Artilium blames tough trading conditions for revenue downgrade

Artilium was citing tough market conditions as a reason for its decline in expected revenue on Tuesday, ahead of its interim results to 31 December 2015.

The AIM-traded provider of telecommunications software and solutions had said on 29 October 2015 that an investment made in improving the fundamentals of the group's performance, along with a number of acquisitions made around the time, would form the basis of the next phase of the buisness which would see growth in both the customer base and revenues from software products.

It admitted on Tuesday that, while the board still believed the positive impact from work undertaken would manifest itself, it was disappointed to see that impact had been slower than expected so far this financial year.

It said a number of high margin projects for Artilium customers had been delayed, but were still expected to be completed. As a result, the company now expected to report revenues of €4.3m and an adjusted LBITDA of €0.3m for the six months to 31 December 2015.

The company's directors said this would lead to year-end revenues of between €10m and €11m, with adjusted EBITDA for the year to be similar to that experienced in the year ended 30 June 2015.

"While the pace of growth is somewhat slower than expected, the company is making steady progress and is pleased to see that the order book is considerably stronger than this time last year", Artilium CEO Bart Weijermars said.

"The directors remain confident of the long-term prospects of the company, and look forward to updating the market with respect to continued contract and revenue progress in due course", he added.

Artilium was due to announce its half-year results on 21 March. At 1415, shares in the company were down 4.65% to 5.12p.