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LONDON (Alliance News) - SysGroup PLC on Monday reported a swing to an interim loss from a small profit a year before, despite the firm seeing a sharp rise in revenue, on an expected increase in operating costs.
For the six months to September 30, the IT services and cloud hosting provider swung to a pretax loss of GBP348,000 from a profit of GBP78,000.
The company's revenue increased 49% to GBP5.8 million from GBP3.9 million.
"During the period we have focussed on execution and I am pleased to report that the group has made steady progress in the first half of the year during my first period as CEO. The increasing proportion of recurring revenue demonstrates the ongoing success of our strategy and position as a consultative led provider of Managed IT Services and Cloud Hosting," said Chief Executive Officer Adam Binks.
SysGroup's operating expenses increased 36% to GBP3.0 million from GBP2.2 million and the company's administrative expenses increased 70% to GBP3.9 million from GBP2.3 million.
The IT company said the increase can be attributed to the addition of the Rockford IT business and an increased investment in sales & marketing and the company's support functions.
Binks added: "We have continued to invest in our business, our people, our brand and in systems and as a result have a more sales focused workforce all working towards the same common goals. We are beginning to see the results of this investment through a strengthened pipeline and remain confident in delivering full year performance in line with current market expectations."
In the financial year ended March 2018, SysGroup reported a pretax loss of GBP7,000 on revenue of GBP10.5 million.
The company said its trading in the second half has "begun well", leading to the confidence in meeting full-year guidance.
SysGroup said its continued investment means it can "effectively scale the business" organically and through acquisitions, which it "continues to monitor and assess opportunities".
Shares in SysGroup were untraded Monday but last closed at 41.60 pence each.
