Mobile Tornado wins new contracts in the Middle East

The Harrogate-based firm'‹ reported a reduced pre-tax loss of £1.4m in the six months to June 30, down from a loss of £1.8m.Revenue rose 21 per cent to £1.1m and recurring revenue increased by 24 per cent to £1.04m.Operating expenses rose 14 per cent to £2.09m and the group said they were adversely impacted by the depreciation of sterling.'‹Jeremy Fenn, chairman of Mobile Tornado, said: “The improvements we have made to our platform over the last 12 months have been borne out by the recent wins in the Middle East and the increasing number of tenders we have been asked to participate in. “I am confident that our experienced management team led by Avi Tooba, our recently appointed CEO, place the company in a strong position as the market develops. We look forward to the balance of this year and the company’s prospects in 2018 and beyond.”Over the six month period, the group saw full commercial launches from its two Mobile Network Operator customers in South Africa, having commissioned and deployed dedicated server platforms for both customers. Discussions have also commenced with one of the operators to explore the roll out of services across other African countries.In the Middle East '‹it has concluded a deal with an '‹operator that had previously deployed the iDEN platform.'‹ This technology is being closed down over the next couple of years, and '‹Mobile Tornado'‹ hope'‹s'‹ to work with this '‹operator to enable them to replace their legacy systems with '‹its'‹ own platform. '‹The group is'‹ in discussions with several other '‹operators in '‹Latin America, '‹the '‹Middle East and Europe.'‹Analyst Roger Phillips at Investec said: “'‹The numbers are steady'‹ '‹as'‹ '‹she'‹ '‹goes but are not especially important this year,'‹ '‹at least in comparison to the work behind the scenes to create an enterprise-grade PTT platform. The macro picture is improving and qualitative feedback is'‹ '‹encouraging on the group’s product development efforts.'‹”'‹Mr Fenn said: “Our new leadership team has been focused on recruiting the engineers needed to move the business forward across a number of areas and we are delighted with the advances that have been made.”