Universe Group (LON:UNG), a leading developer and supplier of point of sale, payment and loyalty systems, has today announced its unaudited interim results for the six months to 30 June 2019.
Andrew Blazye, Non-Executive Chairman of Universe, commented:
“We are encouraged to see that revenues across the Group’s activities for the first half show both organic and acquisition driven growth on the same period last year. We have secured further important contracts with two existing major clients and we are pleased with the progress made in integrating Celtech into the wider Group. We are already starting to benefit from the acquisition synergies.
Our payment and loyalty operations continue to perform well and we are positioning the newly acquired ab-initio platform at the forefront of our expanded RMS offering. We continue to be cash generative under-pinned by material recurring revenues.
We are, as previously stated, also a second half weighted business, dependent on a small number of high value projects. However, we are confident that, with the investments we have made into the business, we are well positioned for growth in 2019 and beyond.”
Highlights
· Revenues up 7.3% to £9.92 million (H1 2018: £9.25 million)
· Adjusted EBITDA £1.39 million (H1 2018: £0.98 million)
· Operating profit £0.28 million (H1 2018: £0.17 million)
· Earnings per share 0.07 pence (H1 2018: 0.06 pence)
· Net cash inflow from operations £1.70 million (H1 2018: £1.98 million)
· Acquisition on 3 April 2019 of Celtech is a class-leading developer of cloud-based retail and wholesale management solutions (“RMS”) for £4.96 million. Celtech develops and sells its RMS, called “ab-initio”, to wholesale and retail customers in the UK and Ireland. The deal was funded out of the Group’s existing cash resources and £5.00 million of new banking facilities from HSBC