Maistro losses mount amid cost crescendo

Known as Blur until January last year, the company's revenue more than doubled to £1.5m last year but loss before tax of £3.1m was increased 28% compared to the year before, as cost of sales jumped 179% to £1.4m and administrative expenses by 28% to £3.2m.

Maistro, which operates a platform-as-a-service that allows businesses to find vetted service providers ranging from consulting to marketing and design, said the increase in revenue was due to improved project engagement with global enterprise customers, particularly those in the Asia Pacific region.

The increase in administrative fees was attributed to the normalisation of share-based payment costs, which in 2017 were impacted by a £0.57m credit due to the forfeiture of share options upon cessation of employment of leavers. Excluding the share-based payments, administrative costs decreased by 2%.

Chairman David Rowe said: "Revenue growth has been driven by the increasing use of Maistro's PaaS platform by multinational enterprises which will be the bedrock of the group's growth during 2019. Ongoing investment in the PaaS platform has enabled the group to stay ahead of the field in the automated purchasing of services and sets the group up well for the work in progress in AI during 2019."

The AIM-listed company had cash and cash equivalents of £1.1m at the end of the year, down from £2.5m at the same point the year before.

"The aspirations of the board for Maistro in 2019 are to rapidly increase the take up of the PaaS Platform by its core existing and new customers driving revenues and margins. The board remains confident that the management team can achieve this, creating a very strong platform for continued leadership in this exciting and rapidly developing market," said Rowe.

Maistro's shares were down 7.69% at 1.20p at 0849 GMT.