Reporting on its first annual results since it went public in the US and London in last December (CI No 3,061), Colt Telecom Group Plc’s almost four-fold increase in revenue was countered by further net and pre-tax losses of 11m pounds, up from 5m last time, with no taxes this period. However, the London-based builder and operator of Metropolitan Area Networks, having forged a number of deals in Germany (CI No 2,910) and France (CI No 3,049) in the last year, says it has a strategy in place to become the preferred telecommunications supplier to high-volume carriers and end users, and says its focus will remain in Europe. Colt counts the top three German banks among its clients as well as financial information services providers such as Reuters, Bloomberg and Knight Ridder. Its recently announced fiber optic network in Munich has acquired Siemens Nixdorf Informationssyteme AG’s Business Systems unit as its first customer. The firm also picked up some wins on the home front with the Baltic Exchange and various government departments, connecting them to its own network via its COLTConnect service. All in all, Colt belives it is well positioned to to take advantage of the increasing liberalization of telecommunications markets in Europe as the January 1998 date for full competition approaches. Colt will not be paying a dividend.
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