Since the beginning of 2015, the Management of Colt Group has been working on a plan to refocus the Company's activities and improve its performance. The Board has now approved this plan and the actions that flow from it. The Business Plan gives Colt greater focus on its core - Network, Voice and Data Centre Services, with a managed exit from IT Services.
The company says that it is appropriate to initiate the implementation of the Business Plan as soon as possible. The development of the Business Plan preceded and is unrelated to the recent Offer announced by Fidelity to acquire the shares in Colt not already owned by it.
Colt says their IT Services business would continue to need considerable investment in the short-to- medium term in order to deliver profitability and ‘we do not believe this business can compete and grow successfully with a level of risk that is acceptable’.
Colt has therefore decided to exit IT Services over the next two to three years and states it will continue to honour existing customer contracts through to termination, but will no longer seek new business.
Rakesh Bhasin, Chief Executive Officer at Colt, said, “The fundamentals of our core Network Services and Voice Services businesses remain solid, and we are driving improvements in our Data Centre Services business. We are taking decisive action to become a more focused and disciplined organisation which we believe will accelerate the performance of our Core Business. Overall, we believe the prospects for the Group are good and I am confident that, with the recent changes we have made within the senior management team, we will be able to deliver improved profitability and cash returns.”