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LONDON (Alliance News) - Maintel Holdings PLC on Monday reported a rise in profit and revenue in 2018 as the communications service provider shifted its product focus.
Shares in Maintel were up 16% Monday mid-morning at 580.00 pence each.
In 2018, Maintel's pretax profit increased 38% to GBP2.2 million from GBP1.6 million the year before. The company's revenue increased 7.6% to GBP136.5 million from GBP126.8 million in 2017.
Maintel proposed a final dividend of 19.5 pence, 2.1% higher than the 19.1p paid in the final quarter in 2017. As a result, the company's total dividend for 2018 is 34.5p, a 2.1% increase on the 33.8p distributed in 2017.
"During the year we have delivered significant increases in all our key financial metrics, notwithstanding the challenging market backdrop, whilst continuing to make progress in our continued transformation to a cloud and managed services business," said Chief Executive Eddie Buxton.
Maintel said "price pressure" from its more traditional support revenue led to the company's growth being slower than expectations. In response to "changing dynamics" in the sector, Maintel said it focused on cloud and managed services.
Maintel's Managed Services & Technology division saw a rise in revenue of 23% to GBP89.9 million. The increase was partially offset by the firm's two other units - Network Services and Mobile - reporting a dip in revenue of 13% to GBP40.9 million and 19% to GBP5.6 million, respectively.
The company's cloud platform subscribers increased 38% in 2018, with its managed services base up 10% on the year before.
Buxton added: "The board remains confident in delivering growth in revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization in the full year to December 2019, in line with expectations."
Maintel reported Ebitda of GBP10.7 million in 2018.
