Blue Prism’s (PRSM) top line soared during the half year to April 2019 – buoyed by new software deals and customer wins, along with upsells and renewals from existing clients. The robotic processing automation (RPA) group boasted 1,337 total customers as at the period-end – up from 700.
However, adjusted cash losses widened from £4.2m to £34m, after investments in sales and marketing to facilitate global expansion, and in ongoing product development. To the former point, the group’s sales and marketing headcount grew by 174 per cent. Signalling success in its key US market, revenues for the Americas increased by 93 per cent to £16.2m. Meanwhile, net cash more than doubled – stemming from January’s £100m share placing, implemented to “accelerate and underwrite [Blue Prism’s] investment plans”.
Alongside these numbers, the group revealed that it has agreed to buy Thoughtonomy, a software-as-a-service and cloud services business, for up to £80m. Thoughtonomy enhances Blue Prism's cloud capabilities and “is expected to open the mid-tier opportunity”. The group has previously focused on the ‘enterprise’ tier, where it thinks three-quarters of the RPA opportunity exists.
House broker Investec expects adjusted losses per share of 72.7p for the September 2019 year-end, against losses of 25.8p in FY2018.
| BLUE PRISM (PRSM) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 1,599p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.23bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,594-1,600p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 2,635p | LOW: 1,002p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 122p | NET CASH: | £129m | |
| Half-year to 30 Apr | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2018 | 22.9 | -5.5 | -8.4 | nil |
| 2019 | 40.4 | -34.4 | -48.7 | nil |
| % change | +76 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
