(Alliance News) - Actual Experience PLC on Monday said its loss narrowed in the first half its financial year as it pivoted away from managed services and towards professional services and announced possible new home working contracts.
Shares in Actual Experience were up 22% at 28.70 pence in London in morning trading.
The Bath-headquartered analytics-as-a-service firm reported a GP3.0 million pretax loss for the six months ended March 31, narrowed from a GBP3.4 million loss a year before.
This resulted primarily from an 18% reduction in administrative expenses to GBP3.1 million from GBP3.8 million.
On top of this, revenue rose 1.9% to GBP971,516 from GBP953,025 while cost of sales fell 17% to GBP464,417 from GBP559,884 which means a higher gross profit of GBP507,099 compared to GBP393,141 previously.
"The first six months of the financial year have seen the company complete its pivot from a managed services-led offering to that of professional services, placing us at the heart of our channel partners processes in order to promote quicker customer engagements, and we have seen deployment cycles shorten as a result," said Actual Experience.
This necessitated some restructuring of the business, incurring GBP411,525 of redundancy expense, compared to no such expense the prior year.
Actual Experience also revealed it is in talks for possible new contracts in the area of "home working and the ability to monitor the technology which enables it". Details will be announced "in due course".
"The board remains cautious and vigilant, assessing the impact of Covid-19 on the general economy as we develop and manage our cash resources as well as we can," said Actual Experience.
Chief Executive Dave Page said: "Our pivot to a professional services led engagement is now complete and structural changes made in this regard will be reflected in the reduced ongoing cost base. We continue to make progress in targeting further land and expand opportunities with global blue chip companies and remain convinced that we will grow our annual recurring revenue as a result.
"Significant changes have taken place globally in regards to how businesses are operating. The recent enforced adoption of home working places digital transformation and related digital experience at the top of the corporate agenda. We, together with our partners, their customers, and a growing number of industry analysts, believe that this will result in long-term change to how employees work that highlights the need for our technology. Our ability to service the needs of major corporates, be it in traditional offices or in hundreds or thousands of individual homes, places us in a strong position. Discussions regarding potential new contracts are well progressed, and we expect to be able to announce further details regarding this in due course."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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