TIDMACC
RNS Number : 4499J
Access Intelligence PLC
13 December 2022
This announcement contains 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.
Access Intelligence plc
("Access Intelligence" or the "Company")
Trading Update
Access Intelligence (AIM: ACC), the technology innovator
delivering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for the global
marketing and communications industries, announces an update on
trading for the year ended 30 November 2022.
Year to 30 November 2022
Access Intelligence has traded robustly in 2022 delivering
excellent revenue growth of 97% and Adjusted EBITDA ahead of
consensus expectations(1) whilst continuing to transform and
integrate the Isentia business acquired in Q4 2021. In the period,
the Company launched Pulsar into the Australia and New Zealand
("ANZ") market and remains encouraged by customer engagement with
its expanded global product offering.
During the year, the Company has continued to optimise its
software platform and associated services for the APAC market.
Advancements have been made in the Company's media monitoring
offering, including expanded coverage of print and online news, as
well as significant enhancements to broadcast monitoring and
analytics. An integration with NewsGuard also helps communications
professionals to quickly detect potential sources of misinformation
before they spread and become damaging to their client or
brand.
At the 2022 AMEC Awards, a global awards programme for
communications measurement, Access Intelligence won five awards and
was nominated for a further six. The awards aim to recognise and
celebrate exceptional work and showcase the importance of research,
measurement, insights and analytics in communications.
The Board expects total revenue for the financial year to be
approximately GBP65.6m (2021: GBP33.3m, 97% growth, 14% organic
growth(2) ). It is expected that Adjusted EBITDA will be
approximately GBP2.3m (2021: loss of GBP0.5m), ahead of consensus
expectations(1) . Net cash at 30 November 2022 was approximately
GBP4.8 million, also ahead of consensus expectations(1) .
Despite the challenges that wider economic conditions present in
terms of overall revenue growth, Access Intelligence has achieved
its target Adjusted EBITDA for the year through the realisation of
greater than expected synergies being delivered ahead of
schedule.
Performance in Europe remains on track with improving Annualised
Recurring Revenue ('ARR') and margin, whilst the Company's sales in
North America have been challenged by a slowdown in decision making
at the Enterprise level. Overall ARR growth in the EMEA & NA
region for the year was GBP2.5m.
New client wins in the EMEA & NA region during the second
half include Advertising Standards Authority, Airbnb, Asahi,
Associated British Foods, Aston Villa FC, Chivas Brothers, CNN
International, Grant Thornton, House of Commons, HSBC, Hubspot,
Jaguar Land Rover, Lidl, Lloyds Register, News Corp, NFU Mutual,
Office for National Statistics, Save The Children, Severn Trent
Water and Tik Tok.
In APAC, management has focussed on ensuring that it has a
stable and profitable core business to provide the Company with the
platform from which to grow in the region in 2023 and beyond. It
has achieved substantial synergies in the region ahead of
expectations and ahead of schedule and has sold a number of deals
that combine established media monitoring and insights services in
the region alongside Access Intelligence's audience intelligence
offering.
As well as extracting further synergies, the Company focussed on
ensuring it was delivering long term profitable recurring revenue
contracts in the region and this led to management electing not to
renew a number of contracts where the Company would not be able to
deliver them profitably. Having regard to the Company's extraction
from these loss making contracts, overall ARR in the region
declined by GBP1.4m.
New client wins and client winbacks in the APAC region during
the year include Commerce Commission, Edelman, Esso, Havas,
Kiwibank, Moderna, QIC, Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme,
Samsung, SA Power Networks, Transgrid and the University of Sydney.
Additionally, we have seen positive momentum with Pulsar sales in
APAC, with sales to Cricket Australia, Dementia Australia,
University of Otago, Sherson Willis, BizCover and Genea
Fertility.
Overall ARR for the year across all regions increased by
GBP1.1m, resulting in a total ARR at 30 November 2022 of GBP60.0m
(2021: GBP58.9m).
Outlook
In 2023 management will continue the process of transformation.
The existing Isentia product in the APAC region will be
replatformed to the Company's next generation product providing
integrated media monitoring, broadcast and social intelligence.
The new platform will allow Access Intelligence to offer its
customers deep audience understanding that is fully actionable -
creating an on-going loop between insight, strategy, execution, and
optimisation. It will bring together best-in-class audience
perspectives, with clear implications for our client's strategy and
subsequent actions allowing them to respond in real time to
intelligence, and to continually learn from connections.
This will provide the Company with clear market differentiation
against its competition and customers will benefit from a
significantly enhanced suite of products and services. This next
generation product is on track for launch in Q2 2023, opening up a
significant upsell and cross sell opportunity in the region and
enabling further margin improvement.
In Europe, the Company expects to see an acceleration in ARR
growth compared to 2022 whilst in North America, the Company is
assuming that the current slowdown in decision making in the
Company's target market will continue into 2023. A streamlined team
will target a smaller number of high value, high margin deals
through a focus on developing enterprise corporate accounts to
improve long term ARR.
In current market conditions, core products have continued to
perform very well but risk remains around the pace of growth of the
Company's premium enterprise intelligence offering where strategic
budgets are under pressure. Pipeline remains strong although
contract conversion continues to be a risk given the prevailing
economic climate.
Across all regions, management are focussed on improving margin
and cash generation as a priority during 2023, with the group
targeting a substantially improved Adjusted EBITDA margin by
2024.
Christopher Satterthwaite, Non-Executive Chairman of the
Company, said:
" Access Intelligence has seen a year of continued
transformation with the integration of Isentia progressing well.
The EMEA and North America region has continued to deliver ARR
growth including a significant number of blue-chip customers wins,
whilst in APAC the focus has been on ensuring that the business has
a profitable core to support future growth underpinned by the
Company's next generation product release in Q2 2023.
In the near term, prevailing economic conditions are expected to
continue to prolong sales cycles for some of the Company's larger
strategic enterprise opportunities especially in the North American
market, but management is focussed on ensuring that the business
maintains a lean cost base to support margin enhancement and to
protect cash flow. Access Intelligence remains well placed to take
advantage of its global opportunity through its market leading
products and award winning media insights offering.
Overall, the Board is pleased with the progress made during the
year and remains very positive about the opportunity for the
Company to deliver profitable growth."
1 The Board understands that consensus expectations for the
Company's Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 is GBP1.8m and that consensus
expectations for the Company's net cash position at 30 November
2022 is GBP4.1m.
2 Excluding Isentia, acquired September 2021.
For further information:
Access Intelligence plc 020 3426 4024
Joanna Arnold (CEO) / Mark Fautley (CFO)
finnCap Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
020 7220 0500
Corporate Finance:
Marc Milmo / Fergus Sullivan
Corporate Broking:
Alice Lane / Sunila de Silva
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
TSTFFSFAEEESEEE
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2022 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Access Intelligence (LSE:ACC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Nov 2024 to Dec 2024
Access Intelligence (LSE:ACC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Dec 2023 to Dec 2024
