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Tomjones,
You state “"Its not unusual" Doh ! never heard that one before but what up and coming company , Frank has been in charge since the DB days when he did Jack sheet about the way the company was directed towards telecoms, its was Mark Braund that took us away from there before taking himself away permanently”
That’s not true. Frank was brought in as Chairman by DB in July 2014, they clashed within weeks after Franks arrival, and after a power struggle which went on until early 2015, Frank, with the backing of Diana Bartlett, forced DB out in March 2015. Mark Braund was brought in as CEO at the same time. The telephony business was subsequently sold two months later. The decision to sell that part of the business had already been taken well before Mark’s arrival, it was Mark who finalized the deal with Timico.
Frank Beechinor-Collins, Non-Executive Chairman of dotdigital, moved into a full-time executive position as CEO of SmartSpace Software plc in July 2018. That role has progressed to take more of his time over the past 6 months and as a result he has decided to step down from his role as Chairman of dotdigital, a position he has held for the past 8 years.
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/DOTD/14016448.html
“There is an opportunity for SwipedOn to move up and SmartSpace to move down,” SwipedOn chairman Ben Kepes says.
NZ Inc
Mr Ford says the deal is a great success story for Tauranga and the New Zealand tech sector.
The fact the company will no longer be Kiwi owned shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing although some commentators may say "here we go again, another loss to the New Zealand eco-system,” Mr Kepes says.
Even though SwipedOn had been growing well, there was no certainty that would continue, while under SmartSpace it gains access to significant capital and enterprise nous, he says.
“I’m a firm proponent of rinse and repeat with lots and lots of mid-sized exits. It is good for the Tauranga team who built it there, investors who went in nearly a year ago get a good return and will recycle that capital into the ecosystem,” he says.
“It’s a positive story for NZ Inc. It’s not a Xero or a billion dollar company but I’ve said for a long time this is the type of model we want to perpetuate.”
UK firm buys Kiwi tech startup SwipedOn for $11m
Tauranga-based software startup SwipedOn has been bought for $11 million in cash and shares by listed UK workspace management software provider SmartSpace.
SwipedOn was founded in 2013 by Hadleigh Ford, Ben Scott and Matt Cooney and offers corporates a cloud-based visitor management system on a monthly subscription.
Mr Ford says the startup has “really had its foot on the gas” since it completed a $1m capital raise last December. Customer numbers have more than doubled to nearly 2300 in 39 countries in the past year while annual recurring revenue has risen to $1.6 million in August 2018 from $846,000 a year earlier.
The visitor management solution replaces the dog-eared visitor book of old and tracks where visitors go, along with contractors and employees, when at a site.
SwipedOn had operating revenue of about $1m and made an operating loss of $450,000 in the past financial year. Only 10% of its revenue was derived from New Zealand.
Mr Ford says the offer from SmartSpace came out of the blue but “startups are always looking for an opportunity to exit.”
“One of the fundamental things in the deal from my point of view was that we maintained the company here in Tauranga but we will scale it from here,” he says.
It has just appointed a beachhead employee in Denver to drive sales in the US and is looking to add another six staff in Tauranga in the next six months. Mr Ford says the acquisition means “more of the same but with the capital behind us to do more, quicker.”
“One of the things we’re really proud of is team culture and we want to maintain that with our employees throughout the world and the acquirer is really cognisant that culture is king and is what drives the company and wants to maintain that.”
Skin in the game
The deal involved $8.6m in cash and $2.4m in shares. Investors such as Stephen Tindall’s K1W1, Enterprise Angels in Tauranga, Quayside Holdings and the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, will be paid out in cash.
The four management investors – Messrs Ford, Scott, Cooney and head of marketing Paul Hansen – each get a mixture of cash and shares in SmartSpace. Mr Ford says he’s delighted to continue to have “skin in the game” and the management team will remain.
SmartSpace chief executive Frank Beechinor says his company set out in July to identify acquisition targets worldwide in three categories and SwipedOn fit the bill in two of them.
