Arria NLG plc (AIM: NLG), a leader in the development and deployment of natural language generation (“NLG”) technologies, has told DirectorsTalk its final results for the year ended 30 September 2015.
Financial Highlights:
● Revenue £1.476 million (2014: £0.787 million)
● EBITDA loss before share based payment charges of £4.2 million (2014: loss of £6.4 million)
● Loss before tax of £8.3 million (2014: loss of £10.9 million)
● Cash at 30 September 2015 £2.3 million (as at 30 September 2014: £1.7 million)
● Company raised £4.345 million through the issue of unsecured convertible loan notes and £0.408 million before expenses through an issue of Ordinary shares
● Subsequent to the year end, the Company issued 18,750,000 Ordinary shares at a price of £0.32 per share, with £5.1 million being invested in sharing agreements where settlements will be received over 18 months (see note 7) and a further £0.217 million in convertible loan notes
Operational Highlights:
● Expanding the commercial reach and opportunity for Arria’s NLG technology beyond oil and gas most notably into aviation and financial services (insurance and banking)
● Deepened engagements in meteorology with Meteo Group to develop a weather report module for two regions in Europe
● Engagement with the UK arm of a global financial services group to demonstrate Arria’s report writing capabilities
● Engagement with a major global online travel company to use NLG to create tailored responses to travel queries from online booking platforms and websites
● Initial agreement was completed with a global consumer products company for an application of Arria’s NLG technology to create a range of textual outputs relating to business intelligence metrics across their business lines
● Entering into a partnership agreement with IBM Watson™
● Development of Arria’s NLG Software Development Kit and Software as a Service Product
● Received notice of grant for Arria’s configurable Microplanner patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office and continued the development and protection of the Group’s intellectual property portfolio
Stuart Rogers, Chairman and Chief Executive of Arria NLG plc, commented: “As one can see from the periodic announcements we made of Arria’s commercial progress throughout the year, a number of industries concluded that Natural Language Generation software capabilities from Arria were valuable additions to their operations. These industries included agriculture, aviation, oil & gas services, insurance, artificial intelligence, banking, meteorology, online travel and consumer packaged goods. For the most part, the contracts were with large, global companies that constitute an impressive list of names underlying last year’s commercial progress. As we look back over the accomplishments of the past year, we recognize how far we have progressed, and how well the Group is positioned for accelerated growth. The convergence of Big Data, scarce analytical resources, and the inability for many industries to continue their growth trajectories on the back of human capital alone, represents the predominant opportunity, and the core focus where Arria is building its business and extending its technology today and into the future.”