ECSC reports jump in revenues as it ramps up sales team

ECSC reported a sharp jump in revenues for the latest 15-month stretch as it made preparations to significantly scale the business over the course of 2017 ahead of new legislation due to come into effect in 2018, sharply increasing the size of its sales team in the process.

Since its initial public offering on 14 December 2016, the cyber security specialist has increased the size of its sales team from eight to 35.

In remarks to Digital Look, chief Ian Mann highlighted that as the main recent milestone for the company, saying he expected the benefits from its expanded staff to begin flowing through in 2017.

Mann is a certified security specialist and a CESG Listed Advisor with GCHQ, which is also one of its clients.

"The Board assesses the readiness of our clients to buy our services and this, together with the growth in the sector generally, make scaling the business at this time the right approach for ECSC. We are mindful, however, of the degree of change being executed within the business and we are approaching these significant scale changes with appropriate care and attention," Mann said in a statement.

ECSC's focus was on the market opportunity ahead of the May 2018 implementation deadline in the UK for the new EU-wide General Data Protection legislation (which will not be affected by Brexit).

Among other things, the new regulations stipulated potentially much steeper fines for firms who were found to be in breach, which had led to cybersecurity becoming a board level issue, according to the company's boss.

The AIM-listed outfit, which Mann said already counted 10% of the FTSE 100's constituent companies among its clients, posted a 70% rise in revenues for the 15 months to 31 December 2016 of 70% to reach ￡4.51m.

Losses before tax for the period were -￡652,000, versus a profit of ￡455,000 for 2015.

However, that was mainly the result of the￡975,000 of exceptional charges linked to its IPO.

In operating terms, EBITDA profits improved from ￡542,000 in 2015 to ￡630,000 for this reporting period.

As of 1203 GMT shares in ECSC were down by 7.83% to 265.0p