Ubisense shares plummet as losses widen

Real-time location intelligence firm Ubisense saw its shares fall fast on Thursday, after it posted wide losses for the 2015 calendar year.

The AIM-traded company reported group revenue of £22m, down from £35.1m in 2014. Its gross margin was also reduced, to 35% from 39.9%.

Ubisense’s adjusted LBITDA was £5.2m, compared with EBITDA of £1.8m in 2014. It had non-recurring costs of £4.1m, up from £1.1m, and impairment charges of £4m, up from £1.3m a year earlier.

The board reported an operating loss of £17m for the year, compared with 2014’s £4.6m loss. At year end, Ubisense had cash of £5.4m, up from £3.7m, and net debt of £0.2m, down from £3.2m.

"We took steps to right-size the business in the period, refocusing our resources on core geographies and reducing our staff base appropriately,” said Ubisense chairman Peter Harverson.

“Our focus for 2016 is very much on improved sales execution from a lower cost base in order to establish a financially stable platform from which we can then begin to address the growth potential of our market-leading solutions."

Ubisense shares plummeted during the day, and were last trading down 19.49% at 31.8p.

In a separate announcement, Ubisense said it had raised £4.8m through a placing of 19,230,000 new ordinary shares at 25p each in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet.

The board said net proceeds would be used to repay a portion of existing working capital facilities and to strengthen the financial position of the company.

Ubisense shareholders still needed to approve the placing, at a general meeting taking place in Cambridge on 25 April.