TIDMCRTA
RNS Number : 0121Z
Cirata PLC
09 January 2024
9 January 2024
Cirata plc
("Cirata" or the "Company")
Trading Update
Trading in line with management expectations
YE Cash balance exceeds expectations.
Cirata plc (LSE: CRTA), announces a trading update for the
quarter period ended 31 December 2023 ahead of reporting its
preliminary results.
Trading update
Cirata's closing cash balance at 31 December 2023 is $18.2m
compared to a guidance of $16.0m - $16.5m. This is due to good cash
collections and strong cost management during the period. Cirata is
targeting cash flow breakeven as we exit FY 2024.
The Company expects to announce that bookings [1] in Q4 2023
were $2.7m (Q4 2022: $2.2m), representing c.23% growth
year-on-year. Management has highlighted previously some slippage
in Q2 and Q3; Q4 was no exception with transactions moving out of
Q4 into 2024.
Cirata expects FY23 H2 bookings to be $4.4m (FY 22 H2, $4.1m)
representing c.7% year-on-year growth and within our previously
stated guidance of $4.3m - $6.0m.
The Company has seen sequential growth in FY23 in bookings, from
Q2, Q3 through to Q4, in both Data Integration (DI) and Application
Lifecycle Management (ALM). The approximate mix of DI to ALM
bookings in Q4 was 57% to 43%, respectively.
During FY23 H2, 8 (DI) [2] contracts were closed, including 5
new contracts and 3 renewals. Of note are the previously announced
contracts within the Automotive sector including General Motors,
and validation of the 'land and expand' strategy with a marquee
financial services company, NatWest and the landing of a new logo,
Experian.
The pipeline build is progressing in line with Management
expectations. The focus as we exit FY2023 is to leverage the
completed workstreams from the Turnaround plan into significantly
improved pipeline conversion and greater levels of visibility for
the business.
New sales organization
Historically inadequate focus on sales pipeline management has
resulted in some slippage of the closure of contracts. As we have
referenced in the Turnaround Plan, which sets the stage for growth
in FY24, we have addressed many of the predictability weaknesses in
the sales & marketing process.
Today, we announce the final step of the Turnaround plan,
realigning the Go-to-Market resources to better focus our team on
the opportunities ahead and to drive world-class selling
disciplines of enterprise software. With this realignment Rich
Baker has been appointed as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) for
International, Chris Cochran has joined the leadership team as CRO
for North America and Justin Holtzinger has begun the work to
revitalize our ALM opportunity as CRO ALM. All three business heads
report directly to Stephen Kelly, CEO. With these changes, a
management layer has been removed. This flattened, more focused
structure will improve visibility around pipeline build,
predictability, and closure rates.
Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"FY2023 has been an eventful year for all Cirata stakeholders, a
near collapse of the business followed by a herculean effort to
rebuild from the ground up. The March 9 announcement represented an
existential crisis. Against all odds, the turnaround is well
underway. Our Q3 and our Q4 reflect the first steps of a company
coming back 'off the canvas'. Sequential growth in bookings through
Q2, Q3, Q4 and transacting with companies such as GM, NatWest and
Experian amplify the progress this company has made since the dark
days after March 9. We completed the FY23 Turnaround Plan and now
shift gears into the FY24 Growth Plan. We are getting into our
stride, but this is minimum table stakes - we need to drive a much
higher quality execution in our Go-to-Market model. The new
structure of our sales organization with the leadership of Rich,
Chris and Justin reflects a flatter, sharper, more customer focused
Cirata. My personal thanks go to my colleagues and shareholders for
their trust, diligence, and patience as we set the stage for growth
in FY24. I am excited for the year that lies ahead."
Investor disclosures
An accompanying video presentation of the FY23 Q4 trading update
will be available on the Company's website shortly after the
release of this RNS.
Investors should expect the preliminary full year FY2023 results
update between mid-March and mid-April 2024. Cirata will provide
full year 2024 guidance for both bookings and December 31, 2024
year-end cash balance in the earlier of the Q1 Trading Update or
the FY23 preliminary results. An in-depth review and commentary of
the Turnaround Plan will be provided in the FY23 results.
An unaudited version of the "KPI tracker" will in future be
posted on the Company's website as soon as practically possible
after the closure of the quarter. We will continue to provide
quarterly trading updates throughout the year as soon as possible
after the quarter close.
This announcement contains information that qualifies or may
qualify as inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the
Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK
domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the company's
obligations under Article 17 of MAR. The person responsible for
arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of Cirata plc
is Larry Webster, Company Secretary.
For further information, please contact:
Cirata plc Via FTI Consulting
Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive Officer
Ijoma Maluza, Chief Financial Officer
Daniel Hayes, Investor Relations
FTI Consulting +44 (0)20 3727 1137
Matt Dixon / Kwaku Aning / Usama Ali
Stifel (Nomad and Joint Broker) +44 (0)20 7710 7600
Fred Walsh / Richard Short / Tom Marsh
Liberum (Joint Broker) +44 (0)20 3100 2000
Max Jones / Ben Cryer / Miquela Bezuidenhoudt
About Cirata
Cirata accelerates data-driven revenue growth by automating data
transfer and integration to modern cloud analytics and AI platforms
without downtime or disruption. With Cirata, data leaders can
leverage the power of AI and analytics across their entire
enterprise data estate to freely choose analytics technologies,
avoid vendor, platform, or cloud lock-in while making AI and
analytics faster, cheaper, and more flexible. Cirata's portfolio of
products and technology solutions make strategic adoption of modern
data analytics efficient and automated. For more information about
Cirata, visit www.cirata.com
[1] All reported data relating to the Q4 and FY23 H2 trading
update are unaudited.
[2] Data Integration solutions (DI) includes Live Data Migrator
(LDM) and Live Data Plane (LDP).
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END
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