LoopUp’s (LOOP) half-year numbers to June were encouraging for the most part. As indicated in an August update, organic revenues for the remote meetings software group rose 22 per cent to £10.1m – a slower rate of growth than the previous three first-half periods. But that’s because the remote conferencing specialist has expanded into Australia, meaning two of its nine new-business ‘pods’ – effectively, sales teams – were busy establishing their pipelines. Having closed over 30 accounts, these should achieve normal productivity levels in the second half.
These were also the first results to factor in MeetingZone – the conferencing service provider that LoopUp bought in June for £61.4m, supported by a £50m placing of shares at 400p. While MeetingZone’s one-month contribution wasn’t disclosed separately, it enjoyed revenues of £11.7m for the full six months to June – greater than those seen by the underlying LoopUp business.
In other pre-announced news, management also expects to see greater cost savings, achieved at a faster rate, than anticipated at the time of buying MeetingZone. Some of these savings will be diverted towards shoring up organic momentum, potentially by spending more on marketing.
True, LoopUp fell into the red after reporting pre-tax profits a year earlier. But this stemmed from non-recurring transaction costs, exceptional reorganisation costs and higher amortisation. Broker Panmure Gordon forecasts pre-tax profits of £0.5m and EPS of 1.2p for 2018, rising to £6.8m and 12.6p in 2019 (2017: £0.7m and 4.8p)
| LOOPUP (LOOP) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 433p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 237m | |
| TOUCH: | 425-440p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 503p | LOW: 248p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 197 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 105p* | NET DEBT: | 19% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017 | 8.7 | 0.5 | 2.1 | nil |
| 2018 | 12.0 | -0.2 | -0.5 | nil |
| % change | +38 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £70m or 129p a share | ||||
