REG - Vianet Group PLC - AGM Statement

VianetAnnouncement

13/07/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 2510S  Vianet Group PLC  13 July 2022

13 July 2022

Vianet Group plc

 

("Vianet" or the "Group")

AGM Statement

 

Vianet Group plc (AIM: VNET), the international provider of actionable data
and business insight through devices connected to its Internet of Things
platform ("IOT"), will be holding its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") today at
11.00 a.m. at the offices of Vianet Group plc, One Surtees Way, Surtees
Business Park, Stockton on Tees, TS18 3HR.

 

James Dickson, Chairman, will provide the following trading update at today's
meeting:

 

"I am pleased to report that the good revenue momentum experienced by the
Group at the back end of last year has continued into the new financial year
with recurring revenues remaining strong at c. 85%, with accompanying gross
margins being maintained across the whole business.

 

"Specifically in Smart Machines, primarily as a result of our commercial focus
on exciting opportunities for our telemetry, SmartVend software and
award-winning contactless payment solutions, we are seeing excellent customer
engagement and encouraging recurring income growth in this division.

 

"In addition, revenue in our Smart Zones division is materially ahead year on
year and tracking towards pre-pandemic levels. This has been aided by last
year's successful launch of our new insights and reporting portal, which is
proving extremely popular with hospitality industry customers, particularly at
a time when the economic backdrop is challenging for everyone.

 

"Whilst global semi-conductor supply shortages are resulting in higher
hardware costs, we are actively seeking to recoup these additional costs
wherever customer terms allow. However, our overriding commercial imperative
is to keep the sales pipeline flowing to expand the Group's installation
footprint and grow top line sales. Whilst component supply chain pressures and
fuel price inflation will impact on hardware installation margins into next
year, we are excited by our sales pipeline and the opportunity to
significantly grow our high-quality recurring income streams.

 

"The Group has, I believe, really benefitted from the sales and technology
investments we have made and the decisions we took to re-invigorate the
business throughout the pandemic. The Company remains well positioned to
deliver strong recurring earnings growth, execute on our long-term strategic
plan and to expand on the future strategic options for Vianet. As such, I am
looking to the future with increased optimism and confidence."

 

- Ends -

 

Enquiries:

 Vianet Group plc
 James Dickson, Chairman                                           Tel: +44 (0) 1642 358 800
 james.dickson@vianetplc.com (mailto:james.dickson@vianetplc.com)  www.vianetplc.com (http://www.vianetplc.com)

 

 Cenkos Securities plc
 Stephen Keys / Camilla Hume  Tel: +44 (0) 20 7397 8900
                              www.cenkos.com (http://www.cenkos.com)

Media enquiries:

 Yellow Jersey PR
 Sarah Hollins                                                               Tel: +44 (0)7764 947 137

 Henry Wilkinson                                                             Tel: +44 (0)7951 402 336

 vianet@yellowjerseypr.com (mailto:vianet@yellowjerseypr.com)   www.yellowjerseypr.com (http://www.yellowjerseypr.com)

 

About Vianet

Vianet Group is a leading provider of actionable management information and
business insight created through combining data from our smart Internet of
Things ('IOT') solutions and external information sources.

Since Admission to AIM in 2006, the Group has grown from its core beer
monitoring business both organically and through strategic acquisitions to
widen its offering and develop new businesses, especially in vending telemetry
and contactless payment solutions particularly for the premium coffee sector.

Servicing over 300 customers across the world and rendering live data to our
IOT platform from over 250,000 connected machines daily, Vianet is one of the
largest business to business (b2b) connected solutions providers in Europe
with established long-term relationships with blue chip customers and growing
recurring revenues which are over 85% of our total revenues.

In our Smart Machines division, we connect a single data gathering device with
its own on-board communication capability to a customer's asset or system. The
device then sends data back via our IOT platform to cloud based servers. The
technology was originally developed for automated retailing machines; however,
the flexibility and functionality of the device means the technology can be
applied to any machine which has the capability to output data. The device is
also used to connect our contactless payment solution and communicate payment
terms to our cloud-based payment services providers where that application is
also required.

The Smart Zones division is where we connect multiple data gathering devices
into one or more systems or assets with the data from those devices being
communicated back to our IOT platform and cloud-based servers via a single 3G
communications hub. The technology was originally developed for flow
monitoring devices, temperature sensors, and asset management in drinks
retailing but any data gathering device with a digital output could be
connected to the communications hub where required such as gaming machines,
utilities management and EPOS.

For further information, please visit www.vianetplc.com
(http://www.vianetplc.com/)

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