C21.L Share News (C21)

LONDON (Alliance News) - 21st Century Technology PLC Wednesday said that progress in the early part of 2016 has been slower than expected, but it is seeing some new opportunities that were previously unavailable, as it reported a widened loss for 2015.

21st Century Tech provides closed-circuit television and monitoring systems for the transport sector.

The company reported a pretax loss of GBP4.8 million for 2015, widened from a pretax loss of GBP417,000 the year before, as revenue rose to GBP12.2 million from GBP9.0 million.

21st Century Tech attributed its widened loss to share based payments, restructuring, one off legal and acquisition costs and goodwill impairment.

The company bought RSL Group in April 2015, and said that the company had presented several unexpected post-acquisition challenges. Whilst it had hoped it would have progressed faster, it said that the "timing of acquisitions is difficult to control and the investment and lead time in tendering for large or long-term framework agreements can be significant and subject to delays outside our control."

21st Century Tech reiterated that the start of 2016 has been slower than anticipated, with its expected orders delayed into its second half. However, it has now dealt with the challenges following the RSL Group acquisition and is starting to see new sales opportunities emerge as it expected.

Shares in 21st Century Tech were down 7.3% at 2.55 pence Wednesday morning.

By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews

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