WANdisco (WAND) delivered strong revenue growth in the first half although a large, one-off expense meant pre-tax losses widened considerably. This $2.3m (£1.7m) cost stemmed from the group's “intercompany” sterling-denominated balances, which weakened against the US dollar – its reporting currency – following the Brexit vote. Otherwise, the results showed encouraging momentum: total bookings rose 73 per cent to $10.2m, driven largely by the big data and cloud division (up 173 per cent), and the group reported a maiden adjusted cash profit too.
Big data sales grew a massive 264 per cent to $5.1m, thanks to a consistent revenue stream from old and new contracts. The increasing popularity of its Fusion software led to new customer wins in financial services, retail and healthcare, worth $4.1m, $2m and $0.65m, respectively, and there's a strong order book in place for the second half.
The supply chain management (SCM) division grew revenue but reported a £0.1m dip in sales bookings. However, company bosses aren't overly concerned by this: the unit is still “highly profitable” with reasonably low development costs.
Analysts at Peel Hunt forecast adjusted pre-tax losses of $10.7m for FY2017, which equates to a loss per share of 26.3¢ (from -$16.4m and -46.9¢ in FY2016).
| WANDISCO (WAND) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 700p | MARKET VALUE: | £264m | |
| TOUCH: | 685-715p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 818p | LOW: 128p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 1.36¢* | NET CASH: | $9.9m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
| 2016 | 5.64 | -5.45 | -18.0 | nil |
| 2017 | 9.66 | -6.29 | -0.2 | nil |
| % change | +71 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| £1-$1.30 *Includes intangible assets of $6.1m, or 16¢ a share | ||||
