Xploite’s Smith hits acquisition trail

Sign on the dotted line: Smith is gearing up for his next M&A venture

Xploite chief executive Ian Smith has revealed he is already reviewing a number of buy-and-build opportunities just a week after disposing of Anix.

Last Friday, London-listed Xploite generated a £10.5m profit from the sale of IBM partner Anix to ACS.

In an interim trading statement, Smith said the “excellent return” would allow Xploite to buy, build and sell on yet another IT services empire.

“With the benefit of having a strong balance sheet at time when valuations are very attractive, we are in an excellent position to create further shareholder value through identifying, acquiring, actively managing and disposing of ITC assets and businesses,” he said.

“We are now actively reviewing a number of options.”

As it stands, Xploite’s sole interest is its nascent storage software arm, Storage Fusion.

In it fiscal first-half to 30 April, Anix saw revenues rise 10.3 per cent year on year to £23.9m.

Following the disposal of Itheon in October, software revenues fell from £0.9m to £0.1m and Xploite admitted Storage Fusion's sales momentum had been “slower to develop than originally envisaged”.

However, Smith claimed there is considerable interest in Storage Fusion’s products and he is optimistic that this will convert into sales in the second half.

Xploite’s profit before integration and strategic costs increased by 21.1 per cent to £2m.