Access Intelligence losses narrow slightly in first half

Marketing and communications software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider Access Intelligence said on Monday that its annual contract value base increased by £2.7m, or 25% on an annualised basis, to £24.7m in its first half.

The AIM-traded firm said that over the rolling 12-month period to 31 May, its annual contract value increased by £5.5m, or 29% on an organic basis.

Its first-half revenue was ahead 17% year-on-year at £11m for the six months ended 31 May, while it delivered an adjusted EBITDA loss of £0.14m, narrowing from £0.15m a year earlier, which the board said reflected additional investment in sales and marketing to drive global expansion.

The directors reported “encouraging progress” in North America with a number of blue-chip customer contracts won in the period, and the region contributing 23% of total annual contract value growth in the period.

At period end, cash balances totalled £8.8m, up from £2.6m a year earlier and £1.4m at the end of the 2020 financial year.

In December, the group announced an oversubscribed placing of 12,500,000 ordinary shares to raise gross proceeds of £10.0m.

The net proceeds of £9.6m would be used to enhance its technology and platform of products, for further geographic expansion, to continue to explore “suitable” acquisition opportunities in line with its strategy, and to further strengthen its balance sheet.

Post period end, in June, the company announced the terms of a recommended acquisition of the entire issued and to-be-issued ordinary share capital of Isentia Group, for an equity value of AUD 35.6m (£19.4m).

The board said the acquisition would be funded by an oversubscribed conditional placing of 39,847,658 ordinary shares and a conditional subscription for 1,819,009 ordinary shares, to raise total gross proceeds of £50m.

Access Intelligence said the proceeds would also be used to repay Isentia's gross debt of about AUD 45m.

The board said the acquisition would enable the company to benefit from greater scale, a superior product offering and greater geographic reach.

It also represented an opportunity to scale Access Intelligence's sales infrastructure into the fast-growing Asia-Pacific market, with the directors describing it as an “ideal platform” for cross-selling opportunities for its ‘Pulsar’ audience intelligence and social listening platform.

“I'm delighted that Access Intelligence continues to deliver strong organic growth due to its exceptional people and products,” said non-executive chairman Christopher Satterthwaite.

“The expanding market opportunity and appetite for the group's products and services is clear with continued growth in both revenue and customer retention.

“Growth has been capitalised on with significant investment in product innovation and operational scale accelerating expansion into North America and Asia-Pacific for the second half of the year and the future.”

At 1332 BST, shares in Access Intelligence were down 1.05% at 118.25p.