Alternative Networks (AIM:AN) - hardly disastrous but not very exciting!
he UK business communications service provider issued a pre-close trading update for the six months period ending 31 March 2012 that bizarrely pushed the shares down more than might have been suggested by the content.
Trading for the year has been robust, with continued high levels of cash generation and strengthening gross margins across the group. Mobile network services growth has been encouraging with an overall approximate 5% comparative increase in gross profits achieved in the first 5 months of the financial year – 5% isn’t great but hardly disastrous! Mobile subscribers have grown organically 8% year on year, with more than 70,000 subscribers at the end of March 2012 – sounds fairly good! However, the bad news is that average spend of customers (‘ARPU’) has remained under pressure, with lower volumes from roaming and…