Last checked at 15 Mar 2017 07:00
15 March 2017
Mobile Streams plc ("Mobile Streams" or the "Company") (AIM: MOS)
Trading statement
Strong growth in the number of active subscribers in India with difficult trading in Argentina continuing
Mobile Streams provides the following trading update for its shareholders on its progress for the six months ended 31 December 2016.
India
The Company is pleased to announce that Mobile Streams India Private Limited has exceeded the important milestone of reaching 175,000 active subscribers* to its MobileGaming.com games subscription service. This shows strong growth of 34% in a little over 6 weeks since the Company's last trading update in January 2017.
In India, most of the growth in active subscribers to date has been driven by subscription growth enabled by its direct billing connections with two of the three largest local mobile phone operators. The Company is working to add additional direct billing connections for the one remaining local top three network operator as well as to two additional local Indian mobile network operators, each with approximately 100 million subscribers.
The Company also announces that it has now launched its browser based games service to compliment its app download service in India. This HTML5 based service has now gone live with billing connectivity from our largest partner, with another large partner scheduled to launch before the end of the current financial year.
Argentina
As announced on 26 January 2017, trading in Argentina continues to be challenging as a result of general market conditions and regulation in the local market for mobile content subscriptions. The Company has recently received notification from a local billing partner that it has increased the revenue share payment to the Company for new subscriptions. Unfortunately, this positive news is offset somewhat by a second billing partner deciding to discontinue its mobile billing subscription services. The net result of these changes is that the Company expects revenue and EBITDA for the current financial year to be materially lower than market expectations.
The Company expects to announce its interim results on 31 March 2017.
Commenting, Simon Buckingham, CEO of Mobile Streams said: "We are of course delighted in the growth that we are seeing in India and are confident that our strategy of focusing our efforts here is the correct one. The news from Argentina is disappointing but our Indian business is establishing itself and gaining good momentum."
* 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.
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