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

VianetAnnouncement

25/04/2024 07:15

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RNS Number : 9244L  Vianet Group PLC  25 April 2024

25 April 2024

 

Vianet Group plc

 

("Vianet", the "Company" or the "Group")

 

Trading Update and Notice of Results

 

Vianet Group plc (AIM: VNET), the leader in delivering actionable data and
business insights through an integrated ecosystem of hardware devices,
software platforms, and smart insights portals, is pleased to provide a
positive trading update for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2024 and confirms
that the Company's full-year results for the year ended 31 March 2024 will be
published on Tuesday, 11 June 2024.

Financial Highlights

·      Turnover for FY24 increased by 7.6% to £15.18m (FY23: £14.11m).

·      Recurring revenue increased further to £12.94m (FY23 £12.52m),
accounting for 85% of total revenue (FY23: 89%) with hardware sales up 40% to
£2.24m (FY23: £1.60m).

·      Gross Margin has improved by 3.5% to reach 68.7% (FY23: 66.4%).

·      Adjusted EBITA (pre-exceptional and share based payments) has
risen by 11.6% to £3.47m (FY23: £3.11m), ahead of market expectations.

·      Net debt has been significantly reduced by 54.9% to £1.52m
(FY23: £3.37m).

·      Year-end cash reserves have risen to £1.82m (FY23: £0.07m).

 

As outlined in our September interim results, our H1 financial position was
strenthened by a £927,774 tax refund and a new refinancing agreement with
HSBC, enhancing our liquidity and supporting our growth ambitions.

These strong trading results demonstrate Vianet's continued commitment to
delivering value to our customers and driving growth in our sectors.  We
remain focussed on providing actionable information through our ecosystem of
hardware devices, software platforms, payment systems, and insights portals.

Market Developments

Progress within the unattended retail and hospitality divisions has been
particularly strong, marked by key initiatives that have not only brought in
new customers but have also strengthened existing relationships and expanded
our service offerings. As previously commented on, an initial slowdown due to
the delay in customers adapting to the 3G network switch-off, was more than
offset as the predicted demand rebounded in the fourth quarter. This sharp
acceleration in upgrades to 4G LTE systems to prevent connectivity issues on
payment devices resulted in numerous new contracts, enhancing our installation
pipeline well into FY25. These developments demonstrate our ability and
agility to adapt and capitalise on market dynamics.

Recent contract wins, including those reported this morning, illustrate the
successful expansion of our business into new industry verticals and our
ability to react swiftly to a changing dynamic. We are actively building on
these opportunities, particularly with key players in the manufacturing and
retail sectors of the forecourt industry.

Strategic Developments

The strategic acquisition and integration of Beverage Metrics Inc. in May 2023
has significantly accelerated our product roadmap in the hospitality sector,
shortening development timelines by approximately 12-18 months. We have
successfully launched an advanced beverage management and inventory offering,
which, when coupled with integration with Fintech(www.fintech.com), creates an
integrated procure and pay solution. Initial pilot testing with leading brands
in both the US and UK markets has shown encouraging results, reinforcing the
potential for an increase in our installation base.  Additionally, we have
renewed several contracts in the UK and secured new ones, setting a solid
foundation for future revenue growth in FY25.

Customer engagement in the US hospitality market has been very encouraging,
underscoring our commitment to Vianet Americas. This support is facilitating
our expansion into a large addressable market, allowing us to leverage
positive momentum to capitalise on emerging opportunities.

We look forward to sharing our full year results and remain confident in our
ability to sustain our positive momentum and drive further success.

James Dickson, Chair & CEO of Vianet commented:

 

"The past twelve months have been both productive and rewarding. While the 3G
upgrade deliberations initially held back new installations, we have made
significant financial and operational progress and we saw a rebound in demand
during Q4 and into the new financial year. The switch-off provided a unique
opportunity to engage with our customers effectively. We've secured long-term
contracts and have a good pipeline for H1 2025, which supports our optimism
for the future. Our strategic investments in sales, technology, and new
markets provide a strong platform for growth, and I am delighted with the
momentum we are building as we move into FY2025.

The Group remains well-positioned to continue delivering growth, generating
strong free cash flow that allows us to continue dividend distributions. I
look forward to the future with optimism and confidence."

- Ends -

 

For more information please contact:

 Vianet Group plc
 James Dickson, Chairman & Inter CEO      Tel: +44 (0) 1642 358 800

 Mark Foster, CFO                         www.vianetplc.com (http://www.vianetplc.com/)
 Cavendish Capital Markets Limited
 Stephen Keys / Camilla Hume              Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220 0500
                                          www.cavendish.com (http://www.cavendish.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 three hundred 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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