WAND.L Regulatory News (WAND)

25 September 2019

WANdisco plc

("WANdisco", the "Company" or the "Group")

Preliminary unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2019

Breakthrough strategic agreement with major enterprise cloud partner

Launch of LiveMigrator enables seamless migration to cloud services

WANdisco (LSE: WAND), the LiveData company announces interim unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2019.

Operational and strategic highlights

During and immediately post period end:

·; Embed and enable WANdisco technology into cloud fabric to become de-facto standard for data migration

o Breakthrough strategic agreement with major enterprise cloud partner

§ General availability of embedded product expected later in H219

§ Expect to see early revenue in FY19

o First multi-cloud contract win - an expanding use case for WANdisco Fusion

o Granted highest tier Advanced Technology Partner status with Amazon Web Services

o Two China contracts totalling $2.9 million reflects growing opportunity in that region

§ A follow-on $470k Fusion contract with one of the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers in China. Total contract value over last 12 months now totals $1.2 million

·; Create solutions and partnerships that facilitates the use of data for cloud analytics

o Launch of significant products: LiveMigrator enabling seamless migration to cloud services and recently announced, LiveAnalytics

o Joint Databricks solution to provide rapid migration of analytical data to Azure Databricks at scale

o Neudesic partnership to meet demand for migrating Hadoop workloads to Microsoft Azure and Databricks

o $540k Fusion contract with a leading global financial services institution

Financial highlights

·; Revenue for the period $6.0 million (H1 2018: $5.7 million)

·; Cash overheads2 of $15.5 million (H1 2018: $14.6 million)

·; Adjusted EBITDA3 loss of $7.6 million (H1 2018: $6.8 million)

·; Operating loss $16.5 million (H1 2018: $12.2 million)

·; Cash at 30 June 2019 of $17.9 million (31 December 2018: $10.8 million)

·; Debt of $5.1 million (31 December 2018: $5.0 million)

·; Raised $17.5 million in share placing at 9.2% premium to provide growth capital

Outlook

·; With current visibility and a significant and growing pipeline, the Company issues FY19 revenue guidance of $24m

o This comprises renewals, late-stage deals as well as a pipeline of partner-driven sales and is underpinned by strategic partnerships that were initiated during H219

o Significant traction with new products, LiveMigrator and LiveAnalytics

David Richards, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of WANdisco, commented:

"The core focus of management in H1 was securing the breakthrough deal with a major enterprise cloud partner announced on 15 July. The deal, one of the most important developments in our journey to date, is a significant co-development project which sees our technology deeply embedded into the vendor's cloud offerings. The deal combines our Fusion technology with the scale, reach and enterprise capabilities of the Partner's platform, with the sales and billing process fully independent from WANdisco.

 "Our LiveMigrator solution, launched in H1, enabling the seamless migration of petabyte-scale live data to the cloud for the first time. With WANdisco LiveAnalytics, launched in Q3, we added the capability to provide continuous and immediate availability of analytics during and after migration.

"Our technology and go-to-market platform is building critical mass, with our breakthrough co-development deal a flagship example of the operational leverage developing within our business. This strong platform for growth and evolving pipeline of late stage deals in the early months of H2 leaves us in a strong position, underpinning the Board's confidence in H2 and beyond."

A webcast of WANdisco's results presentation will be available on the Company's website later this morning: https://www.wandisco.com/investors 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

For further information, please contact:

WANdisco plc via FTI Consulting

David Richards, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Erik Miller, Chief Financial Officer

FTI Consulting +44 (0)20 3727 1137

Matt Dixon / Chris Birt / Kwaku Aning

Stifel (Nomad and Joint Broker) +44 (0)20 7710 7600

Fred Walsh / Neil Shah

Peel Hunt (Joint Broker)

Edward Knight / Nick Prowting +44 (0)20 7418 8900

WH Ireland Limited (Joint Broker)

Adam Pollock +44 (0)20 7220 1666

About WANdisco

WANdisco is the LiveData company that empowers enterprises to revolutionise their IT infrastructure with its ground-breaking DConE technology that powers the WANdisco Fusion platform, enabling companies to generate hyperscale economics with the same IT budget - across multiple development environments, data centres, and cloud providers.

