Seeing Machines swings to half year profit

The maker of vehicle operator monitoring technology reported a profit for the six months ended 31 December 2015 of A$11.2 m (£5.89m), compared to a net loss of A$4.3.m the same period a year earlier.

Revenue jumped 594% to A$29.3m, driven by a A$21.8m licensing fee from Caterpillar.

Caterpillar, which manufacturers mining and construction equipment such as dump trucks, uses Seeing Machines’ in-cab driver fatigue monitoring systems across its mining, construction, cement, quarry, forestry and marine sectors.

Seeing Machines chief executive Ken Kroeger said the licence fee from Caterpillar was “larger than any of the company's previous annual revenue results and has resulted in the company achieving our highest profit result for any period in the company's history”.

The CEO said the board expects 2016 full year total revenue will be “significantly higher than last year” due to the Caterpillar license fee.

However, Kroeger warned: “Excluding this revenue, other sales and service revenue may be marginally lower than the last full year, depending on how quickly current assessments for the Fleet product convert to larger deployments.

“We are building a strong pipeline of Fleet sales across several regions, driven by a number of assessments and opportunities as outlined in our recent quarterly Fleet update.”

Seeing Machines reported cash at 31 December fell to A$10.2m from A$14.2m on 30 June as a result of an increase in research and development activities and building the working capital requirements for the Fleet business.

Separately the group said has secured a follow-on order for the next-generation driver monitoring system (DMS) to an global car maker, in partnership with Japanese auto parts firm Takata.

Shares rose 5.18% to 4.47p at 1556 GMT.