SecureData promises more acquisitions as it sets £100m revenue goal

Enlarged group now has 210 staff following swoop for Check Point Gold partner Cygnia

SecureData is gunning for £100m revenues, and plans to get there partly through acquisition, its executive chairman has revealed following the security services player's acquisition of Cygnia.

SecureData signed a deal to buy Check Point Gold partner Cygnia for an undisclosed sum last night at 11pm.

It marks a return to the M&A trail for SecureData following a gap of nearly three years, and is also a more product-focused acquisition than some of its previous deals, which include security consultancy SensePost in 2013.

Talking to CRN, Ian Brown, who was made executive chairman of SecureData last May, said SecureData is closing in on the £50m revenue target set at the time of its August Capital-backed MBO in 2012.

The goal is now to hit £100m revenues, he revealed.

"We are acquisitive," he said.

"Our core business is doing very well, and we think there are a lot of growth opportunities. At the moment, we are growing at about 20 per cent per annum, but we are looking to build a business with £100m revenues. We will do some of that organically, but if we can supplement that with acquisitions, we'd be up for that.

"Cygnia is number one, but I think there will be others. We are looking at others."

Founded in 2007, Birmingham-based Cygnia generated a pre-tax profit of £366,000 on revenues of £8.9m in 2016, down from a profit of £437,000 on £9.6m sales in 2015.

The group now has 210 staff, including 150 engineers, analysts and consultants.

Brown denied the deal marks a departure in strategy for SecureData, which has talked in the recent past about the need to continue pushing deeper into services.

"Product and vendor relationships are important to us," he said.

"Services account for about 60 per cent of total revenues and I think that will continue to be the case.

"As part of being a cyber-security one-stop-shop to businesses, you need to supply solutions. I'm intending to build a £100m cyber-services and solutions business. Part of that is managed and professional services, but product is equally a part of that.

"Our revenues are already approaching £50m. We see opportunities for growth all over the place. With the imminent launch of GDPR and rapid increase in cyber-security threats, security is becoming a lot more of a boardroom issue. A lot of organisations don't have the capability to do it themselves and so are looking to organisations like us to help."

The cyber-security supplier landscape is highly fragmented, Brown claimed.

"They may do penetration testing, but only penetration testing, and they can't help with, for instance, GDP assessments. So I think it's quite tough to be a smaller, niche cyber-security palyer today. Many are looking for organisations like SecureData to partner with, which may lead to an exit.

"We've now got about 220 employees and a huge amount of cyber-security resources. I don't think there's anyone with our capability in the market. If you are looking for a dedicated speicalist with size, we've got to be the biggest out there."