Newcall looks to Australia for energy expansion

The half-year loss is higher than last year's interim deficit of $4.25 million but sales revenue was up, rising to $10.55 million from $8 million previously.

Newcall says the increased income is mainly due to the success of its retail electricity subsidiary, Energy Online.

Newcall MD, Jim Bracknell, says Energy Online's performance was despite the fact that new sales had been stopped for part of the period because of spiralling wholesale electricity prices. He says this was done to protect both the company and its 15,000 customers.

While the company is gearing to begin selling once more, Mr Bracknell says it's evident from the events during the winter power crisis that incumbent generators were no longer supportive of independent retailers. It is now taking steps to develop the business offshore.

"We are especially interested in Australia which is deregulating its electricity market from January, and where we see a much more conducive environment for EOL to operate in.

$2.9 million of NGL's loss was from the start up costs of Newcall Communications Singapore, the group's telco subsidiary in Singapore.

In June shareholders voted to sell down the business, which is expected to be completed soon.

Other losses came from closing down Newcall Communications, including the writeoff of $800,000 in goodwill.

Newcall recently licensed its telephone technology to Rocom Wireless in return for a 3.3% stake in the company, and has also arranged a deal with Scimitar Technologies to cross-license telecommunications billing, power billing and customer management systems.

Meanwhile a recent offer to buyback shares from investors with holdings of less than 2,000 has halved the number of shareholders and should provide cost benefits in terms of compliance expenses.

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