WANdisco Fusion powers hundreds of the Global 2000, including Cisco Systems, Allianz, AMD, Juniper, Morgan Stanley and more. With significant OEM relationships with IBM and Alibaba and go-to-market partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle and other industry titans, WANdisco is igniting a LiveData movement worldwide.

For more information on WANdisco, visit http://www.wandisco.com.

BUSINESS REVIEW

In the first half of 2019, the focus of the Group was directed toward signing a joint development agreement with a major enterprise cloud vendor. We have also focused on products and partnerships that provide customers with simple, robust transition paths as more and more companies are looking for solutions to move their on-premises Hadoop data to the cloud. Our LiveMigrator product will allow customers to make the transition from on-premises to cloud computing as easy and as seamless as possible. To support these efforts, we successfully completed a share placing in the period, raising $17.5 million from new and existing investors at a 9.2% premium.

The main strategic push for the Company in 2019 was to secure deep integration with one of the main cloud vendors. To that end, we were pleased to sign one such partnership post period-end. This partnership requires significant integration and engineering by both parties, and we anticipate the general availability of the embedded product later in H219. We expect to see early revenue from this partnership in FY19 based on current pipeline activity. This partnership is a breakthrough for WANdisco, as it moves the company from a small direct salesforce with long selling cycles to one that leverages the large direct sales force of this particular cloud partner and an offering that is deeply integrated with push-button installation.

H1 contract review

A significant highlight in H1 was our success in the typically challenging Chinese market, with contract wins totalling $2.9 million with major blue-chips. China remains a significant market opportunity, with enterprises recognising the unique opportunity our IP provides for the massive scale data achievable in a market of over a billion people. We continue to view China as an untapped market and look for further opportunities to expand our footprint directly and through our partners.

The other major highlight was our inaugural multi-cloud win. We view multi-cloud as the long-term solution of choice for most blue-chip companies looking to rely on cloud as a primary location for analytics, disaster recovery and multi-region processing. Furthermore, the goal of true multi-vendor cloud solutions will allow enterprises to avoid the pitfalls of vendor lock-in. With our launch of LiveMigrator we now cater for all stages of an enterprise's data journey to the cloud; from migrating to the cloud, or moving to a sophisticated hybrid cloud solution, or full adoption of cloud and multi-cloud solutions.

In the first half of 2019, we maintained our sales focus for our LiveCode products and we continue to see an opportunity in the segment of the LiveCode market that we focus on. This is evident as customers continue to move from legacy proprietary platforms to modern, agile, open source platforms. Software development continues to become more geographically and organisationally distributed, bringing greater challenges in control and efficiency, both amongst software publishers and in industry more generally, which drives the greater need for our products.

Outlook

We are increasingly seeing companies take advantage of data analytics in the cloud, leveraging the elasticity of cloud economics instead of inefficient and expensive on-premise Hadoop installations. LiveMigrator and our recently launched LiveAnalytics solution, combined with our Fusion product, uniquely addresses this growing market: a market we estimate to be in the region of four to six exabytes of data, amounting to between $1.0 billion and $1.5 billion in potential revenue. Enterprises that wish to modernise their analytics platform by leveraging the cloud can now migrate on-premises Hadoop analytics without interrupting their analytics processing, creating a seamless transition from Hadoop to the cloud. In collaboration with our enterprise cloud partners such as Microsoft, Alibaba and Amazon, and our technology partners Databricks and Neudesic, we continue to see strong demand for our products. We have a strong H2 pipeline of deals from both our partners and direct sales.

The Company is confident in FY19 revenue guidance of $24M. This guidance comprises renewals, late-stage deals as well as a pipeline of partner-driven sales and is underpinned by strategic partnerships that were initiated during H219.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

As required by the International Accounting Standards Board "IASB" the Group has initially adopted IFRS 16, "Leases" effective 1 January 2019. The effect of initially applying IFRS 16 is mainly attributed to the following:

·; Recognition of an asset and related lease liability for certain of the Group's operating leases (mainly office premises).

·; Removal of rent costs on these operating leases and replacement with depreciation charge on the asset and interest on the lease liability.

The Group has adopted IFRS 16 using the cumulative effect method (without practical expedients), with the effect of initially applying this standard recognised at the date of initial application (i.e. 1 January 2019). Accordingly, the information presented for 2018 has not been restated - i.e. it is presented, as previously reported, under IAS 17 and related interpretations.

