Rene Sugo (Symbio)
Symbio’s net profit after tax (NPAT) dropped by 98 per cent year-on-year during to the first half of the 2023 financial year, closing the six-month period with A$79,000 in the black.
According to the Australian communications software provider, this loss in group profit after tax over the six months to 31 December coincides with group revenue rising by 1 per cent, to A$102 million, and underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropping by a third to $11.6 million.
By comparison, this period last year saw NPAT up 67 per cent to A$11.1 million, continuing EBITDA up 7 per cent to A$17.3 million and underlying EBITDA down by 9.1 per cent to A$17.9 million.
The relatively flat revenue and EBITDA decline in this most recent half-year, the provider claimed, occurred because of “several factors”, two of which include the global economic slowdown within the worldwide tech industry and its uptake of an accelerated investment program.
However, despite the declines and flatline, Symbio CEO Rene Sugo said the provider ended the first half of the financial year “as a cash generative and profitable business with a strong balance sheet and solid strategy to return to growth”.
On an individual unit basis, the company’s communications platform-as-a-service arm generated 6 per cent in continued number porting, while its telecom-as-a-service segment services grew by 15 per cent and its unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) division grew by 34 per cent in seats.
The global economic slowdown is also causing the provider to tighten its belt, instigating a hiring freeze and redoing discretionary spending in travel, sales and marketing.
“We are also reducing our FY23 capex by $2 million by deferring selected product development and projects,” Sugo said. “The company is focusing on improving profitability and achieving additional operating efficiencies to return to EBITDA growth in FY24.
“We remain confident that the global megatrends of enterprise cloud adoption and new ways of working, including hybrid working, will prevail through the current period of uncertainty. Our expansion into the new high-tech Asian markets of Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan will increase our addressable market further fueling long term growth.”
