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Vipera revenues surge after acquisitions of SoftTelecom
Mobile financial services provider Vipera announced a trading update for the year ended 31 December on Monday, reporting a 27% improvement in group revenues to 10.1m.
The AIM-traded firm said part of the revenue growth was attributable to the acquisition of SoftTelecom in Spain, announced on 27 July.
It said that without the contribution from SoftTelecom, revenues would still have increased by 20%, compared to 16% for the prior year.
Recurring revenues, being per-user, loyalty, and support and maintenance revenues, grew by 43% to 1.6m.
Gross margins increased to 32% from 22%, which the board said was in part from increased licence sales, but primarily from a larger scale of operations.
Adjusted underlying EBITDA for the year was expected to show a small loss for the year.
That reflected 0.25m of transaction costs incurred in relation to the acquisition of SoftTelecom, additional costs incurred in relation to the set up of a new subsidiary in Dubai to meet growing demand in the area, and foreign exchange movements, the board claimed.
In addition, operating profit would be impacted by an evolution in the group's depreciation policy to depreciate capitalised intellectual property, absorbing a charge of 0.26m compared to 0.04m for 2016.
Cash as at 31 December was 1.9m, down slightly from 2.1m a year earlier.
Trade receivables were said to be higher, commensurate with the growth in revenues, but as a percentage of annual revenues the declined slightly.
The group said its revenue growth had come from both existing clients and new customer wins, with the board saying it was continuing to look forward to the rest of 2018 and beyond with "great confidence", as it continued to expand its product offering within the evolving and growing mobile financial services market.
"I am delighted that Vipera has continued to show strong organic growth, which has been supplemented by the acquisition of SoftTelecom," said chief executive Marco Casartelli.
"It is also pleasing that the gross margin for the year has improved from approximately 22% to 32%.
"Whilst we have still made a small loss at EBITDA level, with the acquisition of SoftTelecom and the funding in place, Vipera is in a strong position to take advantage of the changing finance landscape in 2018 and beyond."
The company said it intended to announce its financial results for the year ended 31 December in early May.