Revenue for the period ended 30 June 2019 was $6.0 million (H1 2018: $5.7 million).

Deferred revenue from sales booked during the first half of 2019 and in previous years, and not yet recognised as revenue, is $4.7 million at 30 June 2019 (H1 2018: $4.6 million). Our deferred revenue represents future revenue from new and renewed contracts, many of them spanning multiple years.

Adjusted EBITDA loss3 was $7.6 million (H1 2018: $6.8 million), due primarily to investments in the business.

Revenue

Revenue was $6.0 million (H1 2018: $5.7 million), supported by our success in China, with contract wins totalling $2.9 million. The business continues to achieve a significant proportion of contracted revenue through direct sales, in most cases these direct sales are only achievable through the close partnerships held with major cloud vendors. The group expects over time to increase the contribution of partner channel sales to direct sales, with the Group's co-development contract announced 15 July for example enabling direct billing through the cloud partner.

As we continue transition to a recurring revenue model, the variability in revenue increases as the one-off perpetual licenses decrease in volume and size, being replaced by smaller but more repeatable revenue streams.

Operating costs

Cash overheads2 increased in the period as we made modest investments in Sales and Engineering, rising to $15.5 million from $14.6 million in the first half of 2018.

Product development expenditure capitalised in the period was $2.3 million in the period (H1 2018: $2.4 million). All of this expenditure was associated with new product features and was capitalised.

Our headcount was 152 as at 30 June 2019 (December 2018: 148, June 2018: 138). Headcount increases in the period were principally in Sales and Marketing and Engineering as we added capacity to develop new products and service our partner channel.

Profit and loss

Adjusted EBITDA3 loss for the period was $7.6 million (H1 2018: $6.8 million).

The loss after tax for the period increased to $16.7 million (H1 2018: $11.3 million), as a result of the increased overheads and increased share-based payment charge. The exceptional finance loss of $0.1 million (H1 2018: $1.2 million gain) arose from the retranslation of intercompany balances at 30 June 2019, reflecting the increase in Sterling against the US dollar. The impact of FX rates changes on the financial statements should be restricted to the retranslation of US dollar denominated intercompany loans, as opposed to the operating activities of the business. An equal and opposite translation gain on the net assets of overseas net assets in reserves result in no impact on the Group net assets.

Balance sheet and cash flow

Trade and other receivables at 30 June 2019 were $6.1 million (31 December 2018: $7.4 million). This includes $1.1 million of trade receivables (31 December 2018: $1.8 million) and $5.0 million related to non-trade receivables (31 December 2018: $5.6 million).

Net consumption of cash was $9.5 million before financing (H1 2018: $10.5 million), resulting in a closing cash balance of $17.9 million at 30 June 2019. The consumption of cash was due primarily to an increase in cash overheads. For the full year cash consumption will be a function of the level of revenues achieved and collection of customer receivables in the period. At 30 June 2019 we had drawings under our revolving credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank of $3.1 million (31 December 2018: $3.9 million).

Consolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income

For the six months ended 30 June 2019

The notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated interim financial statements.

Consolidated statement of financial position

At 30 June 2019

The notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated interim financial statements.

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

For the six months ended 30 June 2019

The notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated interim financial statements.

Consolidated statement of cash flows

For the six months ended 30 June 2019

The notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated interim financial statements.

Notes to the condensed consolidated interim financial statements

For the six months ended 30 June 2019

1. Reporting entity

WANdisco plc (the "Company") is a public limited company incorporated and domiciled in Jersey. The Company's ordinary shares are traded on AIM. These condensed consolidated interim financial statements ("Interim financial statements") as at and for the six months ended 30 June 2019 comprise the Company and its subsidiaries (together referred to as the "Group"). The Group is primarily involved in the development and provision of global collaboration software.

2. Basis of preparation

a Basis of accounting

These interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with IAS 34 "Interim Financial Reporting" and should be read in conjunction with the Group's last annual consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ended 31 December 2018 ("last annual financial statements"). They do not include all of the information required for a complete set of IFRS financial statements. However, selected explanatory notes are included to explain events and transactions that are significant to an understanding of the changes in the Group's financial position and performance since the last annual financial statements.

