Rene Sugo (MNF Group)
MNF Group is set to shake up its business structure and expand further into Asia Pacific (APAC) off the back of a record 29 per cent year-on-year growth in phone numbers to 5.8 million.
The Australian communications software and cloud infrastructure provider said its phone number increase was a “key performance indicator for future growth”, feeding into its total recurring revenue, which rose by 12 per cent to A$113.2 million during the year to 30 June. Overall revenue, however, was down by 5 per cent, to A$218.7 million.
By comparison, MNF recorded a revenue increase of 7 per cent the financial year prior, to A$230.9 million.
MNF’s phone growth leads to its long-term goal of having 100 million phone numbers by 2030, the provider claimed in financial documents submitted to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). To do that, the provider claimed it has to establish a presence across Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as Japan and South Korea by 2025.
This would see it expand past its existing presence in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
In a message to shareholders posted to the ASX, MNF CEO Rene Sugo said that the goal of 100 million numbers is ambitious, but believes the company is on track to reach the target.
“Moving into favourable technological, competitive and regulatory environments, as well as selecting some of the larger developed markets in the region to launch into, helps to build our scale and momentum,” he said.
The new structure revolves around MNF’s 100 million number goal, which will focus on the establishments of communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS), unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) and telecom-as-a-service units in order to better target future growth opportunities.
Its CPaas unit will prioritise software companies and large infrastructure-based service providers to use MNF hosted phone numbers through its TNZI and Symbio brands, the latter of which launched its CPaaS product into the Singapore market last week.
Meanwhile, its UCaaS unit, through its MNF Enterprise and Express Virtual Meetings brands, will focus on enabling the rollout and self-service management of enterprise collaboration services through partnerships with Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx, purchasing infrastructure from the CPaaS unit.
As for TaaS, which will use the Telcoinabox and iBoss brands, this unit will provide a platform for small Australian service providers and will also purchase infrastructure from CPaaS and other vendors.
The latter two units, while not directly utilising MNF hosted numbers, are expected to indirectly contribute to the overall goal, according to ASX documents.
The provider also recorded earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) result of A$43.1 million and a group consolidated net profit after tax (NPAT) of A$15.6 million.
