Phoenix IT Group endures 'challenging' first half

Embattled services player posts six per cent revenue slide in 'difficult trading conditions'

Phoenix IT Group's share price slid to a six-month low this morning as it unveiled muted interim results.

The London-listed outfit, which provides IT services to both end users and systems integrators, admitted the first six months of its financial year remained "challenging" for the firm as it posted a six per cent fall in revenue to £116.9m.

Pre-tax profit for the six months to 30 September hit £1.2m, compared with a loss of £63.3m in the same period last year, when its results were skewed by the after-effects of an accounting error.

"Difficult trading conditions coupled with the continued impact of legacy issues related to a disruptive reorganisation have negatively affected results in the period," stated the firm, which was recently ejected from Cisco's partner programme and suffered a datacentre outage last week.

"Whilst management have been focused on resolving these issues, as previously announced, improvements are not expected until the second half of the current financial year."

Following several recent rejigs to its structure, Phoenix now divides itself into three divisions – Business Continuity, Mid-market and Partner Services – with the former two both serving end users direct and the latter focused on providing services through the channel.

Business Continuity performed solidly enough, with revenue down £1m year on year to £26.6m. Phoenix says the number of clients using its cloud backup solutions has almost trebled over the past 18 months to 121.

However, revenue at its Mid-market unit slid £7.3m to £35.4m year on year, which Phoenix blamed on the reduction in one "large, low-margin" professional services contract and attrition on desktop service annuity contracts.

Partner Services revenue fell £1.2m year on year to £54.9m, although Phoenix stressed the unit's order book had risen from £130.8m to £168.4m year on year.