Vanco chief blasts investors

Vanco picked the picturesque setting of Barcelona to blast investors

Vanco´s chief executive has hit out at the ´short-termism´ of UK investors after recent analyst misgivings precipitated a dramatic slump in its share price.

Despite Vanco´s recent revenues and profit growth, analysts had become concerned about the disparity between the London-listed firm´s rocketing turnover and growing cash outflow. As a result, the virtual network operator's (VNO) share price has plunged from 471p last May to 83p this month.

Talking to CRN at Vanco´s annual summit in Barcelona, Allen Timpany, founder and chief executive of Vanco, slammed local investors for their lack of ambition.

”There´s a short-termism here which says we want you to build a very high quality 200m pound business. I want to grow a business that is £2bn. I´m taking a longer-term view of the opportunity, to which the Americans say ´great, absolutely´ and the UK market says ´actually we´d sooner you took a shorter term view´.”

“I do not think the market, particularly the UK market, realises how big the VNO opportunity is.”

The VNO also used the summit to unveil a slew of customer wins. This includes a five-year deal with UK food producer Premier Foods, which will see Vanco design, implement and manage an MPLS network connecting 83 UK sites.

Vanco, which claims to be the world´s largest VNO, has been growing at around 40 per cent annually and is expected to record revenues of £225m for its latest fiscal year.

Timpany said he was confident that Vanco´s share price would rise this year and pointed out that every single technology company had suffered similar phases of being out of love with the market.

Further reading:

Vanco issues cashflow warning

Vanco toasts strong 2006