LONDON (Alliance News) - Amino Technologies PLC on Tuesday reported a double-digit decline in profit in its most recently ended financial year, and it said it expects a further decline in the year ahead due to economic headwinds.
The stock was trading 17% lower on Tuesday at 90.00 pence a share.
The media and entertainment technology said pretax profit fell 38% in the year to the end of November 2018 to USD8.2 million from USD13.3 million a year earlier, as revenue slipped by 7.5% to USD88.9 million from USD96.1 million.
Software and services revenue - which includes the company's AminoTV Everywhere platform, AminoOS software, and AminoVU devices - increased by 19% in the year to USD9.3 million. Meanwhile, devices revenue, which includes integrated software, fell by 10% to USD79.6 million.
Geographically, Europe saw the highest demand for Amino software, with revenue up 25% in the region to USD28.9 million, driven by a long-standing customer re-commencing orders.
In North America, revenue declined 18% to USD49.6 million, due to distributors reducing stocking levels. Revenue in Latin America also fell, down 15% on the prior year to USD9.0 million.
In the Rest of World, revenue decreased by 22% to USD1.4 million.
Amino declared an annual dividend of 7.32p a share, up 10% from 6.66p paid the year before.
Looking ahead, the company said the economic headwinds that constrained trading in the second half of 2018 have continued into the early part of 2019.
Therefore, Amino said it expects profit to be 10% lower in 2019 than a year prior, albeit at better margins.
"The board remains confident in the strength and strategic direction of the company and has committed to continue its dividend policy for this financial year and maintain this dividend level for at least two years thereafter," said Non-Executive Chair Keith Todd.
"To support a higher quality of earnings and de-risk the business, we are accelerating our strategy to improve growth in recurring revenues from software and services, reinforce our focus on value-add hardware, and remove our exposure to low margin hardware activities," added Todd.