“As part of our search we investigated several acquisition opportunities in visitor management in the UK, the US and in Europe. We settled on SwipedOn as we felt it met our criteria of offering good value, had a scalable technology, a worldwide customer base with a strong team and established software as a service management processes, and had the potential for significant growth,” he says.
he IS on Companies House: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05332126/officers
Where do you see the company in five years� time? MB: The market has started to recognise the potential impact of Smart Buildings in engaging employees, aiding productivity, creating additional space and optimising energy efficiency. This means the time is ripe for RedstoneConnect. In five years, I envision that the business will be 15, if not 20, times bigger than it is today, with a significant international presence, as enabled by our existing, strong, customer base. As time goes by the technology will also become increasingly affordable meaning it will become ubiquitous in companies big and small. Full interview: https://www.redstoneconnectplc.com/blog-articles/meet-the-md-mark-braund-of-redstoneconnect/
I for one am glad they're not trying to reinvent the wheel. Expecting an update shortly, and am pretty confident the headline numbers will be solid.
Net loss widen ? What loss exactly ? The other areas HAVE actually made up for the shortfall in profit, net profit is lower due to one off charges and a reversal off charges in last FY, when you stripe those two away profit is unchanged compared to last year. I wouldn't label SI as their core business anymore, it should be the least important of their businesses going forward. Software already generates the same gross margin as SI with a turnover of less than 20% of SI revenues.
Disappointing they haven't yet uploaded the interim report on the financial reports section on their website. And an updated company presentation would be nice as well, the last (and only) one dates from June 2016. MGMT, can you please sort this out ASAP ?
Nope, that's not an error, those figures do indeed refer to H1 2017, we've been in FY2018 since February as the FY ends January 31st 2018.
Got no problem with the objectives of the code, they are sound. I do have a problem with the fact that anyone can announce he "is considering the possibility of making an offer" and that this in itself triggers this whole procedure, that's just not right. The takeover panel should at least do some background checks on the offerer and offeree to establish if a possible offer could/would be legitimate/possible at all, before the procedure is kicked off for real. Now REDS must spend time and money on a offer that will never materialise.
Thanks for clarifying that. Strange law that. If I want to know who owns a company, I just state I consider the possibility of making an offer, and all shareholders owning 1% or more oblige and tell me exactly what they own. Think I may consider the possibility of making a few offers over the next few days.
Investors with over 1% of shares have until the 10th business day of the offer period to make a disclosure. That offer period hasn't started, as an offer has not been made. So why do you believe they have till Monday to declare ?
interview transcript: http://www.***************************/redstoneconnect-plc-qa-5-5-million-contract-win-trading-update-lonreds/412735879
Google is not a "leading global financial institution" is it ? Must be Goldman Sachs: http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2015/10/19/brookfield-multiplex-bags-350m-london-goldman-sachs-hq/
https://megabuyte.com/news/59ad560de4b0b62d6a8bb506/the-megabuyte-interview-mark-braund
He ain't coming back, he's too busy selling burgers at Hey Menu. His bestsellers include the Hot Air Burger and the MegaloMac.
Looking good indeed. A pity though they're not improving their financial reporting. Share count still hasn't been updated: http://www.redstoneconnectplc.com/shareholder-information/ Latest investor presentation is over a year old: http://www.redstoneconnectplc.com/financial-reports-presentations-and-circulars/ REDS mgmt, can we get an updated version ?
I don't get this negativity about last year's revenue growth. That FY was never about revenue growth anyway. It was about cleaning up the remaining mess, getting the house in order, strengthening operational & financial procedures, integrating acquisitions, building a strong base from which to grow over the next few years. I'm still not expecting strong revenue growth for the current FY either, as they'll need most of the year to complete their software suite, where the real growth will have to come from, and they've obviously gotten more picky when going for contracts in system integration, as they no longer chase low margin business. Still I expect adjusted EBITDA to double compared to last year based on operational efficiency, growing margins in each business segment, and a shift in revenue mix from system integration towards software. If they can deliver on that, they'll be in a strong position early 2018 to accelerate growth going forward.