An acquisition-spree through the back-half of 2020 has weighed heavily on rapidly rising revenue and earnings at challenger telco Uniti Group, which said its interim net profit fell 24 per cent to $3.9 million.

Uniti bought out fibre infrastructure businesses OptiComm and Telstra Velocity, as well as several consumer telecoms providers including Harbour ISP and LBNCo in the six months ended December 31. Acquisition costs at the group reached $12.5 million – the primary drag on the company’s profit.