Bacon confident in StatPro outlook at his last AGM

Cloud-based portfolio analysis and asset pricing services provider StatPro Group updated the market on its current trading on Monday, as investors gathered for the company’s annual general meeting.

The AIM-traded firm confirmed trading in the first quarter of the current financial year was in line with expectations.

It said new sales of StatPro Revolution and StatPro Seven had “progressed well”, and the pipeline for the remainder of the year remained “solid”.

“As announced on 16 May, we achieved first closing on the UBS Delta acquisition and we believe that the Delta team combined with StatPro is now a powerful force in portfolio analytics,” said chairman Carl Bacon.

“With approximately 81% of our annualised recurring revenue for software - on a pro forma basis including Delta revenue - coming from software-as-a-service solutions, we continue to make good progress towards becoming the world's leading cloud-based portfolio analytics service provider.”

Bacon said it was his 18th and final AGM, and he was “proud” of the group's achievements over the last 17 years, including 20% CAGR in revenue.

“The company was listed in May 2000 with one primary product, a tool to assist asset managers achieve GIPS compliance, and a newly acquired performance attribution solution, which now forms part of the StatPro Revolution platform.

“I'm delighted to say that the GIPS compliance tool continues to thrive, with StatPro continuing to promote GIPS compliance worldwide.

“The GIPS 20/20 major rewrite will extend the value of GIPS compliance to alternative and other asset types.”

A decade ago, the company took the “bold strategic step” of investing in cloud technology, Bacon explained, which culminated in the launch of StatPro Revolution Performance in September 2016.

“Over the past 17 years we have acquired 13 businesses, including our significant recent acquisition of UBS Delta, which will allow us to extend our risk and performance analytics service from the middle to the front office.

“I will leave StatPro on 29 November with great confidence in the well-established and effective corporate and executive boards, handing over the chairman's role to Rory Curran.”

Bacon said the asset management industry had changed “dramatically” in the last few years, and must now face up to a multitude of challenges including a low return environment, greater cost pressures, scarce alpha, increased regulation, and the challenge from passive investing and an increasing complexity.

“In our view, the solution is cloud technology, and StatPro is uniquely placed to leverage this to meet the pressing needs of asset managers.”