Accumuli to keep M&A motor running in 2014

Security VAR vows to continue acquiring rivals that are 'leaders in their field' as it posts £7.7m in first-half revenue

Security VAR Accumuli has signalled it will make further "accretive" acquisitions as it unveiled a double-digit rise in interim revenue.

The AIM-listed outfit, which now draws 62 per cent of its gross profit from recurring revenue streams, saw sales rise 23 per cent to £7.7m in the six months to 30 September, as group EBITDA nudged up seven per cent to £1.1m.

During the period it acquired two-factor authentication vendor Signify and settled its earn-out on last year's acquisition of SIEM consultancy EdgeSeven. It yesterday announced its acquisition of big data specialist and top Splunk partner EQALIS.

"This has been another period of solid growth for Accumuli, demonstrating our continued ability to drive organic growth from existing business operations whilst executing on our successful acquisition strategy," said Accumuli chairman Nick Kingsbury.

Accumuli, which currently has £3.6m in the bank, said it remains on the hunt for further accretive acquisitions, stressing it has the resources to "move quickly where necessary".

Talking to CRN, Accumuli chief executive Gavin Lyons said the VAR would only consider buying firms that are "experts in their field" who are typically considered as the leading UK partner of their top vendors.

"One thing I hope we are demonstrating is that we only acquire businesses that add substantial value and who are, more importantly, experts in the field they play in. EdgeSeven was a leader in the ArcSight space and EQALIS is similar again [with Splunk]."

Recurring revenue rose from 53 to 62 per cent of the total, year on year, and Lyons predicted that more end users would move to adopt managed security services in 2014.

"As more people adopt security intelligence, the power to analyse some of this data is down to the quality of your personnel," he said. "Mid-market organisations want to have access to that skills set instantly and I think people will move that responsibility out to an MSP."