Spirit Technology hits new highs as Superloop narrows net loss

Spirit Technology, the company formerly known as Spirit Telecom, reported record results for the six months to December 31.

Total revenue for the company was up 253% to AU$44 million compared to the same time last year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) spiked 320% to AU$2.6 million, and net profit shifted from a AU$700,000 loss to a positive AU$500,000.

The company's revenue number consisted of AU$21 million from recurring revenue and AU$22 million allocated as solution and project revenue. The former was up 246% year-on-year and the latter increased by 132%.

Of its recurring revenue, data services had the largest share with AU$7.9 million recorded, AU$7.7 million was from managed services, AU$2 million was from cloud solutions, and almost AU$1 million was due to security services. From its more traditional offerings, the company had AU$2.4 million from voice services.

"It is particularly pleasing to deliver a profitable H1 21 in a period of investment in scaling up the business, building a national brand, and integrating multiple acquisitions," managing director Sol Lukatsky said.

The company added its acquisitions were ahead of schedule.

Also providing first-half numbers on Tuesday was Superloop, which reported a 4.8% increase in revenue to AU$53 million and an almost doubling of EBITDA to AU$8.15 million. In net terms, the company posted another loss, this time closing the loss by 11.7% to AU$18.9 million.

Superloop said its connectivity revenue was up 15% to AU$30.2 million, while its broadband revenue jumped 27% to AU$18.5 million, and services revenue fell 55% to AU$4.5 million as it experienced an accelerated decline with the retirement of "non-core cloud managed services".

The company said it added 9000 customers to its NBN plans during the period, but its guest Wi-Fi at student accommodation offering suffered as international borders remained closed due to the pandemic.

The company said it saw growth across its Australian, Singaporean, and Hong Kong-based core fibre connections as the segment reported a revenue increase of AU$5 million to AU$22.3 million, while home broadband jumped from AU$8.76 million for the first half last year to AU$14.9 million.

On Monday, Superloop also announced it had picked up a AU$25 million contact from MNF Group company Symbio to be the exclusive wholesale NBN aggregator.

"Under the contract, Symbio will migrate its existing and future supply arrangements from various providers of NBN aggregation services onto the Superloop Connect platform," the company said.

"The contract also anticipates Superloop expanding its existing use of Symbio's range of voice offerings and including elements within its own portfolio of offerings."

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