Trading Update
Sopheon plc, the international provider of software, expertise, and best practices for Enterprise Innovation Management, is pleased to provide a further update on the Group’s performance for the year ended 31 December 2019.
Following on from our trading update of 11 December 2019, the Board now expects to deliver reported revenues for the year ended 31 December 2019 of approximately $30m (2018: $34m) which is in line with market expectations1. EBITDA and pre-tax profits are also expected to be in line with market expectations1 for the year. The year-end net cash position is expected to be $19.2m (2018: $16.7m) underlining the continued cash generative nature of the business.
The final quarter was one of the strongest on record, with revenues over $9m and with 23 license transactions signed, of which 11 were new customers. A number of these new orders were for SaaS (Software as a Service) licenses. Of the total 47 license transactions concluded in all of 2019, 18 were for new customers, matching 2018’s strong performance in a key metric that shows underlying momentum and commercial traction. This activity gives us an opening order book of approximately $3m in services for 2020. In addition, we enter 2020 with a base of $15.9m in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) compared to $14.8m on entry to 2019. As we have noted in recent communications, our strategic direction is to increase the proportion of recurring revenue and this is reflected in a growing sales pipeline that shows rising levels of SaaS opportunities. An example of a SaaS opportunity closed at the end of 2019 is an initial order from Hain Celestial, a leading global organic and natural products company.
The Board is also delighted that Sopheon has won the best performing company slot in the enterprise software category of Megabuyte’s Quoted25 awards, announced last week.
Financial expectations noted above are subject to the completion of year-end financial close and audit processes.
Sopheon intends to issue its results for the year ended 31 December 2019, on 19 March 2020.