LSAI.L Share News (LSAI)

(Sharecast News) - Location data technology company Location Sciences updated the market on its trading in 2020 on Thursday, saying unaudited revenues were expected to be around £1.07m, making for a decrease of about 12% on 2019.
The AIM-traded firm said the reduction in revenue for the year ended 31 December was due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the location-based advertising industry.

Unaudited revenues from 'Verify' for the year totalled £0.32m, down 36% year-on-year, while unaudited data and insights revenues showed a modest improvement, rising 6% to £0.75m.

To mitigate the impact of Covid-19, the company's directors implemented a cost reduction programme in early 2020, which led to unaudited administrative expenses being reduced to approximately £1.5m for the year, down 41% on 2019.

The unaudited EBITDA loss was expected to be around £0.77m in the full year, a narrowing of about 55% compared to 2019.

"Like many businesses, 2020 has been an extremely challenging year for Location Sciences and, disappointingly, has halted the momentum we had gained in our verification business," said chief executive officer Mark Slade.

"Embracing transparency, which has the side effect of limiting the scale of media delivery, has simply fallen down the priority list for many in the industry.

"On the positive side, we are encouraged by the durability of our data and insight business and look forward to launching our first product into the financial services industry."

Slade said that, as shown by the company's results, the management team had done "everything possible" to reduce costs and conserve the cash resources of the business.

"The announcement of a business review is the right thing for us to do for shareholders given the ongoing uncertainty caused by the global pandemic and the Board will be evaluating all options open to it."

At 1219 GMT, shares in Location Sciences were down 17.33% at 0.56p.