Last checked at 18 Oct 2021 07:00
IXICO plc
("IXICO" or the "Company")
Trading Update for year ended 30 September 2021
£9.2 million revenues outperform market expectations
EBITDA profitability expected to be materially ahead of market expectations
Strong £18.8 million order book and £6.7 million cash position
IXICO plc (AIM: IXI), the AI data analytics company delivering insights in neuroscience, announces a trading update for the year ended 30 September 2021.
· Full year revenue of £9.2 million (2020: £9.5 million) ahead of £8.7 million market expectations. Year-on-year revenue broadly flat despite full year of COVID-19 and lost revenue resulting from largest client's announcement on 23 March 2021 to cease dosing patients in its Huntington's Disease (HD) trials.
· Year-end order book of £18.8 million (2020: £21.7 million), despite £7.1m adverse impact from the descoping of the above HD trials.
· Year-end cash of £6.7 million, (2020: £7.9 million) reflecting more than £2 million technology investment to support long term growth (including our next generation, Microsoft Azure cloud-based, imaging data platform and proprietary AI data analytics platform). The Company continues to be debt-free.
· Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation ('EBITDA') expected to be materially ahead of market expectations of £1.2 million and prior year (2020: £1.3 million). Key contributors include strong trading in the final quarter, careful management of discretionary costs and several positive one-time impacts.
Outlook
Benefiting from a strong order book, and an improving business outlook resulting from the initiation of new neuroimaging clinical trials during the 2022 financial year, the Company expects a return to revenue growth, albeit at a lower rate than recent historical levels. In the coming year, the Company will continue to pursue its investment plan to accelerate long-term sustained growth. Due to these investments, and the one-time beneficial impacts on EBITDA seen in 2021, the Company expects to see lower profitability in 2022.
The Company intends to announce its audited results for the year ended 30 September 2021 in early December 2021.
Giulio Cerroni, Chief Executive Officer of IXICO, commented: "2021 has been another significant year in IXICO's development as a premium technology services partner to the global biopharmaceutical industry. Despite a challenging business environment, we announced contracts with several new clients, initiating early-stage clinical trials contracts across a widened range of neurological therapeutic indications. We go into 2022 with an established track record of delivery, substantiated by a 25% 5-year revenue CAGR, a further year of growing profitability and a strengthened balance sheet.
"We recognise the potential for clients to prematurely terminate late-stage clinical trials as part of the inherent challenge of developing new treatments. However, with an ageing population and the high unmet clinical need for new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Huntington's Disease, and other rarer neurological conditions, we remain very confident in the medium- and long-term opportunity for the scale up of our business.
"As we continue to build our commercial capabilities across the coming year to further diversify our order book, I am excited by the commercial partnerships, technology and operational investments we are making which position us, even more ready to maximise on the opportunity available to us."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR)
For further information please contact:
IXICO plc | +44 (0)20 3763 7498 | |
Giulio Cerroni, Chief Executive Officer Grant Nash, Chief Financial Officer |
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Cenkos Securities PLC (Nominated adviser and sole broker) | +44 (0)20 7397 8900 | |
Giles Balleny / Max Gould (Corporate Finance) |
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Michael F Johnson / Russell Kerr (Sales) |
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Walbrook PR Ltd | +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or IXICO@walbrookpr.com | |
Paul McManus / Lianne Applegarth / Alice Woodings |
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About IXICO
IXICO is dedicated to delivering insights in neuroscience. Our purpose is to advance medicine and human health by turning data into clinically meaningful information, providing valuable new insights in neuroscience and our goal is to be a leading proponent of artificial intelligence in medical image analysis. We will achieve this by developing and deploying breakthrough data analytics, at scale, through our remote access technology platform, to improve the return on investment in drug development and reduce risk and uncertainty in clinical trials for our pharmaceutical clients.
More information is available on www.IXICO.com and follow us on Twitter @IXICOnews