Adept4 showing progress during challenging H1

Managed services player Adept4 has talked up the progress it has made improving the fortunes of the business after interim results for its first half showed it was still going through challenging times.

The firm hit the headlines back in April when it made it clear to investors it was not going to take losing a significant contract just lying down and started looking into legal means as a way of challenging the customer's decision to end their business, arguing the termination was not valid.

At that time the firm warned that the loss of the contract that in its last fiscal year to 30 September 2018 was worth £0.7m would have an impact on this year's results with a statement warning they could now be, "below the management's expectations".

It has followed that up with interim figures for the six months ended 31 March showing that revenue of £4.2m was down from £5.4m in the same period last year and its losses had increased from £0.8m to £1.1m.

But the business has been looking to reduce its costs and made it clear that the priorities for now are on serving the existing customer base rather than putting resources behind new business generation. Efforts made to reduce costs have managed to cut overheads by around £75,000 a month.

The focus on generating more business with existing customers has also started to yield results but inevitably the absence of fresh relationships has reduced revenue and gross profit.

The firm also updated investors on the progress of a strategic review into the business, revealing that the process was nearing its conclusion. "In seeking to recover value for shareholders the Board has been considering the strategic options open to the Company and working with its professional advisers, its debt provider and its major shareholders to find the best way forward for all stakeholders," stated Simon Duckworth, non-chief executive chairman of Adept4.

"Having returned the business to modest levels of monthly Trading Group EBITDA profitability with a reduced cash burn after plc and debt service costs, the Board has more recently been able to focus on taking positive steps to return the business to growth," added.

"Good progress has been made in this regard and we look forward to updating shareholders on our future plans in due course," he said.