Alphyra, formerly known as ITG, plans to sell its voice and data business for a total of 12 million euros to Calyx Limited and Calyx Computer Limited. The deal does not include the payphones business.
Chief executive John Nagle said the sale would allow Alphyra to focus on its electronics transaction business.
The company also reported a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 100,000 euros for the six months to the end of October, compared with profits of 2.2 million in the same period last year. Pre-tax losses widened from 200,000 euros to 4.2 million euros.
Turnover in the electronic transactions business jumped from 6.8 million euros to 17.1 million, with Irish turnover doubling to 4.2 million. UK turnover was also up 13%, while its Dutch and Swedish business contributed to European turnover of 8.3 million euros.
Turnover in the voice and data group dropped from 34.1 million euros to 22 million, due to the general downturn in the IT and telecommunications sector and a dip in payphones revenues. Payphones at airports in Ireland and the UK were affected by the drop in passenger numbers after the US attacks. Alphyra says this difficult trading climate has continued in the second half of its financial year.
