(Alliance News) - IDE Group Holdings PLC on Friday said its loss widened in 2018 following a drop in revenue caused by non-repeat of projects completed in 2017.
The stock was trading 23% lower on Friday in London at 0.78 pence a share.
The IT services provider's pretax loss more than doubled to GBP28.2 million in 2018 from GBP13.0 million reported a year earlier, as revenue dropped 24% to GBP41.1 million.
The gross margin decreased to 16% in the year from 30% in 2017. A contributing factor was an increase in provisions for onerous contracts amounting to GBP1.9 million.
In the Managed Services division, a large proportion of revenue recorded in 2017 arose from one-off projects, which came to an end either in 2017 or early 2018, resulting in a decrease in overall revenue, IDE Group explained.
Managed Services revenue was GBP16.5 million in 2018, down 28% from a year earlier.
Networks revenue was GBP7.3 million for the year, down 16% from 2017, with the decrease compared to last year due to certain customer contracts finishing during the year.
Projects revenue was down 37% to GBP7.0 million, while revenue in the Cloud & Hosting division slightly fell 4.7% to GBP10.2 million.
"As a result of the actions taken during 2018, we ended the year in a much stronger position than we started it with a strong leadership team, an appropriate cost base and clear focus on operational execution and customer service to drive increased profitability and cash generation," said Chair Andy Parker.
"We are confident our strategy is on track and look forward to reporting continued progress throughout the current year," added Parker.
IDE Group's shares will be suspended on Monday as the publication of audited results will not make the end of June deadline. The results posted Friday were preliminary, and it hopes to have the audited figures out in early July.