Last checked at 26 Jan 2017 07:00
26 January 2017
Mobile Streams plc ("Mobile Streams" or the "Company") (AIM: MOS)
Trading Statement
Mobile Streams is pleased to update its shareholders on its progress for the six months ended 31 December 2016.
Highlights
· Subscriber numbers in India exceeded 100,000 active subscribers and have since risen to over 130,000 during January 2017
· Successful fundraising of £2.2m (before expenses) to fund growth in India
· £2.8m of cash and cash equivalents at 31 December 2016 (31 December 2015: £1.5m), with no debt
· Trading during the first half of the financial year was in line with expectations and unaudited revenues were approximately £3.6m (H1 2015: £8.0m). All revenue is from continuing operations
Commenting, Simon Buckingham, CEO of Mobile Streams said: "The successful fundraising of £2.2 million gross proceeds completed at the end of the period is enabling us to both continue and also accelerate our strategy of building subscribers and revenues in the Indian market during calendar year 2017. Whilst Argentina remains a challenging place to do business, we expect India to continue to grow steadily throughout 2017 as we focus on and invest in the market."
Business update
By the end of the calendar year, the Company's local subsidiary, Mobile Streams India Private Limited, exceeded the important milestone of reaching 100,000 active subscribers to its MobileGaming.com games subscription service. Subsequently, the active subscriber base has climbed to more than 130,000 active subscribers as at the date of this announcement. Active subscribers are measured as consumers who have made a purchase from the Company in the country in the past 60 days. For like-for-like comparability, this is the same methodology the Company uses to measure subscribers in its other markets such as Argentina.
Most of the growth in active subscribers to date has been driven by subscription growth enabled by billing connections for the three largest local mobile phone operators. The Company is working to add additional direct billing connections to two additional local Indian mobile network operators, each with approximately 100 million subscribers. The Company is also working to launch its browser based games service to compliment its app download service in India. These launches are expected to happen over the next few months.
During the first half of its financial year, the Argentine market where the majority of the Company's current operations reside continued to be challenging as a result of general market conditions as well as regulation in the local market for mobile content subscriptions. As such, Mobile Streams continued to execute on its strategy of building up its operations in India, which the Company feels has the biggest potential to generate shareholder returns.
Enquires:
Mobile Streams
Simon Buckingham, Chief Executive Officer +1 347 669 9068
Enrique Benasso, Chief Financial Officer
N+1 Singer (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Alex Price +44 20 7496 3000
Alex Laughton Scott