CentralNic upbeat as new TLD sales surge

Domain name sales and services platform CentralNic Group updated the market on its performance in 2016 on Tuesday, as it outlines its strategy for the year ahead.

The AIM-traded company said it continued to grow in 2016 as recurring revenues increased, with group revenue improving by more than 110% to £22.1m.

Recurring subscription revenues increased to around 80% of overall revenues, from 67% in 2015, and adjusted EBITDA grew by over 65% to £5.5m.

Net cash at the end of the year was £7.3m.

The board said it remained confident in meeting market expectations for the 2017 year, with trading at an early stage in line with its plan, and business development initiatives advancing.

CentralNic said it had good exposure to the new top-level domains available, saying it was its fastest-growing category of domain names.

The total number of domains using new TLDs rose from 11 million at the beginning of 2016 to over 27 million by the beginning of 2017, with CentralNic saying it was the number one new TLD service provider with market share by volume currently around 32%, up from 20%.

Increased renewal revenues from new TLDs were expected in 2017, as the base of domains due to renew or expire increased to almost 10 million domains in the wholesale business, up from 3.3 million a year ago, and around 1.3 million in the retail business, up from 0.7 million.

“Following the rapid scaling up of our operations in 2016, we have made a pleasing start to 2017,” said CEO Ben Crawford.

“We have additional sales resources, new licences to help grow our business in China, new TLDs launching and opportunities to sell software licenses and enterprise services.

“With support from our investors, we look forward to continuing the evolution of our business in 2017, scaling up to meet the demand for domain name services as it grows globally.”