Eftel culls staff following Engin takeover

Fixed-line wholesale internet provider Eftel reported a net loss of AU$46,000 for the six months ending 31 December 2012, owing to the company's restructure that saw the closure of two of its offices.

Eftel acquired Voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider Engin from media giant Seven Group in September last year for AU$9.1 million.

As a result, the company restructured significantly in the period, and shut down its former head office in Perth and its Malaysian office, which housed back office and call centre staff. The back office functions were moved to Eftel's Melbourne office, and the call centre functions were pushed out to an existing outsourcer.

Eftel CEO Scott Stavretis told ZDNet that the company had made 10 Eftel staff redundant in Australia, with 45 staff from Engin being made redundant when Eftel acquired the business. 50 contractors were made redundant as a result of the Malaysia office closure.

The company has 75 employees in Australia, and 300 contractors outsourced in the Philippines.

The cost of the restructure, including redundancy payments, amounted to AU$1.6 million for the year, leading to AU$46,000 net loss for the half.

In the same period, the company also made a number of smaller acquisitions, including fixed-line provider Visage Telecommunication, the customer base of West Australian Networks, and the customer base for Enterprise IT.

Stavretis said that with Engin now integrated into Eftel he was "very excited" about the company's business prospects in 2013, and had already seen strong growth in the corporate market.