Bango upbeat even as it warns on total revenue

(Sharecast News) - Mobile commerce company Bango updated the market on its expected financial performance for the 2019 financial year on Tuesday, reporting that end user spend for the year was expected to be around £1.1bn, continuing its five-year trend of doubling growth in that measure each year.
The AIM-traded firm said group revenue growth was expected to be over 40% to at least £9.3m.

Total revenue was set to be below market expectations, however, mainly due to a customer data platform (CDP) license and marketplace supply deal not concluding in December as was expected.

Those deals were now expected to close in early 2020.

Payment Platform revenue and data monetization revenue both delivered growth in the year, the board said, and were expected to be at least £7.1m and £2.2m, respectively.

Operating costs were said to be in line with expectations, with Bango saying the cost of operating the payment platform remained stable, while the volumes processed doubled and the firm increased its investment in sales and marketing to enable the launch of the data monetisation business.

Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was said to be positive, and was expected to be more than £0.4m, confirming the company''s transition to cash generation.

Bango's management said its positive view of continued exponential end user spend growth was unchanged, due to growth in existing customers, a healthy pipeline of new routes, and new merchants joining the Bango ecosystem.

Management also said it was "increasingly confident" in data monetisation opportunities contributing to end user spend and revenue growth in 2020 and beyond.

The 'Audiens' customer data platform was said to be performing well, and Bango Marketplace was said to have attracted more customers and delivered repeat sales as it evolved from limited access to full commercial availability during the year.

Cash had increased from the end of the first half of 2019, and would be at least £2.5m at the end of 2019.

"After another year of sustained growth in 2019 in all areas of the business, Bango enters 2020 on a strong foundation," said chief executive officer Ray Anderson.

"The growth of merchants and End User Spend on the Bango Payment Platform brings new opportunities for data monetization using Bango Marketplace."

Anderson said that, two years after acquiring Audiens to accelerate the data monetisation business, growth had already been delivered through international expansion and the new Bango Marketplace business.

"While some deals expected late in 2019 did not close before the year-end, these will feature in our 2020 growth - alongside the momentum generated through market-leading developers adopting the platform for app marketing which further supports the continued, exponential growth of end user spend."

At 0853 GMT, shares in Bango were down 6.81% at 127.2p.