AdEPT Telecom continues to cut debt

Voice and data telecoms services provider AdEPT Telecom continued to reduce its borrowings and improved its underlying profits even though revenues fell in the year to March 2010. A decline in call volumes led to a reduction in fixed line telecoms revenues from £27.6m to £24m. Overall revenues were 10% lower at £25.7m. Mobile revenues grew by 86% to £320,000 thanks to the increased use of smartphones and data revenues were 73% ahead at £1.1m. Underlying pre-tax profits improved from £2.04m to £2.2m. A reduction in overheads helped offset the lower revenues. The cash generated from those profits has helped reduce net debt by £1.6m to £9.2m. AdEPT currently generates more than 50% of its revenues from customers paying fixed monthly fees dependent on the number of products that they are signed up for. This reduces the dependence on overall activity levels. AdEPT generated 86% of last year's revenues from customers signed up to more than one of its products. Although house broker Astaire forecasts a slight dip in profit to £2.1m this year, the debt will continue to reduce. Astaire forecasts net debt of £7.5m at the end of March 2011, falling to £5.6m at the end of March 2012. A reduction in the interest charge will help profits to rise in the coming years. Any shareholder who owns at least 1,000 shares in AdEPT can sigm up for free residential phone line rental worth £120 a year. This requires an investment of £215 plus dealing costs at the current share price of 21.5p.