Bombed-out software and computer services outfit NetServices has turned last year’s £750,000 loss into a tiny £3,000 pre-tax profit.

Turnover at the Salford-based company, which provides converged voice and data networks, slid nearly ten per cent to £3.68 million in the six months to February, reflecting its slimmed down state after the disposal of its heavily loss-making wholesale broadband business. AIM-quoted NetServices reduced its losses from £3 million to £600,000 in the full year to last August. It says it has been refining and enhancing its product sets and in January received a third-party endorsement from the BT test laboratories at Martlesham in Suffolk that NetServices’ technology could deliver the benefits of running data and voice over the same network infrastructure.

Chief executive Mark Vickers insists the company’s strategic plan has been ‘validated’ by this BT ‘accreditation’. NetServices, which says it can now deliver the technology and billing ‘to terminate IP minutes’, suggests this is becoming a more important requirement.

The company ended February with nearly £1.32 million cash and is engaged with becoming a Cisco partner, saying it has ‘continued to see a healthy level of interest from prospective customers’. Floated at 71p two years ago, NetServices shares collapsed to 7.87 last November and have since crept up to 9p, valuing the company at £2.7 million.

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