Companies: NBT ��

Healthy interim results from internet services provider Group NBT provided an encouraging update just a month after GCI’s recommendation at 253.5p.

During the six months to December, NBT boosted sales by 36% to �8.4m, pre-tax profits by 81% to �1.7m and earnings by 79% to 5.5p. Figures were improved by the introduction of new web domain suffixes ‘.eu’ and ‘.mobi’, and the acquisition of niche managed hosting player Exalia for up to �3.2m.

The addition of the suffixes chipped in with �380,000 of turnover and Exalia already contributed �510,000 of revenue and �220,000 of profit from its integration in August. Affable chief executive Geoff Wicks said: ‘Exalia fitted our criteria and provides access to a part of the market where we didn’t have a presence.’

Underlying revenues grew 22% as the core businesses – NetNames Platinum domain name management, NetBenefit managed hosting and Easily online services – continued to thrive. Platinum revenues were up 59% to �3.42m, NetBenefit’s by 155% to �1.35m (largely boosted by Exalia) and online by 4% to �3.63m.

The headline-grabbing purchase of Danish counterpart Ascio for �18.3 million was completed just after the period-end. ‘In the next period you will see the impact of Ascio on the company’s growth rate,’ said Wicks, though the expense of restructuring and integrating will impinge on group numbers.

Estimates from house broker Bell Lawrie point to sales up almost two-thirds to �22.6m for the full year, rising to �32.3m the year after. The costs of restructuring Ascio are predicted to hold back figures for the next two years, with earnings falling 19% to 9.6p and pre-tax profits rising 14% to �3.2m this year. However, stripping out this outlay leaves �3.7m profits and 11.9p earnings, rising to �5.5m and 17.1p in 2008.

Group NBT	AIM	�74.95m	307.50p	-6.00p
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