Crimson Tide rises on profits surprise

Crimson Tide said results for calendar 2015 will be ahead of expectations as its mpro5 mobile business software and services enjoyed robust demand.

In a strong trading update the company said profit before tax would beat current forecasts by rising "significantly higher" than the previous year, despite turnover in line with expectations.

Trading in the early part of 2016, the company's 10th year on AIM, has been "robust", with progress made on contracts announced last year, new subscribers to its mpro5 service and "potentially significant" client contracts in pilots.

Executive chairman and founder, Barrie Whipp said the significant strides made in 2015 were demonstrated by the growth in subscribers, profits and contracted future revenues.

"We have created real traction in our market and have become the service provider of choice for many blue chip organisations. We are looking forward to driving the business forward and have exciting opportunities in front of us."

On Wednesday, a court hearing confirmed the reduction in capital of the company, which is hoped will enable a first ever dividend payout in the future.

House broker WH Ireland said it was lifting PBT and earnings per share by 46% for the current year, while hiking EPS forecasts for 2016 by 20% and 2017 by 5% due to the earlier-than-expected rollout of a significant contract flagged in the update of 4 December.

As a result of the successful court the broker introduced dividend forecasts for the first time, of 0.02p for 2016 and 0.03p for 2017.

"This momentum, coupled with TIDE’s low fixed cost base, sky high gross margin of circa 90% and good visibility (three year contracted revenue), is expected to lead to a very material impact on profitability over the coming years," wrote analyst Eric Burns.

Shares in the company were up 25% to 3.5p, recovering much of the ground lost since December's 3.98p all-time high.