REG - Cirata PLC - Q1 FY24 Trading Update

CirataAnnouncement

09/04/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 7644J  Cirata PLC  09 April 2024

9 April 2024

 

Cirata plc

("Cirata" or the "Company")

Q1 FY24 Trading Update

 

GTM and sales organization embedded for growth

 

 

Cirata plc (LSE: CRTA), announces a trading update for the quarter period
ended March 31, 2024.  An accompanying video presentation and discussion can
be found on the Cirata Investor Relations webpage here
(https://cirata.com/investors/reports-and-presentations) .

 

Summary

·    Bookings for the period of $0.7m

·    Steady build in pipeline

·    Sales and partner activity increased

·    Fifteen contracts signed, improved mix to "new and growth"

·    Important new business secured in re-invigorated DevOps offering

·    New releases of Live Data Migrator (LDM) and major release of DevOps
(ALM)

·    Cash position at the end March was $13.3m

·    Management reconfirms FY24 bookings guidance of $13-15m (81%-108% YoY
growth)

 

Trading update

 

Bookings in Q1 FY24 were $0.7m (Q1 FY23: $2.1m, which benefitted from a large
renewal), with DevOps/Application Lifecycle management ("DevOps") software
accounting for 51% of bookings and Data Integration ("DI") software accounting
for 49% of bookings.

 

In total, fifteen contracts were signed in the quarter, nine of which were new
and growth 1  contracts.  This included two new contracts in DevOps, secured
with Onsemi and Marvell Technology. The new subscription contract with Onsemi
in DevOps represents the first positive step in the reboot of the DevOps
business. New DI contracts included deals signed with the Bank of Nova Scotia,
Westpac Banking Corp and a large African financial services group. We also saw
further growth at Tesco, a returning customer. Two deals secured in Q1 were
greater than $150K in value: one in DI and the other in DevOps.

 

Technology is core to Cirata and its market differentiation. Further progress
was made in Q1 on shaping the product roadmap with direct customer input for
LDM. In DevOps, we announced the availability of Gerrit 3.7, and we are
already in discussions with customers on Proof of Concept.

 

As previously outlined, deal slippage remained a feature of Q1 performance.
Some of the orders that were targeted for FY23 Q4 closed in early FY24 and,
similarly, some of the deals targeted for Q1 have also slipped with the
expectation that these will now conclude in Q2. Issues contributing to
slippage include the complex nature of enterprise sales for data integration,
protracted procurement processes and the ramping of the new sales team.
Establishing greater sales cycle predictability, therefore, remains a key
priority for management, to move beyond the current non-linear growth
trajectory. To that end, Q1 saw the final changes made to the company's Sales
organization.  With that complete, Management believes that the foundations
are now, for the first time, in place to deliver steadily improving pipeline
predictability and performance.

 

As previously reported, Management expects that bookings will be H2 weighted
in FY24 as the pipeline builds and the Sales team becomes more proven. The
FY24 bookings guidance, which Management reconfirms today, is based on an
expectation of higher levels of sales activity, both direct and through
partners, and on the current sales pipeline. The new GTM organization is
bedding down and leads from partners and customer activity levels are
increasing and contributing to pipeline growth.

 

A table of key performance indicators will be posted to the Investor Relations
landing page Cirata KPI
(https://cirata.com/investors/key-performance-indicators) by 30 April 2024.

 

 

Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, commented.

 

"I want to provide a balanced scorecard and honest perspective on the progress
of Cirata. We were disappointed by the actual Q1 bookings and again
experienced deal slippage relating to the complex nature of enterprise sales,
protracted procurement processes and the ongoing ramping of our new sales
team. However, I am pleased with the increasing level of sales activity in the
quarter, following the complete reboot of the GTM organization.

 

The cadence of customer interaction has ramped significantly, and we are
seeing improved commercial re-engagement as evidenced by the range of logos we
have contracted with in Q1. Signing our first new contract in DevOps for some
years as well as securing new and returning logos in DI has been encouraging
and energizing for our team. Innovation in both LDM and DevOps continues and
provides differentiated and superior technology offerings for our customers.

 

As I said before, the recovery of Cirata, is likely to be non-linear but
no-one should underestimate the focus we are placing on sharpening and
improving our pipeline visibility and predictability.  With the sales team
now fully set, and with partner and customer interactions building, we remain
focused on delivering against the guidance range and phasing we have set out
for the year as a whole."

 

 

This announcement contains information that qualifies or may qualify as inside
information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU)
596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the
company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

 

The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on
behalf of Cirata plc is Larry Webster, Company Secretary.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Cirata                                    Via FTI Consulting
 Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive Officer
 Ijoma Maluza, Chief Financial Officer
 Daniel Hayes, Investor Relations

 FTI Consulting                            +44 (0)20 3727 1137
 Matt Dixon /Kwaku Aning / Usama Ali

 Stijfel (Nomad and Joint Broker)          +44 (0)20 7710 7600
 Fred Walsh / Richard Short / Tom Marsh

 Liberum (Joint Broker)                    +44 (0)20 3100 2000
 Max Jones / Edward Mansfield / John More

 

About Cirata

 

Cirata, accelerates data-driven revenue growth by automating data transfer and
integration to modern cloud analytics and AI platforms without downtime or
disruption. With Cirata, data leaders can leverage the power of AI and
analytics across their entire enterprise data estate to freely choose
analytics technologies, avoid vendor, platform, or cloud lock-in while making
AI and analytics faster, cheaper, and more flexible. Cirata's portfolio of
products and technology solutions make strategic adoption of modern data
analytics efficient and automated. For more information about Cirata,
visit www.cirata.com (http://www.cirata.com)

 

 1  New & Growth refers to either a new contract or additional consumption
on an existing contract.

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