Cityfibre Share News (CITY)

(ShareCast News) - AIM-listed CityFibre, a builder and operator of fibre optic infrastructure, expects to report a rise in revenue following an acquisition of infrastructure assets at the beginning of 2016 and as the company added a new internet connections.For calendar 2016, the company expects to report revenue in excess of £15m and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of about £2.5m, in line with expectations.In January 2016, the company bought certain national network infrastructure assets of KCOM Group, excluding the Hull and East Yorkshire areas for £90m, which according to chief executive Greg Mesch, it was step change acquisition which "significantly" scaled CityFibre's footprint across the UK.The acquisition was followed by a roll out of a commercialisation campaign which delivered over 1,700 connections on the bought assets.The company added a record 5,063 new connections in the period, with initial contract value of £75.5m, which was higher that the 1,100 connections and £23m initial contract value in 2015, while 58% of the connections added were organic new sales.During last year, the company increased the number of connected premises served to 3,962, from 1,200 and ended 2016 with 3,383 kilometres of network assets in use, up from 743 kilometres at the end of 2015. Service provider relationships rose top 54 from 41The acquisition of the Redcentric network assets in September and further development takes its UK city footprint to 42 as the company begins 2017.Chief executive Greg Mesch said: "We are now strongly positioned as the largest wholesale infrastructure provider next to Openreach, which provides us with a great platform for future growth, including significant upsides in Fibre-to-the-Tower and Fibre-to-the-Home."Late in the year the company gained new orders including, a 25-year national dark fibre core network migration for Gamma to provide a 1,300 kilometre national route connecting 15 major data centres and BT exchanges in London and regional hubs, a five-year, 63-site contract on its existing Coventry network with partner Pinacl Solutions on behalf of the Coventry Clinical Commissioning Group, and a seven-year, 33-site public services network in Stirling in partnership with MLL Telecom.The company also signed a five-year, 150-site deal from partner BtL on existing assets in Maidenhead and Slough.Shares in CityFibre were up 1.96% to 52p at 0839 GMT.