REG - Tribal Group PLC - Trading Update and Notice of Results

TribalAnnouncement

31/01/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 0485A  Tribal Group PLC  31 January 2022

31 January 2022

Tribal Group plc

("Tribal" or "the Group")

Trading Update and Notice of Results

Cloud expansion driving growth in ARR

 

Tribal (AIM: TRB, "Group", "Company"), a leading provider of software and
services to the international education market, is pleased to provide an
update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2021 ("the Year").

Strong trading performance

Following a good performance, the Board anticipates FY21 results to be in line
with market expectations.

As a result of momentum in new business sales throughout the year, the
successful migration of key customers to the Tribal:Cloud, and the acquisition
of Semestry in April 2021, the Group exited the Year with record levels of
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), up 7% to £50.3m (2020: £47.0m at constant
currency).

This positive performance bears out the Board's confidence in the Cloud
strategy and product investment programme, to transition to become a SaaS
business, with global reach.

The Group's balance sheet remains robust with net cash of £5.9m at Year end
(2020: £9.5m) after the net payment of £6.4m on acquisitions and deferred
consideration payments and £2.5m in payment of dividends.

Positive sales momentum

The Group secured multiple new customer wins throughout the year, including
two new SITS:Vision customers and three major Tribal:Cloud migrations. The
Group has also signed up four early adopters to its newly developed
Cloud-based Tribal Edge Admissions module.

In December, the Group concluded contract renewal discussions with its
Australian university customers on the Callista Software platform. Of the 11
universities, nine have elected to renew. The five-year agreements provide an
evolutionary path towards the Tribal Edge, Cloud delivered SaaS ecosystem.
While this represents an overall drop in Callista ARR contribution in
comparison to 2021, these multiyear renewals provide a strong foundation of
long-term visible revenue, with £5.8m ARR, in the Australian market.

The Education Services division trading performance continued to improve
throughout the year, despite the impact of the ongoing pandemic. The team
maintained the key assurance, training and inspections contracts in the UK, US
and New Zealand largely remotely.

Good Semestry performance

The successful acquisition of Semestry in April 2021 has expanded the
Company's Edge family of products, and increased its addressable market,
taking it into new geographies. Since acquisition, Semestry has secured nine
new customers, growing Semestry ARR by over 30% to £1.2m, representing an
acceleration of its historic growth rate.

Tribal remains selective in its approach to acquisition opportunities, seeking
to acquire businesses that add appropriate cloud-based solutions to its Edge
family or provide entry into new geographical regions.

Notice of Results

The Group expects to announce its audited full year results on 17 March 2022.

Outlook

2021 was a year of significant progress against Tribal's goal of becoming a
SaaS business, providing technology to empower the world of education. The
Company has secured a high level of new customer wins and increased share of
wallet for existing customers.

Tribal continues to invest in its people and operations to deliver on its
growing customer footprint, evolving its operating model to ensure scalability
as it transitions to a platform business, preparing for long-term growth.

With good progress being achieved across the business, the Board is committed
to achieving continued strategic and operational progress and capitalising on
its opportunity, across its key markets.

Mark Pickett, CEO of Tribal Group, commented:

 

"The Group has delivered strong strategic progress throughout the year, driven
by our market leading products and services which generated deals with new
customers, in addition to the adoption by some of our largest customers of the
Tribal:Cloud and the initial small sales of our first native cloud module,
Tribal Admissions. These early successes can be seen in the steady growth of
our annually recurring revenue and provide us with the confidence to continue
investing in our transition to a global EdTech SaaS business.

 

"The growth of our recurring revenue and sales pipeline provides Tribal with a
strong platform as we enter the new year, giving us confidence in achieving
our long-term financial goals."

 

 

   Tribal Group plc                                   Tel: +44 (0) 117 311 5293
   Mark Pickett, Chief Executive Officer

   Diane McIntyre, Chief Financial Officer

   Investec Bank plc (NOMAD & Joint Broker)         Tel: +44 (0) 20 7597 5970
   Sara Hale, Virginia Bull, Will Godfrey

   Singer Capital Markets (Joint Broker)            Tel: +44 (0) 20 7496 3000
   Shaun Dobson, Tom Salvesen, Alex Bond

   Alma PR                                          Tel: +44 (0)203 405 0205
   Caroline Forde, Hannah Campbell, Molly Gretton

 

About Tribal Group plc

 

Tribal Group plc is a pioneering world-leader of education software and
services. Its portfolio includes Student Information Systems; a broad range of
education services covering quality assurance, peer review, benchmarking and
improvement; and student surveys that provide the leading global benchmarks
for student experience. Working with Higher Education, Further and Tertiary
Education, schools, Government and State bodies, training providers and
employers, in over 55 countries; Tribal Group's mission is to empower the
world of education with products and services that underpin student success.

 

This Statement has been prepared for and is addressed only to our shareholders
as a whole and should not be relied on by any other party or for any other
purpose.  Tribal, its directors, employees, agents or advisers do not accept
or assume responsibility to any other person to whom this Statement is shown
or into whose hands it may come and any such responsibility or liability is
expressly disclaimed.  This Statement may contain forward-looking
statements.  Any forward-looking statement has been made by the directors in
good faith based on the information available to them up to the time of
approval of this Statement and should be treated with caution due to the
inherent uncertainties, including both economic and business risk factors,
underlying such forward-looking information.  To the extent that this
Statement contains any statement dealing with any time after the date of its
preparation, such statement is merely predictive and speculative as it relates
to events and circumstances which are yet to occur and therefore the facts
stated and views expressed may change.  Tribal undertakes no obligation to
update these forward-looking statements.

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