The parent company of the north’s home-grown broadband provider Fibrus has disclosed a pre-tax loss of £58 million for the last financial year.
The grouped accounts for Ox (Holdco) Limited show its turnover increased by 58% to £17.6m in the year to March 31 2024.
But the company’s significant spending to expand its broadband operation during the reporting period left it with an operating loss of £38m.
Fibrus said it spent £153m on infrastructure in the last financial year.
Ox (Holdco) also faced a £20.2m bill for interest and other similar expenses last year.
It ultimately left the broadband company with a loss before tax of £58.1m for the 12 months ending March 2024.
The company had registered a £31m pre-tax loss in 2023.
Launched in September 2018 by Conal Henry and Dominic Kearns, Fibrus was acquired by Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc, in May 2020.
The company secured its first big break in late 2020, when it won Stormont’s £165m contract to deliver Project Stratrum.
Initially aimed at 76,000 rural premises, Fibrus was awarded an additional £32m in January 2022 to connect a further 8,500 harder to reach premises.
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In 2023, it won a £108m UK government contract in Cumbria to connect around 60,000 premises.
Alongside the government contracts, Fibrus has also invested shareholder funds and borrowed heavily to build fibre infrastructure in the north and in Britain.
It initially secured £220m from a consortium of banks in April 2022 to fund its expansion plans.
The same lenders provided Fibrus with an additional £100m in August 2024.
The company said it is now fully funded for its remaining network roll-out.
Despite Fibrus announcing 12 months ago that it would cut jobs in some parts of its business, as contracts came to an end, the latest accounts for Ox (Holdco) show the group added 375 staff across its 11 subsidiary companies in 2023/24.
The group averaged 1,020 staff over the year to March 31 2024.
The growing workforce saw the corresponding staff costs surge by almost £13m to £45.7m.
Despite the significant losses, the company’s chief financial officer Colin Hutchinson said the financial results reflect the “significant growth” of the Fibrus customer base.
The number of connected customers grew by 46,000 to 78,000 in the reporting period, with the company passing the 100,000 mark later in 2024.
Fibrus said the £7.2m EBITA loss it registered in the last financial year was the result of increased investment in customer acquisition and maintaining its growing customer base.
Earnings before interest, taxes, and amortisation (EBITA) is typically the measure of company profitability used by investors
Firbus said it expects its EBITA to break even in the current year.
“This year we passed the milestone of connecting 100,000 customers, and we’re nearing the end of our first government funded project, Project Stratum, which is being delivered on time and within budget,” said Mr Hutchinson.
“The Fibrus network has made a significant contribution to regional connectivity, more so than ever over the past year, and this set of financial results are a marker of that.”
