Bango’s (BGO) end user spend (EUS) soared last year from £132m to £271m. Despite the resultant sales uptick, operating costs fell from £2.4m to £2.3m – reflecting the scale benefits flowing through to the payments platform. Indeed, management says the business could “comfortably handle” at least another doubling of EUS at current cost levels. In any case, this 'scalability' meant that adjusted cash losses came in at £1.6m, against £2.8m in 2016. This narrowing looks set to continue; house broker Cenkos expects cash profits for 2018.
Full-year highlights included a deal with Amazon Japan, enabling customers to pay for goods via their phone bills (‘direct carrier billing’). Meanwhile, two Middle Eastern network operators transferred their Google Play payment routes to Bango, generating a 35 per cent rise in EUS. And, in January 2018, Bango acquired Audiens – a data management business. This should enhance its ability to give data insights to advertisers.
Analysts at Cenkos forecast pre-tax profit of £1.1m and EPS of 2.1p for the year to December 2018, against a pre-tax loss of £3.9m and a loss per share of 5.2p in 2017.
| BANGO (BGO) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 174p | MARKET VALUE: | £121m | |
| TOUCH: | 173-174p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 279p | LOW: 98p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | na | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 15.4p* | NET CASH: | £4.6m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2013 | 8.8 | -4.9 | -10.5 | nil |
| 2014 | 5.1 | -5.4 | -11.0 | nil |
| 2015 | 1.3 | -5.0 | -9.1 | nil |
| 2016 | 2.6 | -4.7 | -6.8 | nil |
| 2017 | 4.2 | -3.9 | -5.2 | nil |
| % change | +58 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £6.1m, or 8.8p a share | ||||
