Nasstar PLC Trading Statement (7931L)
July 24 2017 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMNASA
RNS Number : 7931L
Nasstar PLC
24 July 2017
Nasstar plc
("Nasstar", "Company" or "Group")
Trading Statement
24 July 2017
"Trading in line - 'Nasstar 10-19' benefits gaining
momentum"
Nasstar (stock code: NASA), a provider of hosted managed and
cloud computing services, is pleased to provide the following
trading update for the half year ended 30 June 2017.
Trading in the first half of the year has been positive as we
start to see the benefits of our "Nasstar 10-19" programme come
through. The ultimate goal of "Nasstar 10-19" is to maximize
revenue and cost synergies to increase Group EBITDA margins from
20% to 25% of revenue by the end of 2019. The programme is designed
to bring about increased strategic focus across the entire Nasstar
business and has seen the Group refine its market proposition for
each of its vertical markets. This is helping drive organic growth
both from new business and also from cross selling services into
the respective Group customer bases. Overall prospective business
in the first half of 2017 has been encouraging with indications
that the Nasstar offering is continuing to be more attractive to
clients of an increased size.
Investment in growing the Nasstar business has continued during
the first half. We are investing significantly in the account
management team to ensure customers are proactively managed and
revenue opportunities within the wider client base maximised.
Similarly, the Group's professional services team has been active
on the development of our own application functionality, enhancing
our own IP. An important step in this process saw the launch in the
first half of a proprietary product called nConduit, an application
that seamlessly integrates multiple telephony platforms with a wide
range of CRM solutions without the need for extensive coding.
nConduit offers valuable cross-selling potential across a large
proportion of our clients and we continue to look for similar
development opportunities.
As part of the "Nasstar 10-19" programme, the first half has
also seen plans initiated that should see Nasstar close three of
its seven UK data centres before the end of the year. In addition
during the first half of the year, all UK based out of hours
support has been migrated to the Nasstar New Zealand office thus
generating operational efficiencies in the UK.
An objective of "Nasstar 10-19" is to develop a single &
excellent approach to customer service that is continually
improving and as a result the Company has selected a single IT
Service Management tool, Cherwell, that all operating teams will
migrate to during 2017 and into 2018, again improving efficiencies
and driving deeper team integration across the Group.
It was very pleasing to again receive significant city
validation with Nasstar being listed in the 1,000 Companies to
Inspire Britain 2017. Furthermore, Nasstar has continued to build
on its certifications with key partner's Microsoft and Citrix to
further demonstrate its technical capabilities. In addition,
Nasstar continues to deliver industry leading capability in "public
/ private" cloud hybrid solutions, demonstrated by the recent go
live of a law firm based in the UK and Australia, whereby UK users
are served out of Nasstar's UK data centres whilst the Australian
users are served from Microsoft Azure data centres in Australia.
This effectively locates the compute power close to the user in
order to deliver optimum performance and user experience. Such an
innovative approach to cloud delivery is very much industry
leading.
As previously reported, as a result of bank covenant leverage
targets being surpassed again during 2017, the Group benefited from
the ratchet down of interest on its fixed term loan. From May 2017
the Group's interest margin over base rate moved from 2.75% to
2.5%. Net debt at the end of the half year was in line with
expectations at GBP1m, moving from GBP2.8m at the end of December
2016, on track for delivery of the full year target of net
debt/cash breakeven.
Visibility on full year expectations remains high and the Board
is confident that the 2017 full year results will be in line with
market expectations.
The Group intends to adopt IFRS 15 from the start of the new
financial year, 1 January 2018. We are currently assessing the
likely impact of adoption and will provide further information in
due course.
Group results for the half year ended 30 June 2017 are expected
to be released on 25 September 2017.
For further information, please contact:-
Nasstar plc +44 (0) 1952 225 000
Nigel Redwood, Chief Executive Officer
Niki Redwood, Finance Director
finnCap Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker) +44 (0) 20 7220 0500
Julian Blunt, James Thompson (Corporate Finance)
Stephen Norcross (Corporate broking)
About Nasstar plc
Nasstar (www.nasstar.com) and its wholly owned operating
businesses provide hosted managed and cloud computing services,
integrating private and public clouds supplying a robust, secure
and stable hosted Information Technology service to business
customers. The Group provides a true end to end service for clients
providing them with enhanced IT performance and greater cost
control over their IT function. The Group owns its primary data
centre, is head quartered in Telford with regional offices in
Northampton, London and Bournemouth whilst 24 x 7 support is
delivered from its Auckland office in New Zealand. Nasstar is an
accredited Microsoft Gold Partner, is the 2016 Citrix Networking
Partner of the Year and is certified to ISO 27001.
Nasstar specialises in building bespoke cloud hosted services to
manage a client's entire application set, tailor made to suit
specific industries, designing public, private and hybrid cloud
solutions to meet the objectives of the client. The solution is a
highly scalable service that provides benefits including "Anywhere
Access" to computing; a standardised corporate solution that can be
accessed globally in multiple languages; generating cost savings
when compared to the traditional IT ownership model whilst
replacing capital expenditure with a simple usage based payment
model.
Nasstar (AIM:NASA) was founded in 1998, admitted to AIM in
December 2005, acquired e-know.net Limited in a reverse takeover in
January 2014, Kamanchi Limited in July 2014, VESK in October 2015
and Modrus Limited in September 2016.
Ends
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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