Investments in data centres and cloud computing has paid off for Macquarie Telecom after experiencing nine consecutive halves of revenue and profit growth.
Revenue increased four per cent to $119.6 million and net profit after tax also rose four per cent to $8.3 million during its first half FY19, ending 31 December. EBITDA increased 13 per cent to $25.5 million.
“Sustained growth in profitability over the last nine halves has allowed Macquarie to consider opportunities to invest for future growth. Hosting’s growing profitability reflects the operating leverage from our investments in data centres and cloud computing,” Macquarie Telecom CEO, David Tudehope, said.
Specifically, Macquarie’s Telecom business contributed service revenue of $69.2 million, down $1.8 million on the same period last year, which was attributed to lower mobile sales. The Hosting arm contributed external service revenue of $50.4 million, an increase of $6.6 million on the back of strong sales and order implementation.
A delay in the planning and approval of Intellicentre 3, has resulted in the data centre’s completion date moving to the first half of 2020 calendar year with expenditure expected to be between $17 and $20 million.
The company announced the expansion of its Macquarie Park Intellicentre capacity from 10 megawatts (MW) to 43MW total load in August last year, where it will invest up to $80 million on building Intellicentre 3 East (IC3) which will occupy 13,400 square metres.
Macquarie is also on the hunt for a new CFO, after Brent Henley was given the task of group executive and chief commercial officer for the Macquarie Telecom business.
For the full year ahead, Macquarie is expecting EBITDA to sit between $51 to $53 million.
“Macquarie has had another strong half and we will continue to leverage our investments to deliver growth to drive further shareholder value,” Macquarie Telecom chairman, Peter James, said.
In September, Macquarie Telecom was awarded a $1 million contract to supply Regional Australia Bank with broadband services, three months after signing a wholesale deal with NBN Co.
Under the three-year deal, Macquarie will supply fibre networks to the co-operative bank’s 32 locations across regional and rural Australia.