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

VianetAnnouncement

24/04/2025 07:02

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RNS Number : 9231F  Vianet Group PLC  24 April 2025

24 April 2025

 

Vianet Group plc

 

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

 

Trading Update, Notice of Results and Proposed Final Dividend

 

VIANET, the international provider of actionable data, business insights and
payment solutions through an integrated ecosystem of connected hardware
devices, software platforms and smart insights portals, is pleased to provide
a positive trading update for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2025.
 Management remains committed to delivering shareholder value and confirms
that the Company's full-year results for the year ended 31 March 2025 will be
published on Tuesday, 10 June 2025.

Financial Highlights

·      Turnover: Achieved revenue of £15.3m for FY25 reflecting a
steady year-on-year increase (FY24: £15.2m).

·      Recurring revenue: Recurring revenue remains consistent
representing over 85% of total revenue.

·      Gross Margin: Improved gross margin of 69.4% (FY24: 68.7%)
demonstrating the Group's operational efficiency.

·      Adjusted EBITA (pre-exceptional and share based payments) has
risen by 3.5% to £3.59m (FY24: £3.47m), reinforcing our robust performance.

·      Net debt has been significantly reduced by c.73% to under £0.4m
(FY24: £1.5m) after funding an increased level of share buyback of £0.44m
and increased dividend payment of £0.31m.

·      Normalised profit to cash conversion was 102.9% of EBITDA.

·      Year-end cash reserves have risen to £2.78m (FY2024: £1.82m).

·      Proposed final dividend up 33% to 1.00p (FY2024: 0.75p)

Amid widespread economic uncertainty, these solid trading results highlight
the success of Vianet's ongoing dedication to delivering value to our
customers. This commitment enables them to achieve greater outcomes with fewer
resources, fostering growth in the industries and sectors we support.

Market Developments

In our unattended retail division, we continue to focus on expanding our
device footprint, successfully transitioning from vending management software
to a model that emphasises long term recurring income. Although top-line
revenue in this division saw a slight decrease of 4.8% YOY, this is attributed
to FY24 benefitting from a high proportion of capital sales to multinationals.
In contrast, FY25 reflects a strategic shift towards long term rental
agreement with UK operators which in turn leads to higher value recurring
income and longer term earnings visibility.

Our competitively priced, proven, hardware, coupled with market leading
transaction rates and a reputation for delivering outstanding customer
experience, has resulted in securing nearly 100 new long-term contracts which
will feed into the sales pipeline over the life of the minimum three-year
contracts.  Enhanced device management and superior device uptime are further
distinguishing factors that set us apart from competitors, providing
confidence in future sales growth and further strengthen our compelling
strategic market presence in the vending and forecourt sectors.

Our hospitality division is thriving, with EBITA surpassing pre-Covid levels
buoyed by steady installation numbers year-on-year despite industry challenges
and pub closures. Investments in our comprehensive Beverage Metrics solution
and in Power BI reporting are delivering deeper client engagement with strong
prospects for further growth outside our core Leased & Tenanted sector
customers for both draught beer and inventory solutions.

The Chancellor's October budget announcement, combined with ongoing
geopolitical and economic uncertainties, has created a challenging market
environment for customers in both divisions. Despite these external challenges
we are successfully strengthening partnerships within our hospitality and
unattended retail divisions which is helping to drive positive customer
engagement and deliver new contract wins and sustainable growth in unattended
retail and in UK & USA hospitality.

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:

 

"Despite the challenging economic landscape, I believe the Company is very
well positioned with excellent prospects.

In unattended retail we are extremely competitive and continue to secure
long-term contracts with strong recurring revenue visibility and have
established a strategically valuable UK market share amidst international
competition.

Our hospitality division continues to deliver EBITA growth and sign-up
existing customers to new long-term contracts. Strategic investments in
Beverage Metrics and advanced reporting tools together with key partnerships
are unlocking new markets in the UK and USA.

We remain confident in our ability to sustain momentum and deliver on our
growth objectives,

believing we are poised for sustainable growth and strong free cash flow
enabling continued dividend distributions."

- 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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