in cyber security incidents as organisations have accelerated the existing trend towards remote and cloud working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is also pleasing to note that our Assurance division is recovering strongly as clients are beginning to resume projects (both on-site and working remotely), with an increase in both revenues and bookings in this sector.
“We have so far exceeded our stated objective of maintaining a break-even Adjusted EBITDA position throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
“We remain focused on our strategy of growing our Managed Detection and Response division in order to build our recurring revenue streams and target this fast-growing sector of the market.”
Mann said ECSC was able to quickly engineer its services for remote working back in April.
The company took advantage of the Government’s furlough scheme but all its staff have now returned, and are working full time.
Mann added: “With regard to Covid we took action early and we think the furlough system has worked well for companies like ours.
“For the future we’re very optimistic. We’re still seeing cyber security incidents so people need our help and our managed services have continued to grow steadily throughout the period. There’s been no dip in that.
“Remote working and cloud working can be done securely but it can be new technology for the companies adopting it and new to the companies selling it.
“New things in technology do tend to cause some cyber security problems.
“For us the effects of Covid have been short-term and we’re now above the level we were at last year.”
