Intercede reports third year of 'sustainable growth'

Digital identity, credential management and security company Intercede reported its third year of “sustainable growth” in revenues, profits and cash in its final results on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm said revenue for the year ended 31 March was up 6% at £11m, explaining that while the Covid-19 pandemic adversely impacted key markets in Europe and the Middle East, United States revenues were up 14%.

That included a “major” new contract to provide an identity management system (IDMS) compliant with US Federal Government Standard FIPS 201 for the US Department of State (DoS) and its clients.

Operating expenses totalled £9.1m for the year, slightly lower than the £9.2m it reported for the 2020 financial year.

Staff numbers remained consistent during the coronavirus pandemic, with “business as usual” maintained without any furloughs or redundancies, and without any pay cuts or reductions in working hours.

The group said it generated a “substantially increased” profit for the year of £1.5m, a year-on-year increase of 52%, which resulted in a basic profit per share of 3.0p and a fully-diluted profit per share of 2.8p, up from 2.0p and 1.9p in the prior year, respectively.

Intercede’s gross cash position at year-end on 31 March totalled £8.0m, up from £4.8m a year earlier, primarily due to a net cash inflow from operating activities of £4.2m, which was up from a £1.3m inflow in 2020.

The group said it was now debt-free, following the successful early retirement of convertible loan notes totalling £5m, announced in February, which would save the company £0.4m in annual interest costs.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, Intercede has maintained solid revenue growth at 6% and delivered a substantial increase in profitability with the levels of cash generated being well ahead of market forecasts,” said chairman Chuck Pol.

“We are excited to announce the release of ‘MyID’ v12 which will expand Intercede's addressable market with the introduction of FIDO to the MyID credential management platform.

“I remain confident of the group's future prospects as we emerge from the pandemic and governments and commercial enterprises are able to take the necessary steps to further improve their security environments when taking increased remote working into consideration.”

At 1027 BST, shares in Intercede Group were up 3.73% at 100.1p.