BigAir boosts revenues & creates new division

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 01 March 2011 06:41

IT Industry - Listed Tech

BigAir Group revenues rose 51 percent to $5.1m for the half year to 31 December 2010 through a combination of growth of its high margin 'on-net' fixed wireless data services and new revenue from the managed ISP assets of Star-Tech Communications, acquired in July 2010 and which has formed the core of a new division.

Star-Tech contributed $0.46m, 27 percent of the growth. BigAir reported EBITDA for the six months of $1.92m, an increase of 33 percent over the previous corresponding period.

Star-Tech's principal business was the provision of managed Internet services to student accommodation providers. This division has been rebranded as BigAir Universe Broadband and several new student accommodation sites have been signed up bringing the total number of active sites to 25.

In addition, BigAir says several sites were migrated from third party carriers to the BigAir fixed wireless network, which will reduce communications costs and increase gross margins in future periods.

On 6 January 2011 BigAir acquired AccessPlus , a former competitor of Star-Tech. BigAir says it intends over time to migrate all the AccessPlus sites from third party carriers to the BigAir fixed wireless network, which will reduce communications costs and increase gross margins in future periods.

Following completion of the acquisition of the assets of Star-Tech and AccessPlus the BigAir Group now operates in two distinct but related divisions; fixed wireless data and managed ISP services. It says: "The focus of the managed ISP division is currently in tertiary student accommodation. This is expected to expand into similar projects with interest already received from communities such as the mining sector and defence."

During the half year BigAir invested $1.7 million in new network infrastructure that it says was funded entirely from operating cash flow generated within the business. The company says it is not yet in a position to predict the net contribution from the recent acquisitions of Clever Communications and AccessPlus due to the restructuring and integration that is underway during the current half.