Web services firm sees ‘improved performance’

MANAGEMENT at Zamano — the Dublin-based web and mobile services company — has told shareholders that the business has seen a “much improved” performance in the first half of its current financial year.

At the company’s annual general meeting yesterday, chief executive John O’Shea said that the company — which has recently been totally restructured on an operational basis — has made “good progress” over the past 12 months, evident in improvements in gross profit and EBITDA and a reduction in net debt to €3.4 millio.

“Investment in extending routes to market in Ireland, the UK, Spain and the US is ongoing, and the board expects revenue growth to resume in the fourth quarter of this year,” Mr O’Shea told shareholders.

Zamano — which, back in June reported a pre-tax loss of €13.3m for 2010 — has been re-configured into a three-prong business.

Where previously the group focused on providing mobile phone services to network providers, it now has three distinct divisions — Everneo which sells mobile content and interactive services to customers; Zamano Solutions (ZSL) which provides messaging services to businesses here and in Britain; and Newsworthie, which works with newspapers to monetise their online content by optimising it to facilitate a more targeted and results-linked advertising proposition.

Mr O’Shea said that the Newsworthie business holds “significant growth prospects“, but further investment in it, as well as the overall group’s debt capital repayment requirements, present a challenge. However, the board is “actively engaged in addressing this“, and is confident of being able to successfully restructure its debt agreements before the end of this year.

Zamano also unveiled Joe Morley as its new chief operating officer at yesterday’s AGM. Mr Morley — who has worked with Zamano for the past year — will also head up Newsworthie.