Dial Manx for income

The company's launch of superfast broadband helped to drive first-half turnover up a healthy 1.5 per cent in the key fixed-line, broadband and data division, which accounts for two-fifths of sales. It also benefited from the renewal of its five-year contract with the Isle of Man government for an array of services including landline, mobile and wide-area networks. Meanwhile, sales in the data division - which makes up a tenth of group turnover - soared 30 per cent as customers clamoured for managed hosting, cloud and disaster recovery services. And revenues leapt 12 per cent in the mobile business, which accounts for a quarter of sales, as the roll out of high-speed 4G attracted more customers.

Unusually for a telecoms company, Manx Telecom also has a strong track record of organic growth. While the company only floated in 2014, it has a far longer trading history and broker Liberum calculates that the compound annual organic revenue growth rate stands at 4 per cent between 2005 and 2013. And there are a number of reasons to think the company can keep this growth up.

For one thing, Manx should continue to benefit from soaring demand for data centre services. Its first major tenant was the Isle of Man government and it recently completed the second phase of its new Greenhill Data Centre after signing up online gambling giant Poker Stars as an anchor tenant. The facility is now more than 50 per cent occupied.

Another key advantage for the company is its location. The Isle of Man government charges zero corporation tax and regulators recognise the benefits of innovation and investment in the telecoms industry over basic price competition. Moreover, the economy has grown each year for the past three decades.

Despite these attractions, Manx's shares trade at an unchallenging 14 times forecast earnings for this financial year - a slight discount to the broader global telecoms sector - and come with a prospective yield of 5.4 per cent, underpinned by solid cash generation.

One concern for investors might be the global solutions division. First-half sales fell a quarter there as lower mobile termination revenue offset a 15 per cent rise in sales of higher-margin services such as machine-to-machine communications and Chameleon, its strongest signal mobile technology. But the business accounts for less than a fifth of total turnover, provides useful diversification and allows management to capitalise on the group's network, technology and data centre capacity by courting off-island customers. Moreover, sales improved in the second half of 2015 and management is confident it can revive growth by targeting the 'internet of things' or connected devices. Manx is also more highly geared than some of its peers, although strong cash generation and a new £80m credit facility should mean its debt pile is manageable.