BONH.L Share News (BONH)

(Sharecast News) - Business media company Bonhill Group said on Monday that it was trading "marginally ahead" of its expectations as released on 9 April, as it was continuing to work remotely.
The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said it was not expecting anyone outside of the Hong Kong office to return to their workplace until September at the earliest.

It told shareholders that the impact of Covid-19 meant that any revenue originally planned from events was no longer achievable, and thus it had been trading solely on its digital and data revenues.

"In order to mitigate the impact of this, in the first half of the year, the company has undertaken a range of cost saving initiatives, including a redundancy programme across all of the regions in which it operates, the use of the furlough scheme in the UK and a reduction in other overheads," it said in its statement.

"Overall, these measures have reduced headcount by 13 and resulted in annualised savings in the company's fixed cost base of £1.8m."

Bonholl said its cost-saving initiatives, "flexible" adaptation to evolving market conditions and its "forward-looking approach" to customer solutions were, as it had previously indicated, designed to deliver around £20m of revenues and a "small positive EBITDA contribution" in the year ending 31 December.

"Given current trading, the board currently expects to deliver a small improvement on that position for the year."

Bonhill said it had also been focusing in the second quarter on improving its working capital position, reducing debtors by around £2m and collecting approximately £1.6m of cash.

As at 25 June, the company had a cash balance of around £3.8m, which the boards aid reflected the receipts from both the net proceeds of the recent equity fundraising of £2.3m, and the previously-announced US Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) of $1.1m (£0.89m).

"The company's application for forgiveness of the PPP loan will be made in the second half of the year which, if successful, is expected to result in $0.9m of the original $1.1m being forgiven," the board said.

"The PPP requires US staff numbers to be maintained, and therefore replaces the company's previously planned US payroll cost savings.

"In addition, the company has made an application for a UK Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) loan with its principal bank."

At 1102 BST, shares in Bonhill Group were up 7.14% at 7.5p.