Slow UC deployment costs Anittel a profitable year

Anittel's Peter Kazacos.

A slower than expected roll-out of Cisco Systems' unified communications (UC) technologies to the Tasmanian Government has proven to be the determining factor in Anittel’s financials.

Anittel won a major infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) contract with the Tasmanian Government on September 16, 2013, to provide it with UC over an initial term of two years, with two subsequent one-year optional extensions.

According to Anittel managing director and executive chairman, Peter Kazacos, 7500 end points have been deployed to date, a figure the company had hoped to reach earlier.

As a result, the reseller expects to finish the financial year with a loss after tax of between $3 million and $4m once figures are audited.

While the outcome is an improvement on fiscal 2013’s loss of $7.39m, Kazacos said Anittel aimed to end 2014 profitably, and expects to come out on top in the 2015 financial year.

On a positive note, Kazacos claims the sale of its Anittel Communications business to Big Air for $6.5m in January will allow it to focus on growing demand for managed IT (MIT) and UC, which represent its remaining businesses.

These will be supported by an improvement in cash, which jumped from $2.13m in the previous fiscal year to $7.76m by the end of 2014.

This is despite lower revenue for the year, down from $50.9m in 2013 to $43.4m in the 12 months to June 30. The divestment of the communications unit meant it provided just seven months of revenue rather than a full year.

Anittel said it will repay $4m of debt to Peter Kazacos and Vicki Kazacos, and has also entered a new agreement with the two who will provide a joint debt facility of up to $4m to the company. The facility includes a reduced interest rate of 7 per cent. The previous debt facility, cancelled following the sale of the communications unit, had an 11 per cent interest rate.