REG - PCI-PAL PLC - Trading Update, New Partner & Notice of Results

PCI- PALAnnouncement

28/08/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 8974B  PCI-PAL PLC  28 August 2024

28 August 2024

 

PCI-PAL PLC

("PCI Pal", the "Company" or "the Group")

 

FY24 Trading Update, New Partner Announcement, & Notice of Results

 

PCI-PAL plc (AIM: PCIP), the global cloud provider of secure payment solutions
for business communications, announces a trading update for the financial year
ending 30 June 2024.

 

Trading Update

The Board acknowledges that the timing of its trading update is later than
prior years which is due to the Company's audit process taking longer than
expected this year.

 

Reported revenue for the year is expected to be approximately £18.0 million,
a 20% increase year on year (2023: £14.9 million).  This is c.£0.7 million
below the level the Board had expected to report at the year end.  The
majority of this revenue shortfall relates to a specific project where the
customer has paid in full and, in the Board's opinion at the time, the Company
had delivered the services and revenue could be recognised in FY24.  However,
following commencement of the Company's annual audit, and discussions with its
auditors, the Board has decided it is appropriate to defer the £0.7 million
of revenue in respect of this specific project from FY24 into FY25.  The
deferral of revenue into FY25 has no impact on cash and will be beneficial to
the FY25 financial outlook.

 

Accordingly, the Company now expects to report an FY24 adjusted(1) loss before
tax of approximately £0.6 million, with an adjusted(2) EBITDA profit of
c.£0.9 million (2023: loss of £1.1 million).  The Group achieved an
adjusted(3) free cash inflow of approximately £0.9 million (2023: outflow
£2.4 million), resulting in a strong year-end balance sheet, with net cash of
£4.3 million.

 

New business licence sales for FY24 were £3.8 million ACV (2023: £4.2
million) which, although 10% lower than FY23, is measured against a very
strong prior year which included the signing of one of the Company's largest
single contracts to date.  The Board is particularly pleased that the
underlying trend of run rate new business is strong and ahead of the prior
year with a 13% increase in new logo contracts signed in the year.  This has
resulted in notably more consistent quarter on quarter new sales throughout
the year. This cadence provides the Board with confidence in the opportunities
for continued further growth into FY25 and beyond.

 

Partner Update

The Company's partner eco-system has continued to go from strength to strength
and be the key driver of the Company's growing sales pipeline.  On 13
November 2023, the Company reported the addition of Zoom as a global reseller.
The Board is now pleased to report that as expected, the Zoom integrated
offering across both their CCaaS(4) and UCaaS(5) product suites is available
across the North America and EMEA regions.  The Company has signed several
new customers through this partnership since reaching full launch at the back
end of H2.

 

Post period end, the Company has signed a major new global reseller contract
with a US headquartered business communications vendor that has extensive
CCaaS and UCaaS operations across the globe.  The new contract, which follows
a lengthy procurement process by the partner to refine their focus to one
single provider for secure payments, has immediately resulted in the signing
of the partnership's first customer. The partner will now go through a full
on-boarding process which will include a phased launch process of the
integrated solutions across the next six months.

 

Commenting on the revised results expectation, Simon Wilson, Chair of PCI Pal,
said:

 

"The Board and Audit Committee is disappointed that the Company now does not
expect to report a full year Group adjusted profit before tax, contrary to
management expectations, due to the timing of revenue recognition relating to
a specific customer. The fact that this revenue is now expected to be
recognised in FY25 instead of FY24 does not detract from the successful
operating outcome that the team has achieved this year, and the consequent
substantial swing from negative to positive adjusted free cash flow."

 

Commenting on progress in the period, James Barham, Chief Executive Officer of
PCI Pal, said:

 

"I am very pleased with the progress the business has made in FY24 with ARR
continuing to grow at market leading rates, the launch of new product features
and enhancements, and the addition of exciting new enterprise partners to our
partner eco-system.  This progress has been achieved despite the distraction
of the unfounded patent litigation that we were forced to deal with and
successfully resolved as announced on 27 June 2024.

 

"The settlement and full resolution of the patent case, together with the
strength of the underlying business provides the Board with increased
confidence in the future opportunities for the business. We are therefore
focused on capitalising on the undoubted market opportunity before us as we
look to deliver against our strategy of further growth, both organic and
inorganic."

 

Notice of Results

 

The Company expects to announce its final results in mid-September 2024.

 

The Board believes that current market consensus for the year ended June 2024
are revenues of £19.1m and adjusted profit before tax of £0.1m.

 

(1) Adjusted profit/loss before tax is stated before exchange movements
charged to the profit and loss account, exceptional items and expenses
relating to share option charges.

(2)Adjusted EBITDA is the profit on operating activities before depreciation
and amortisation, exchange rate movements charged to the profit and loss
account, exceptional items and expenses relating to share options

(3) Adjusted free cash in flow is net increase in cash excluding the net
proceeds from the issue of equity and exceptional costs

(4) CCaaS is Contact Centre as a Service

(5) UCaaS is Unified Communications as a Service

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 PCI-PAL PLC                                                      Via Walbrook PR
 James Barham - Chief Executive Officer

 Angus Reger - Interim Chief Financial Officer

 Cavendish Capital Market Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)  +44 (0) 20 7227 0500
 Marc Milmo//Fergus Sullivan (Corporate Finance)

 Sunila De Silva (Corporate Broking)

 Walbrook PR                                                      +44 (0) 20 7933 8780
 Tom Cooper/Nick Rome                                             +44 (0) 797 122 1972
                                                                  tom.cooper@walbrookpr.com (mailto:tom.cooper@walbrookpr.com)

 

About PCI Pal:

 

PCI Pal is a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") solutions that
empower companies to take payments from their customers securely, adhere to
strict industry governance, and remove their business from the significant
risks posed by non-compliance and data loss. Our products secure payments and
data in any business communications environment including voice, chat, social,
email, and contact centre. We are integrated to, and resold by, many of the
worlds' leading business communications vendors, as well as major payment
service providers.

 

The entirety of our product-base is available from our global cloud platform
hosted in Amazon Web Services ("AWS"), with regional instances across EMEA,
North America, and ANZ.

 

For more information visit www.pcipal.com (http://www.pcipal.com) or follow
the team on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pci-pal/
(https://www.linkedin.com/company/pci-pal/)

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