StatPro Share News (SOG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Cloud-based portfolio analysis software firm StatPro Group PLC said Wednesday its 2017 loss narrowed amid growth in revenue due to the "transformative" Delta acquisition.

In 2017, pretax loss narrowed to GBP3.4 million from GBP10.1 million the year prior. This was after revenue advanced to GBP49.3 million from GBP37.6 million the year before.

StatPro proposed a final dividend of 2.05 pence per share, flat on the prior year. For the full year, the dividend also remained flat at 2.9p.

"The transformative acquisition of Delta in May 2017 was the defining point of the year - expanding our portfolio analytics capabilities as well as driving adjusted Ebitda and recurring revenue growth," StatPro Chief Executive Officer Justin Wheatley said.

Annualised recurring revenue grew to GBP53.0 million from GBP39.3 million the year before. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation expanded to GBP7.0 million from GBP5.1 million the year prior.

StatPro acquired UBS AG's risk and performance analytics service, UBS Delta, for approximately EUR13.0 million in cash in April 2017.

"The integration of Delta's capabilities into our flagship Revolution platform is on course," Wheatley added. "Once completed, we will be able to provide the only cloud-based, multi-tenant portfolio analytics solution with a broad range of functions across performance, risk and regulation."

"Our improving cloud technology platform will be key to further organic growth in 2018 - offering fund administration clients significant improvements in efficiency and capabilities," Wheatley concluded. "We ended 2017 strongly and expect to continue to see further organic revenue and profit growth in 2018. We have started the current financial year in line with our expectations."

The company explained sales activity "accelerated" in the fourth quarter of 2017 and that it was "seeing key fund administration clients starting to increase their use of Revolution significantly."

"StatPro's view remains that if fund administrators offer a more efficient performance service, there will be a stronger trend towards outsourcing," the company said in a statement. "The key is StatPro's Revolution platform, which offers fund administration clients significant improvements in efficiency."

"In 2018, the group is engaging with a number of parties about partnering with their platforms to offer an enhanced combined service," StatPro added. "Integration using APIs is the key to this strategy and it also offers clients by far the best way to provide joint services from best of breed companies. One of the core objectives is to be the provider of portfolio analytics solutions for the growing number of financial information platforms. Many fund administrators and investment banks have these or are building them."

Shares in StatPro were 3.5% lower at 180.00 pence on Wednesday.