Srt Marine Sys. Regulatory News (SRT)

About SRT:

SRT develops, manufactures and supplies maritime tracking technology and turn-key system solutions to marine stakeholders across the globe with a particular expertise in AIS. The Company's products and solutions are used by individual vessel owners, port authorities, maritime infrastructure owners, coast guards and national security agencies to enhance their maritime domain awareness. Applications include the tracking of commercial and leisure vessels; sustainable fishery; anti-collision; search and rescue; waterway management, port and coast security; pollution management; and environmental management.

The information communicated in this announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.

This year has been financially challenging for SRT, as we pass through the final stage before a number of significant system projects commence in earnest. Despite a disappointing reduction in revenues compared to last year, we end the year in a satisfactory financial position, with a significantly increased pipeline of system sales opportunities.

Group revenue decreased year-on-year from £11.0 million to £5.3 million, resulting in a loss before tax and exceptional items of £4.3 million (2017: profit £ 1.2 million). Our gross profit margin was 43% (2017: 66%) with the year on year movement reflecting the very high weighting of our transceiver business in the current year compared to a much greater weighting of our high margin systems business in the previous year. We are also recording a one-off exceptional impairment charge of £1.5m in relation to a systems contract with a European systems integrator who is prime contractor to a SE Asian coast guard. Although we received written re-assurances from the customer, including a letter from the end customer explaining that the delay had arisen due to a lack of budget availability and would re-commence in the future, since in this instance, SRT was not the prime contractor and thus not engaged directly with the end customer, we decided that given this lack of visibility it was prudent for us to write down the full value of the project. This was announced to the market via an RNS on 31 July 2017.

As at the year-end our gross cash balances were £1.4 million (2017: £1.8 million). In the light of the historical challenges with contracts, we have emphasised the future risks around payment timings from large system customers, specifically our existing contract in the Middle East and a going concern risk in the event that these are further extended and or not closed. Recognising these issues, during the year we entered into a £10 million loan note programme, of which £3.15 million has been drawn-down at the date of this report with repayment over a three year period. And in June 2018 we completed a successful fundraise of £3 million. This has provided the Group with working capital facilities to fill working capital gaps which arise from time to time due to the nature of government contracts.

Administrative costs year on year increased to £6.5 million from £6.0 million. This is largely a result of the adverse foreign exchange impacts on the revaluation of dollar denominated receivables. The underlying overhead position however remains tightly controlled and remains relatively low for a business addressing such a large and global market. As systems projects convert I expect that our overheads will increase driven by an increase in field project management and support resource requirements.

During the year we continued to invest in our core technologies and products, increasing investment to £1.9 million from £1.4 million last year. These programs saw the completion of a new range of Class B transceivers, implementation of new system related functionality on other transceivers, and significant functionality enhancements to our GeoVS maritime tracking and management application. We expect to accelerate our R&D activities in the coming year to support the delivery of systems, through the selective expansion of our internal development team around critical core technology areas such as display, data fusion networking, analytics and transceivers, with other components contracted out.

An important part of our systems business is the provision of vessel monitoring data via satellites when vessels are operating beyond the range of terrestrial sensor systems. As the effective owner of the system contract to the end customer, there is a significant future recurring revenue opportunity for SRT from each system for the supply of such data. We announced our intent to launch our own satellite system, Oceanscan, and have commenced the technical and commercial evaluation of such an investment. This work continues such that we can weigh up the rapidly changing commercial landscape with regards to satellite data sources due to the expected large increase in the number of satellite systems with AIS and other vessel detection capabilities which is causing a decrease in the cost of data coupled with an increase in the data quality. This may mean that it is more profitable for SRT to act as a data aggregator rather than to make the investment ourselves, resulting in our data sales being more profitable with less risk across the business.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT - continued

Our transceiver business which sells AIS transceivers via a network of marine electronics brands, dealers as well as directly to end users saw revenues decrease year on year by 12%. This was caused primarily due to the introduction of our new range of Class B transceivers which resulted in stock shortages during the second half. I am pleased to report all these products are now in volume production. Going forward we expect to see this business continue its previous growth as the adoption of AIS in the EU and USA leisure and commercial marine markets grows.

Our systems business which provides turn-key maritime surveillance and management system solutions to coast guards, ports and fishing authorities, delivered revenues of only £0.3 million (2017: £5.3 million). The decline relates to the fact that minimal system project deliverables were completed during the year, and the delay to the timing of the expected new system contract. However, I am pleased to report that there has been significant progress with a number of specific large system sales opportunities towards contract signing. In all cases SRT is directly engaged with the end customer and going forward we are confident that several of these will convert into contract with installations and payments completed in the new financial year ahead.

