Results for the year ended 31 March 2022

ActiveOps plc (AIM: AOM), a leading provider of Management Process Automation (MPA) software for running complex and global back-offices, is pleased to announce its unaudited results for the financial year ended 31 March 2022.

• Annual recurring revenue (ARR)*:  Up 10% to £20.1m (2021: £18.3m)
• Revenue: Up 12% to £22.9m (2021: £20.4m)
• Software & Subscription revenue: Up 10% to £19.6m (2021: £17.8m)
• Training & implementation “T&I” revenue: Up 31% to £3.4m (2021: £2.6m)
• Gross margin: 81% (2021: 82%)
• Adjusted EBITDA**: £(0.3m) (2021: £0.4m)
• Profit/(loss) before tax: Down 30% to £(2.6)m (2021: £(2.0)m)
• Earnings per share on continuing operations: Down 21% to (3.83)p (2021: (4.83)p)
• Net cash and cash equivalents: Down 17% to £13.8m (2021: £16.6m)

 

• ARR growth of 10%, above prior year growth (7%)
• Total revenue growth of 12%. T&I revenues recovered to pre-pandemic levels with 31% growth year over year
• Gross margins remain strong at 81%, supported by implementations being predominantly remotely delivered
• Adjusted EBITDA marginally loss making (£0.3m) (FY2021 Profit £0.4m) reflecting additional investment in sales and R&D
• Strong EBITDA cash conversion of 698% (FY21: 350%) continues with annual in advance billing***
• Balance sheet remains strong with no debt and £13.8m cash in the bank (FY2021: £13.1m adjusted***)

Operational Highlights

• Added 9 new customers globally, including wins within each of the Group’s key industry verticals and geographic regions
• Significant product enhancement, including launch of a unique task mining technology that expands the capabilities for the Group’s software and CaseworkiQ (launched in June 2022), which extends usage of the Group’s software into complex case-management and regulated operations
• Grew SaaS revenues by 20% in the important North American market, making it the highest growth region despite US businesses having been subject to greater Covid-19 pandemic related disruptions than our other regions
• First enterprise level up-sell of WorkiQ to an existing ControliQ customer demonstrating incremental performance improvement through WorkiQ
• Expanded software engineering capabilities, doubling capacity in order to support delivery of product vision
• Established a data science function and developed new product capabilities to be released in FY23 which extend the software’s automation capabilities via Machine Learning
• Extended key partner relationship with Microsoft to enable the Group’s solutions to be purchased via Microsoft and soon to be released integration with Microsoft Teams

Outlook

• Trading in the new financial year has begun in line with management expectations
• Q1 has seen strong renewals, a new banking customer in the APAC region and significant expansions in several existing customers
• Trading is on target to generate a positive run-rate EBITDA at the end of the current financial year

Footnote to Financial highlights

The above non-GAAP measures are unaudited

*Annual Recurring Revenue – unaudited

**Adjusted EBITDA is used by management to assess the trading performance of the business. Defined as Operating profit before depreciation, amortisation, share-based payment charges and exceptional items and includes FX differences.

***Adjusted FY2021 cash and EBITDA Cash Conversion % excludes a tax payment in April 2021 of £3.5m relating to employee share options exercised at IPO

Richard Jeffery, Chief Executive Officer of ActiveOps plc, commented:

“This was a transformative year for ActiveOps, against a complex market backdrop. Alongside establishing the processes required of a publicly listed company, we successfully deployed our leading-edge technology to solve the new problems and challenges being faced by our customers as they adapt to hybrid working in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. As interest in workforce management solutions continues to grow, our market-leading offering continues to resonate with our growing global blue-chip customer base.

“We continue to benefit from a strong balance sheet and high levels of recurring revenues. This provides us with a strong basis to move towards profitability whilst continuing to carefully invest and manage the impact of inflationary pressures. Through the investments we have made, we have an enhanced offering and enlarged team with which to address our considerable target market. While conscious of the ongoing challenging macro-economic picture, we are confident in our ability to continue to deliver against our growth plan.”

News in full

Below is a short interview with CEO Richard Jeffery, who provides an outline of the business, the Group’s strategy with the business listing on AIM in early 2021