For the third quarter September 30, the London, UK-based corporate telecoms company reported a net loss after exceptional items of 31.5 million pounds ($57 million), down from a net loss of 35.7 million pounds ($64.7 million). Revenues increased to 303.7 million pounds ($550.6 million) from 295.3 million pounds ($535.5 million) in the year-ago quarter.

Colt, which stood for City of London Telecom before it branched out into Europe, has had a torrid time in recent years. In December 2002, it survived an attempt by hedge fund Highberry Ltd to force it into administration.

Highberry had attempted to show that Colt would become insolvent in the next few years, and would not have the funds necessary to repay or refinance about 1 billion pounds ($1.82 billion) in bonds due between 2005 and 2009. The claim was vigorously denied by Colt, which said it had cash reserves of 1 billion pounds ($1.82 billion) at the time.

Highberry’s action was dismissed by the courts and the hedge fund is now a shareholder in the company. Colt meanwhile still has cash and liquid resources of approximately 791.4 million pounds ($1.43 billion).

Colt provides telecoms services to its 20,000 fiber-optic kilometer network that connect 10,000 buildings in thirteen European countries. The company has long sought to gain more of its revenues from higher-margin telecoms products rather than traditional services, for which the market is highly competitive.

However, one the objectives just announced has been that the company will look to expand its business in the SME sector. Out of Colt’s 52,000 business customers, over 42,000 are SMEs (typically 50 to 500 people), according to Tim Wort, Colt’s UK MD.

Speaking to ComputerWire, he confirmed the new roadmap will focus on Colt’s existing strengths, and will hopefully improve the company’s competitiveness by better execution. In addition, the company is planning a number of new product offerings, including a bundled package whereby Colt manages both the customer’s communications and LANs on a remote basis. This includes security management, firewalls, backup and restore capabilities, all of which will be offered with a simple and clear pricing structure for the client.

A VoIP offering is expected before the year-end.