During the year, SRT was awarded a €28.5 million contract to supply its VMS system to a SE Asian government customer. In accordance with the contract and customer operational imperatives, deliveries of equipment commenced during the last quarter of the financial year in preparation for commencement of installation in the following months. However, due to a decision by the customer to change the funding source for the project, it has become necessary for the contract to be cancelled in July and thus the deliverables and related invoices being taken back by SRT. At the time of this report we expect that a revised contract that specifies the new funding source will be in place within a few months.

Looking forward, whilst I understand that these results are disappointing, during the year the Group has made very significant operational progress, in particular with its system sales discussions. These are very significant sales opportunities which our teams have been working on for several years in a consultative fashion to enable the end customer to convert a general vision or intent into a detailed system specification, implementation plan and supporting legislation. The potential value of these contracts to SRT of these over the next few years is in excess of £400 million, plus ongoing satellite data sales which are locked into these contracts. The procurement imperative for the end customers are strong and clear and range from national security to international regulations such as the EU Commission fishing catch certification program. As these customers are governments the accurate forecasting of contract dates and delivery schedules is and will always remain challenging and, to some degree, out of our control. However, we are confident that due to the capabilities of our technologies and systems and our references that these will convert. And given their size this will be transformational for the financial performance of SRT and will reward the patience and support of our shareholders and employees.

Kevin Finn

Chairman

Date: 20 July 2018

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF PROFIT OR LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2018

Note

2018

2017

£

£

Revenue

5,331,559

11,025,730

Cost of sales

(3,026,374)

(3,786,176)

Gross profit

2,305,185

7,239,554

Administrative costs

(6,469,102)

(5,961,393)

Operating (loss) / profit before exceptional items

(4,163,917)

1,278,161

Impairment charge

4

(1,490,315)

-

Operating (loss) / profit after exceptional items

(5,654,232)

1,278,161

Finance expenditure

(125,426)

(43,980)

Finance income

224

220

(Loss) / profit before tax and exceptional items

(5,779,434)

1,234,401

Income tax credit

551,866

216,327

(Loss) / profit for the year after tax

(5,227,568)

1,450,728

Total comprehensive (expense) / income for the year

(5,227,568)

1,450,728

(Loss) / Earnings per share:

Basic

5

(4.09)p

1.14p

Diluted

(4.09)p

1.09p

2018

2017

£

£

Assets

Non-current assets

Intangible assets

6,222,819

5,810,954

Property, plant and equipment

177,479

184,854

Deferred tax

272,688

-

Total non-current assets

6,672,986

5,995,808

Current assets

Inventories

3,443,685

3,281,521

Trade and other receivables

4,433,000

7,926,686

Cash and cash equivalents

1,364,437

1,760,861

Total current assets

9,241,122

12,969,068

Liabilities

Current liabilities

Trade and other payables

(2,529,630)

(3,055,819)

Financial liabilities

(1,650,000)

(500,000)

Total current liabilities

(4,179,630)

(3,555,819)

Net current assets

5,061,492

9,413,249

Total assets less current liabilities

11,734,478

15,409,057

Long term liabilities

Financial liabilities

(2,000,000)

(500,000)

Deferred tax

-

(279,178)

Total long term liabilities

(2,000,000)

(779,178)

Net assets

9,734,478

14,629,879

Shareholders' equity

Share capital

127,743

127,613

Share premium account

4,905,549

4,872,779

Retained (loss) / earnings

(789,410)

4,138,891

Other reserves

5,490,596

5,490,596

Total shareholders' equity

9,734,478

14,629,879

2018

2017

£

£

Cash (used in) / generated from operating activities

(993,536)

1,235,380

Corporation tax received

-

202,342

Net cash (used in) / generated from operating activities

(993,536)

1,437,722

Investing activities

Expenditure on product development

(1,876,920)

(1,389,371)

Purchase of property, plant and equipment

(83,666)

(122,928)

Interest received

224

220

Net cash used in investing activities

(1,960,362)

(1,512,079)

Financing activities

Net proceeds on issue of shares

Repayments on loan

New loans issued

Interest paid

32,900

(500,000)

3,150,000

(125,426)

17,150

-

-

(43,980)

Net cash generated from / (used in) financing activities

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

2,557,474

(396,424)

(26,830)

(101,187)

Net cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year

1,760,861

1,862,048

Net cash and cash equivalents at end of year

1,364,437

1,760,861