LONDON (Alliance News) - Monitise PLC on Wednesday said Elizabeth Buse has resigned just months after she was named its sole chief executive, as the mobile banking and payments company also reported a significantly larger loss in its recently completed financial year.
Citing personal reasons, Buse said she is stepping down so that she can return to the US. The former Visa Inc executive became sole chief executive of Monitise in March when former co-CEO Alastair Lukies left the company he founded. Lee Cameron, the company's deputy CEO and chief commercial officer, has been named as the successor to Buse.
The company, which designs the mobile apps banks make available to their customers, said it made a GBP227.4 million pretax loss in the year ended June 30. That widened from the GBP63.4 million pretax loss reported for the prior financial year, as Monitise recognised GBP94.3 million in goodwill, capitalised development costs and other intangible and fixed assets impairments.
"Our move to become a cloud business reflects our drive to adapt to the evolving needs of the industries and clients we serve. A consequence of reshaping Monitise for growth and profitability is that we have had to recognise significant non-cash impairments and exceptional one-off costs," Buse said.
Revenue fell to GBP89.7 million from GBP95.1 million, while operating costs were shaved to GBP88.3 million from GBP93.1 million.
Monitise said it does not expect revenue growth in the new financial year. However, the company expects operating costs to continue to fall, primarily due to cuts to the workforce, lower IT costs, exiting non-core geographies, and "property rationalisation".
The company said it expects to be profitable in terms of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the second half of its new financial year. It also is still targeting EBITDA profitability for the financial year as whole. It expects to have a cash position in excess of GBP45 million throughout the new financial year.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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