It's good to see a British-built IT security business thriving across the globe. Investors are buying GB Group (GBG:AIM) today as it delivered on its November promises, and them some, sparking a 6% share price jump to 180p.
In November last year GB was pretty confident that its full year performance would be positive and so it has proven, producing 'strong results ahead of market consensus, delivered through solid growth both organically and from our acquired businesses.' That latter point is important given how hard the company has hit the acquisition trail, totting up seven purchases in recent years. The stock was trading at about 140p back in November.
The Chester-based £217 million company has designed and bought its way to owning a series of identification intelligence and verification tools which it sells globally via direct and channel partner sales. Year to end March figures will show an increase in adjusted operating profit from £7.2 million to £10.5 million, a full £1 million beat on market expectations of £9.5 million.
Consensus revenue expectations are currently for an increase from £41.8 million to £55.8 million, or circa 33%, with about 20% of that jump powered by the purchases of DecTech (14 April 2014) and Transactis, in November.
'Its seven acquisitions have allowed the company to provide the global capability required to allow organisations to identify individuals worldwide, allowing it to compete with the major established credit checking companies,' says Georgina O'Toole, analyst at respected IT website TechMarketViews. 'We’ve reported nothing but positive news from the company over the last few years,' the analyst spells out, and long may that continue.
