WANdisco upbeat on third quarter bookings performance

Data technology company WANdisco said in an update on Thursday that bookings in the third quarter rocketed 2,382% year-on-year to $34m, from $1.37m a year earlier.

The AIM-traded firm said for the nine months ended 30 September, bookings grew 1,649% year-on-year to $61.2m, from $3.5m.

Ending remaining performance obligations were expected to total $62.8m as at 30 September, up “significantly” from the $3.1m at the end of the third quarter of 2021.

The company ended the period with a “strong” balance sheet, with WANdisco's quarter-end cash position expected to be $26.3m, with a further $10.3m in trade receivables.

Operationally, WANdisco said that during the period, it closed a $25m agreement with a “top 10” global communications customer, representing the fourth consecutive contract signed with the client.

The follow-on deal came as the customer saw a “continued proliferation” of smart meter data, alongside new internet-of-things (IoT) data needs in the automotive sector.

WANdisco said the cumulative contracts from the customer now totalled $39.3m during 2022.

Also during the period, it announced that it had signed a follow-on agreement worth $7.1m with a large European automotive components supplier.

That followed an initial commit-to-consume contract signed with the client, valued at a minimum of $5m, as announced on 4 July.

The follow-on contract came as the initial data to be transferred now exceeded the volume of data agreed in the original contract.

Both of the commercial relationships demonstrated WANdisco's opportunity and ability to land and expand deals using the commit-to-consume model, the board said.

As the customers generated more data, WANdisco continued to expect the volume of data to be transferred by the customers to increase, providing a “significant” long-term opportunity for the group, and visibility over bookings and predictability of revenues.

“The contracts signed during the period provide further evidence of our confidence that we have the right product, at the right time with a commit-to-consume revenue model which is resonating with customers,” said chairman and chief executive officer David Richards.

“A number of the customers we have won during 2022 and those in our pipeline have scope for significant expansions as services around the data collected are rolled out.

“We remain confident in demonstrating further progress over the remainder of the year both in terms of consumption and further client wins.”

Richards said that at the nine-month mark of the year, its bookings performance had already exceeded current market consensus estimates for the year.

“As such, we now expect bookings for the year as a whole to be meaningfully ahead of current expectations, underpinned by our confidence that further bookings progress will be made as we move through the fourth quarter.”

At 1246 BST, shares in WANdisco were up 5.43% at 485p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.