(Alliance News) - Social video company Brave Bison Group PLC on Friday said its Non-Executive Chair Robin Miller will step down at the end of the year and the firm expects to swing to an annual loss.
The company has kicked off a search to find a replacement for Miller, who steps down on December 31.
He said: "I have enjoyed my tenure as chairman, despite some of the challenges the company has faced. The business has great potential not yet reflected in the share price, but I am confident that under Kate Burns (Brave Bison's chief executive) it soon will be."
Brave Bison shares were 12% lower on Friday morning in London, at 1.27 pence each.
Annual results will be "below market expectations", the firm warned, with revenue for 2019 forecast to come in at GBP16 million, 31% lower than the GBP21 million from the year before.
Brave Bison expects an adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP700,000, swinging from a profit of GBP800,000 last year.
Brave Bison explained: "These results are significantly below market expectations, driven by the continued impact of adapting to Facebook Inc's new publishing policies announced earlier this year and a second half shortfall in the group's Asia Pacific branded content division. Notwithstanding, Asia Pacific is still expected to deliver over 100% revenue growth year on year in 2019."
In April, the company's four largest Facebook accounts, lifestyle sites VTRND and Bluntly, arts and crafts site Supercrafty and video content publisher Daily Viral Stories, were de-monitised as the social media site stopped displaying adverts on the pages.
The firm added: "Of these four, only VTRND is still de-monetised and we are continuing to re-brand the page in order to comply with Facebook's new policy. It is now clear that it is taking much longer than expected for the pages that were de-monetised to grow their reach and views and the costs of complying with the new content policy have adversely impacted expected margins.
"In recognition of our over reliance on Facebook and as part of the re-organisation of the business, we have seen significant revenue growth in other platforms such as Snapchat and YouTube."
Revenue from Youtube is expected to surge 40% year-on-year, helped by an uptick in trading with existing clients like professional golf tournament organiser PGA Tour and the US and Australian tennis governing bodies.
Burns said: "Changes in Facebook's publisher policy has forced us to build a stronger content creation team and invest in more original production across platforms."
On Thursday, investors CIP Merchant Capital Ltd said they made a further investment in Brave Bison.
CIP parted with GBP396,000 to acquire an additional 28.0 million shares in the company, upping its stake to just under 12%.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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