AdEPT Telecom plc (LON:ADT), one of the UK’s leading independent providers of managed services for IT, unified communications, connectivity and voice solutions, is holding its 2018 annual general meeting at 10.15am today at 77 Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 8BS. At the meeting, the Chairman, Roger Wilson, will make the following statement:-
“I am pleased to report that, in the 6 months to the 30 September 2018, AdEPT made considerable progress in its strategy of further expanding its managed service and IT capability, with continuing geographical focus on London and the South East. This progress has been made through a combination of organic sales from IT and managed services and the contribution from our acquisition of Shift F7 Group Limited, a commercial IT business. Providing a full suite of managed services, AdEPT is in an excellent position to take advantage of the continuing convergence between IT and telecoms.
Included in the AGM resolutions there is a proposal to change the name of the Company to AdEPT Technology Group plc. With more than 75% of revenues being generated from managed services and IT, the board believes that this new name better reflects the products and services being provided by the Company. Should the resolution be passed, the Company is expecting the change of name to take effect from Monday, 1 October 2018.
Although our interim results for the 6 months ended 30 September 2018 are not expected to be published until 13 November 2018, the Board is confident that they will support its progressive dividend growth policy. Therefore, the Directors are declaring an interim dividend of 4.90p per Ordinary Share in respect of the 6 months ended 30 September 2018, an increase of 15.3% over the interim dividend of 4.25p for the comparative period.
This dividend will absorb approximately £1.1 million of shareholders’ funds (September 2017: £1.0 million). It is proposed by the Directors that this dividend will be paid on 8 April 2019 to shareholders who are on the register of members on the record date of 15 March 2019.
The Company’s most recent acquisition in the IT space, Shift F7, was announced in August 2018. Shift F7 is a highly accredited IT services provider with over 20 years’ experience, offering highly specialised IT support services and technology solutions to more than 200 commercial mid-market customers. Shift F7 is a vendor-independent managed service provider which offers its clients outsourced managed IT and telecoms solutions, including IT support, hosted IT, cyber-security, data connectivity and next generation IP telephony services. The products and services of Shift F7 are highly complementary to those of the existing IT service divisions within AdEPT. In addition, the teams at Shift F7 and AdEPT have been working together for more than 10 years in relation to the supply of telecom and data connectivity services.
The integration of Shift F7 into the Group has only just begun and as this acquisition was made part-way through the current financial year, it will only have two-month contribution to the interim financial results. We look forward to providing further information on the results for the period and the early progress of Shift F7 at the time of our interim results when these are announced on 13 November 2018.”
AdEPT Telecom plc is one of the UK’s leading independent providers of managed services for IT, unified communications, connectivity and voice solutions. The Company provides a complete communications portfolio of IT services, unified communications, IP telephony equipment installation, managed services, Wi-Fi, IT and communications hardware and data connectivity products. AdEPT’s tailored services are used by thousands of customers across the UK and are brought together through the strategic relationships with tier-1 suppliers such as Openreach, BT Wholesale, Virgin Media, Avaya, Microsoft, Dell and Apple.
