A fine close to the FY (31st March) has encouraged management at AIM-listed IT security services buy-and-build play Accumuli to introduce a dividend policy that will see around 30% of pre-tax EBITDA distributed to shareholders. Group EBITDA will be around £2.5m (19% up yoy) when the company finalises the books at the end of May, though this includes earnings from the Webscreen business which was sold off in February (see Accumuli buries Webscreen in Juniper). Group revenues are expected to be 17% higher at £14.8m. The news boosted Accumuli's shares by over 6% to 12.1p in early trading.
Among the happy campers will surely be ISIS Equity Partners, Accumuli's largest shareholder with nearly 25% of the equity, and entrepreneurs Ian Smith and Tony Weaver, whose corporate finance firm MXC Capital holds almost 14%.
Today's trading update was all about the cash (nothing wrong with that) but precious little about the business itself, which should give clues – if clues are needed – as to what Accumuli is really all about.