Daisy optimistic despite operating loss widening to £10.5m

Telecoms firm claims acquisition of Worldwide Group has helped balance out bad market conditions for traditional wares

Daisy Group claims to be "cautiously optimistic" for its next half year, despite its operating loss widening by 72 per cent to £10.5m in its most recent financial results.

In the six months to 30 September, Daisy saw sales rise by one per cent to £178m, which it partly puts down to the April acquisition of Worldwide Group (WWG), but had to increase its borrowing facilities by £25m in order to complete the takeover.

The telecoms firm claimed in a stock market statement that the acquisition of WWG, an audioconferencing and call-handling services provider, has helped to "mitigate against the impact of market pressures in [its] traditional revenue streams".

Daisy remains hopeful that its product diversification will help counteract the effects of the tough macroeconomic and telecoms sector climate, and did not rule out the prospect of further strategic acquisitions.

Matthew Riley, Daisy's chief executive, said that WWG is performing well post-acquisition.

He said: "Our acquisition of Worldwide Group, in a growing area of the market, is performing well. The business has achieved an encouraging level of annualised revenue growth so far, and the change of ownership has been welcomed by key customers.

"While the sector continues to experience difficult macroeconomic and regulatory headwinds, we see our own performance balanced positively by our improving revenue mix and product diversification."

Riley added that looking forward, Daisy remains cautiously optimistic and expects to see continued strong free cash flow generation during the rest of the current financial year.