Results round-up

Data and analytics company YouGov’s full year revenues rose, but cautioned against Brexit uncertainty as it aims to continue expanding internationally.

In preliminary results for the year ended 31 July, revenue increased by 16% to £88.2m, compared to last year, or 12% on a constant currency basis.

The company said the Brexit vote from the EU referendum created “a more uncertain economic and political environment, especially for UK and European businesses”, but it could benefit in the short-term if sterling remains relatively low against other major trading currencies due to the international spread of revenues, especially from the US.

Taking the macro-environment and its own plans into account, the company said it is confident that it remains “well-placed to exploit opportunities for growth, especially in our data products and services business, in both our more mature markets and our newer operations”.

Revenue for data products and services rose by 32% to £34.5m, which now represents about 38% of the company's total revenue, up from 34% last year.

The BrandIndex product, which measures brand perception among the public, reported a 39% rise in revenue to £14.5m, and the Omnibus product, a quick and cost-effective way of surveying opinions, reported a 30% increase in revenue to £16.4m.

Custom research revenue was up by 9% to £54.3m.

The US market was the largest by revenue as it accounted for 42% overall, with a 20% increase to £31m.

Adjusted operating profit rose by 27% to £10.9m, adjusted profit before tax was up 46% to £13.3m and adjusted earnings per share up by 26% to 8.8p.

Cash generated from operations, before paying interest and tax, increased by 37% to £14.1m and cash conversion was 130% of adjusted operating profit.

At the end of July the net cash balance increased by 565 from last year to £15.6m.

The company recommended a dividend of 1.4p per share, a 40% increase.

Surface Transforms, a manufacturer of next-generation carbon ceramic brake discs for the automotive and aircraft industries, incurred a full-year loss despite rising revenues due to increased research costs and warned of increased losses for the following year.

The group’s revenue increased by £0.3m to £1.4m for the year ended 31 May 2016.

Sales rose by 28% to £1.4m primarily due to a 55% increase in sales to retrofit customers to reach £384,000 compared to £247,000 in 2015 according to the firm. Near original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) sales also increased by 33.3% to £557,000 and there was a one-off increase in aerospace development revenues by £142,000.

The firm’s gross margin increased to 51.6% compared to 51.1% in the previous period.

Research costs however rose to £1.3m during the reporting period, compared to £933,000 in 2015, to support the achievement of the German Automotive industry standard and increasing activity on its “game changing” contracts. This was offset slightly by an increase in the R&D tax credit to £306,000, however the company still received £100,000 less in research grants than expected.

This led to a loss before tax of £1.2m, versus a loss of £982,000 for the previous period.

One of the “game changing” contracts won during the period was with an internationally renowned German sports car manufacturer.

The firm’s cash generating capacity on the other hand improved, with cash used in operating activities increasing by 62.6% to £909,000 from £559,000 in the previous period and its cash position as at 31 May 2016 rose to £4.8m compared to £829,000 in 2015.

The firm has completed the purchase of a new factory site and new capital equipment to support an annual capacity of 20,000 discs, which the management anticipate will equate to sales of £17m per year.

In the past year, the firm successfully carried out a £5.5m placing and open offer, in part to finance new capital equipment.