Mobile Streams issues profit warning, shares plunge

Shares in Mobile Streams plunged on Wednesday after the group issued a profit warning on the back of a decline in the value of the Argentine peso. The share price lost over a third of its value after the group, which provides technology and services for the publication of content, warned the currency devaluation meant it was no longer expected to meet market expectations for the year ending June 30th 2014. The company said revenue for the six months ended December 31st climbed to around £27m from £23.7m in the comparative period a year earlier, up 14% in sterling and 28% in pesos. Over 95% of earnings were derived from the Mobile Internet segment with the sale of content directly to consumers. The increased revenue was insufficient to offset both higher marketing expenditures and adverse currency movements, and as such the group anticipates a reduction in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the full-year. Chief Executive Officer Simon Buckingham said: "The performance of Mobile Streams once again continued to improve with growth in revenues and cash. This was driven primarily by solid growth of around 50% in the company's Mobile Internet active subscriber base in the Latin America region, which surpassed 4m."However, due to the recent devaluation of the Argentine Peso subsequent to the end of the reporting period, the company does not currently expect that it will meet market expectations for the full year ending June 30th 2014. Once the currency situation has stabilised, the company will provide further guidance to the market."The company pointed to a more than doubling of net cash at the period end to £4.6m (December 31st 2012: £2m), of which 20% was located outside of Argentina. The group said that it continued to look at the "most effective" way of moving cash out of the country to mitigate the effect of the strict rules imposed on companies in Argentina two years ago. The rules were made to give it greater control over the foreign exchange market and as such increased the difficulty of repatriation of funds from Argentina to related companies. The share price plunged 34.77% to 41.75p by 09:25 Wednesday. NR