ECSC shares rise as cybersecurity firm boosts revenue
Shares in ECSC jumped almost 10 per cent this morning after the cybersecurity firm posted a sharp rise in revenue for the year.
The figures
ECSC’s organic revenue grew 10 per cent to £5.91m in the year to 31 December 2019.
Revenue from its managed services division jumped 48 per cent to £2.59m.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were flat, compared to a loss of £0.6m the previous year.
Cash and cash equivalents decreased by £0.30m to £0.35m at the end of the year.
Why it’s interesting
ECSC investors were given some welcome positive news this morning after the Bradford-based cyber firm posted a 10 per cent rise in revenue for 2019.
This was driven by a huge surge in the firm’s managed services division, which provides 24/7 incident monitoring and response from clients.
The company has been boosted by a raft of recent data breach fines, as well as rising awareness of cybersecurity issues among businesses.
ECSC said the growth of this part of its business was key to its overall success. Recurring revenue from managed services grew 27 per cent to £1.98m over the year.
While in the first half of the year the cybersecurity company suffered a dip in demand for its consulting services due to Brexit uncertainty, this recovered in the second half.
ECSC also posted break-even earnings last year — the first time since its initial public offering in 2016.
But the major boon for investors was likely ECSC’s relatively upbeat statement about the coronavirus outbreak.
The firm said it did not expect any disruption in its ability to deliver its full range of services, all of which can be delivered remotely.
ECSC did anticipate some impact to its consultancy services as clients cancel or delay projects.
However, the firm said this could be offset by increased demand for cybersecurity services as more and more businesses move to remote and cloud working.
In a separate announcement, ECSC said it has appointed long-standing staff members Gemma Basharan and Ian Castle to the board as chief financial officer and chief technology officer respectively.
ECSC said it expected to deliver continued organic growth for the full year.
What ECSC said
“We are delighted to report continued organic growth for the full year, with continued emphasis on building our managed services recurring revenue supported by our consultancy services,” said chief executive Ian Mann.
“Whilst the current Covid-19 situation has the potential to impact the global economy, we predict that as organisations move rapidly to remote and cloud working, there will be an increase in cyber security incidents, and therefore potential increases in demand for some ECSC services.”