Altitude Group plc (AIM: ALT), the operator of a leading marketplace for personalised products, is pleased to announce its unaudited results for the year to 31 December 2018. The Group will make a further announcement when the audited Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2018 has been published and sent to shareholders.
Key corporate developments and operational highlights
- Nichole Stella promoted to Group Chief Executive Officer in June 2018
- Successful placing to raise £1.5 million (gross) at 60p per Ordinary Share completed in March 2018 to accelerate the roll out of AIMPro in strategic partnership with AI Mastermind Group LLC (“AIM”)
- Significant progress achieved in the adoption of AIMpro by AIM members, sales orders of $19.9m processed in 2018 by 266 AIM members, 78% of whom placed multiple orders
- During 2018 70 AIM preferred suppliers signed up to pay transaction fees on all orders derived through the AIMPro platform
- Graeme Couturier appointed as Chief Financial Officer in March 2018
Financial Highlights
- Increased revenues £6.6 million (2017: £6.1 million), due to £1.6m incremental revenue from a full year of AdProducts (seven months contribution in 2017), less a £1.1m decline in the legacy exhibitions and publications businesses in the UK and legacy SaaS software in the US
- Adjusted operating loss* of £0.8m (2017: profit £0.9m), principally due to pre-revenue operating cost investment in the US and the decline in UK exhibitions and publications contribution
- Loss before taxation £2.8m (2017: profit £0.1m)
- Group remains debt free and had net cash of £3.8m as of 30 April 2019
*Before share-based payment charges, amortisation of intangible assets, depreciation of tangible assets and exceptional charges
Post Year End Highlights
- Cash repayment post year end from HMRC in respect of R&D cash tax credits totalling £0.4m
- Successful oversubscribed equity placing to raise £9.0m (gross) at 68p per share to fund the transformational acquisition of AIM, the largest and rapidly growing promotional products distributor organization member group in the US for $5.0 million, and provide the associated working capital required to accelerate the monetisation of the combined business
- The acquisition secured access to the annual c.$1.9 billion aggregate AIM revenue and confers two major benefits:
- Altitude able to offer additional added value services, leveraging its existing applications and expertise, to help members and supplier partners
- It enables Altitude to immediately leverage the entire AIM order flow in partnership with key selected contracted suppliers, regardless of whether the order is placed through the AIMPro platform
- The Board is very pleased with the progress made with AIM since acquisition and we draw shareholder and investor attention to the detailed Summary of Progress contained in the CEO’s Report
Accounting reference date
Following the acquisition of AIM the Board is considering changing the Group’s year end accounting reference date from 31 December to 31 March. Such a change in accounting reference date would bring the Group more in line with the US promotional product industry and would provide a better accounting cut-off date for auditable visibility of revenue due from those suppliers on calendar year settlement terms. The Group will provide a further update in relation to this in due course.
Nichole Stella, CEO at Altitude, said:
“We have made substantial progress throughout the year as we developed our relationship with AI Mastermind, providing its members with access to our white labelled AIMPro platform. In January 2019 we acquired AIM, the largest promotional product supplier distributor member group in the US, securing ownership of its $1.9 billion throughput pipeline, a huge opportunity for us to deliver great services and value to our members and shareholders alike.
“This acquisition is strategically significant and transformative and has now become the core focus of our strategy as we look to expand our US team, formalizing agreements with key industry suppliers as part of our Preferred Supplier Partner Programme and responding to demand from our AIM members.
“Just four months post the acquisition of AIM, we are very pleased with progress, especially with both supplier and member adoption. We look to the future with confidence.”
altitude