Business telecoms group Daisy said yesterday it was “pleased” with its first half performance. despite an increased bottom-line loss.

The group, which has an office in Ipswich follwing its acquisition of Anglia Telecom in 2009, reported a dip in revenues to £173.9m for the six months to September 30, against £178.1m last time.

But earnings before interest, tax and depreciation edged higher to £27.8m, from £27.3m, with an improved product mix seeing gross profit margin improve from 36% to 39%.

The group’s bottom line pre-tax loss widened to £14.995m, from £13.811m at last year’s half-way stage, although this was due to one-off acquisition costs.

Daisy chief executive Matthew Riley said: “We are pleased to report the results for this interim period, in which we have seen growth in adjusted EBITDA, and basic adjusted EPA (earnings per share).

“A number of managed services contract wins in the mid-market have strengthened our position and we have a good pipeline of opportunities going into the second half of the year.

“The Daisy Data Centre Solutions business, acquired in May 2013, is performing ahead of expectations and the change of ownership has been well received by the existing customers following an uncertain period caused by the demise of 2e2. From this foundation, we are building a strong pipeline of business.

“Since the period end we have announced the acquisition of Indecs which, together with our existing Servassure and Net Crowd businesses gives us credible scale in the Partner Services area. We expect good growth from this business in the coming years.”

He added: “Looking forward, we remain cautiously optimistic and expect to see continued progress and strong free cash flow generation during the rest of the current financial year.

“In line with this, we intend to increase our total dividends for the year by 15%. We are focused on driving organic growth whilst investigating strategic acquisitions that provide clear value for our shareholders.”