Shares in WANdisco (WAND) fell by around a tenth following release of its half-year numbers to June. While the live data group’s revenues edged up, its operating losses increased from $12.2m to $16.5m – dampened by higher cash overheads, after investments in sales and engineering, and by higher equity-settled share-based payments.
Over the respective six months, management was focused on securing a “breakthrough” deal with an anonymous major enterprise cloud partner, to embed its technology into the vendor’s cloud offering. This came through post-period-end, in July. The group calls it “one of the most important developments in our journey to date”, with early revenues expected this financial year.
WANdisco also saw its first multi-cloud contract win. And it scored two China contracts worth $2.9m – before signing a $0.47m contract with a leading Chinese phone maker. The group describes the Chinese market as “typically challenging”, but “untapped”.
The group successfully raised $17.5m via a subscription back in February, at a 9.2 per cent premium to the prior day’s close. But given a net operating cash outflow of $7.08m, it's probable that the group will need to raise more capital before long.
House broker Stifel expects adjusted losses per share of $0.23¢ for 2019, against losses of 0.37¢ in 2018.
| WANDISCO (WAND) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 460p | MARKET VALUE: | £207m | |
| TOUCH: | 455-464p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 858p | LOW: 330p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 45¢* | NET CASH: | $12.8m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
| 2018 | 5.7 | -11.2 | -0.3 | nil |
| 2019 | 6.0 | -16.7 | -0.4 | nil |
| % change | +4 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
*Includes intangible assets of $4.9m, or 11¢ a share £1 = $1.24 | ||||
