Seeing Machines Share News (SEE)

(Alliance News) - Driver monitoring systems firm Seeing Machines Ltd said Monday it was "optimistic" for the future amid progress within its product portfolio, despite annual losses deepening due to higher development costs.

Meanwhile, the firm hired a new finance head after the former incumbent left in July.

For the financial year ended June, pretax loss widened to AUD41.7 million from AUD36.0 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 3.9% to AUD31.9 million from AUD30.7 million the year before, and gross profit more than doubling to AUD18.7 million from AUD7.6 million the year prior.

Profit performance was hurt by research & development expenses surging to AUD35.9 million from AUD20.2 million the year before.

"We are very pleased with progress in the business," Chief Executive Officer Paul McGlone said. "We have worked hard internally and with our external partners to optimise work processes, minimise costs and seek out new opportunities, which will ensure we turn many years of hard work into value for shareholders."

During the year, Seeing Machines signed two original equipment manufacturer awards for its autonomous driving FOVIO chip. Similarly, its Guardian product was connected to 16,000 vehicles globally at the end of the year.

"I am optimistic about 2020 and beyond as we harness the growing opportunities for our driver monitoring technology across very engaged transport sectors and bring the advanced discussions around IP licensing to life, which will underpin our ability to meet the ongoing and growing demands of our customers", McGlone continued.

For the financial year ending June 2020, Seeing Machines expects revenue between AUD45 million and AUD50 million, which would be up as much as 57% from financial 2019. Of this, between AUD18 million and AUD20 million is expected to be derived from annualised recurring revenue.

By the end of financial 2020, Seeing Machines expects Guardian connected vehicles to be between 27,000 and 30,000 units. Guardian is a driver fatigue and distraction monitoring system, which helps to prevent accidents.

In addition, Seeing Machines hired Naomi Rule as its new chief financial officer from the start of October. She was previously the finance chief of Sydney-listed Blue Sky Alternative Investments Ltd.

"I am delighted to welcome Naomi to the team, and I'm confident she will add significant value to the management team," McGlone said.

Rule replaces interim finance chief Michael Cameron, who took up the role after former numbers chief Luke Oxenham left the firm in July.

Seeing Machines was down 0.4% at 4.0650 pence Monday morning in London.