6pm plc, the Naxxar-based IT solutions company, is to embark on an industry consolidation programme in 2011, newly appointed chief executive officer Ivan Bartolo told The Sunday Times.

The company has already earmarked approximately 10 local firms for the initiative.

The programme falls under a carefully planned strategy to see 6pm diversify and expand its portfolio. It is also part of a wider, ambitious three-year plan for growth so that the company strengthens its offering in the UK, Malta, and two new markets by 2013.

The plans for Malta will be implemented almost immediately.

Over the next 12 months, the company will formally offer the firms – ranging from ICT trainers to web developers – the opportunity to strategically align themselves with 6pm by means of a framework which is currently being developed.

Mr Bartolo explained that the local ICT industry was in the throes of a consolidation period, and the time was ripe for such an initiative.

“The ICT industry is looking at the same consolidation that the local insurance sector faced a couple of years ago,” Mr Bartolo said.

“It is very Maltese – and Mediterranean – to wish to own your own business. It is a culture which saw small businesses in the ICT sector mushroom,” he observed.

“But by coming under our umbrella, the targeted firms and 6pm will benefit from synergies and economies of scale. This will allow them to expand by participating in 6pm’s wider business locally and abroad. They will also be able to share our HR, accounting and marketing resources,” he said.

In turn, he added, thanks to the expertise of these small specialist firms, 6pm will have access to new areas of business such as web development, domain hosting, and robotics.

Mr Bartolo said the framework was being developed to ensure that the smaller firms retained control, and, more importantly, are able to continue to nurture the passion for their business. Down the line, Mr Bartolo conceded, they could also avail themselves of an exit strategy, should it present itself.

Internally, 6pm has just finalised a restructuring which has seen the recent appointment of Mr Bartolo, who founded the company, as chief executive officer. Former chief executive Alan West-Robinson is now a non-executive director.

Director Peter Bugeja has been named chief operations officer, while Kevin Farrugia has been appointed chief financial officer.

Mr Bartolo explained the management restructuring aimed to better match personal qualities with specific posts as the company prepared to embark on its growth drive.

He added that 6pm, which listed on the Malta Stock Exchange in 2007 – the first Maltese ICT company to do so – was long perceived to be a British company. As most of 6pm’s trade was traditionally carried out in sterling, the company still reported in the British currency.

The management was aware, however, of the importance for shareholders to be conscious of 6pm’s “true Maltese element” which would grow stronger in the short term.

By the year’s end, 6pm aimed to complete the acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in Softweb, a local, widely known software firm with a diverse product portfolio, 200 customers, and an expert team of eight.

By the end of the first quarter of 2011, 6pm will wholly acquire another company, an IT infrastructure firm with a highly profitable retail operation. The acquisitions will increase 6pm’s Maltese revenues by €2.5 million annually and enable it to establish a retail presence on the market.

6pm, which originally focused its business intelligence, information management and document management solutions business in the UK market, only began to target Malta in November 2009 as a means to generate euro-denominated sales.

Mr Bartolo admitted the company had previously underestimated the local market’s potential: since last January 6pm sold €1 million worth of bespoke development products such as system integration, business intelligence, and data warehousing solutions to three sector leaders. In parallel, it won a host of small clients.

6pm now hoped the UK market next year would see some growth as far as its own business was concerned. 2010 proved to be an excruciatingly challenging year for the company as commercial decisions were stalled in the months before the election and in the wake of the government’s announcement of severe budget cuts.

When the announcement came in mid-October, it appeared that the budget for the National Health Service, 6pm’s major market, would be ring-fenced, although that did not guarantee the IT spend would remain unaffected. Mr Bartolo hoped 6pm’s expertise in delivering cost-reducing solutions to the NHS would serve it in good stead.

6pm reported a loss of £209,729 in its interim financial statements to June 30. Mr Bartolo said it was a loss that was perfectly manageable, and the company was proud it had survived where other businesses, particularly in the UK, had gone under.

“I cannot deny that it has been extremely tough. The fact that we have survived, and that we are able to undertake all this change, is actively going to be our strength,” he said.

6pm paid a dividend once in the three years it has been listed, but he insisted shareholder value went beyond dividends. Over the past two years, the company had to strategically change its position in the UK market, which enabled it to survive the crisis.

The company had increased shareholder value by working to own four key products actively being sold to the NHS, through which it planned to win more business in the market.

6pm was actively examining business potential in north Africa where it hoped to penetrate the market with an initial modest foray in IT training in the next two years.

The company was also keen to target Scandinavia as its fourth market by 2013 through an acquisition or merger for which the company was examining financing options.

In his new role, Mr Bartolo said he had set himself a two-pronged personal mandate to reinvent the business and to motivate its teams with a brief to introduce new technologies and inject more innovation. He said he would be implementing an all-inclusive management model.

6pm was also seeking to relocate from its 21st September Avenue base to dedicated office space in the next 18 months, Mr Bartolo added.