This is the first set of the Group's financial statements where IFRS 16 "Leases" has been applied. Changes to significant accounting policies are described in Note 3.

These interim financial statements were authorised for issue by the Company's board of directors on 25 September 2019.

b Going concern

These interim financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis, which assumes that the Group will be able to meet the mandatory repayment terms of the banking facilities.

As at 30 June 2019 the Group had net assets of $20.2m (31 December 2018: $13.8m), including cash of $17.9m (31 December 2018: $10.8m) as set out in the interim consolidated statement of financial position, with a debt facility drawn of $3.1m (31 December 2018: $3.9m). In the six months ended 30 June 2019, the Group incurred a loss before tax of $16.7m (H1 2018: $11.2m) and net cash outflows before financing of $9.5m (H1 2018: $10.5m).

During 2019, the revenue performance of the Group improved with revenue increasing 4% to $6.0m (H1 2018: $5.7m). Operating loss increased to $16.5m (H1 2018: $12.2m), mainly due to increased share-based payment charge and investment in operating expenses.

The Directors have prepared a detailed budget and forecasts of the Group's expected performance over a period covering at least the next twelve months from the date of the approval of these unaudited interim financial statements. As well as modelling the realisation of the sales pipeline, these forecasts also cover a number of scenarios and sensitivities in order for the Board to satisfy itself that the Group remains within its current cash facilities.

Whilst the Directors are confident in the Group's ability to grow revenues, the Board's sensitivity modelling (which considered the impact of Brexit) shows that the Group can remain within its facilities in the event that revenue growth is delayed (i.e. revenues do not increase from the level reported in 2018) for a period in excess of twelve months. The Directors' financial forecasts and operational planning and modelling also include the actions, under the control of the Group, that they could take to further significantly reduce the cost base during the coming year in the event that longer-term revenues were set to remain consistent with the level reported in 2018. On the basis of this financial and operational modelling, the Directors believe that the Group has the capability and the operational agility to react quickly, cut further costs from the business and ensure that the cost base of the business is aligned with its sales revenues, cash revenue and funding scale.

As a consequence, the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group can continue to operate within its existing facilities and be able to meet its commitments and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business for a period not less than twelve months from the date of approval of these interim financial statements. Accordingly, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the Group financial statements.

c Functional and presentational currency

The interim consolidated financial statements are presented in US dollars, which is also the presentational currency of the Group, as the revenue for the Group is predominately derived in this currency. Billings to the Group's customers during the year by WANdisco, Inc. were all in US dollars with certain costs being incurred by WANdisco International Limited in sterling and WANdisco, Pty Ltd in Australian dollars. All financial information has been rounded to the nearest thousand US dollars unless otherwise stated.

d Alternative performance measures

The Group uses a number of key performance measures ("APMs") which are non-IFRS measures to monitor the performance of its operations. The Group believes these APMs provide useful historical financial information to help investors and other stakeholders evaluate the performance of the business and are measures commonly used by certain investors for evaluating the performance of the Group. In particular, the Group uses APMs which reflect the underlying performance on the basis that this provides a more relevant focus on the core business performance of the Group. The Group has been using the following APMs on a consistent basis and they are defined and reconciled as follows:

2. Basis of preparation (continued)

d Alternative performance measures (continued)

- Cash overheads: Operating expenses adjusted for: depreciation, amortisation, capitalisation of development expenditure and equity‑settled share-based payment. See Note 6 for a reconciliation.

- Adjusted EBITDA: Operating loss adjusted for: depreciation, amortisation, capitalisation of development expenditure and equity‑settled share-based payment. See Note 6 for a reconciliation.

e Use of judgements and estimates

In preparing these interim financial statements, management has made judgements and estimates that affect the application of accounting policies and the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, income and expense. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The significant judgements made by management in applying the Group's accounting policies and the key sources of estimation uncertainty were the same as those described in the last annual financial statements, except for new significant judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty related to the application of IFRS 16 which is described in Note 3.

3. Changes in significant accounting policies - IFRS 16

Except as described below, the accounting policies applied in these interim financial statements are the same as those applied in the Group's consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ended 31 December 2018.

The changes in accounting policies are also expected to be reflected in the Group's consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ending 31 December 2019.

The Group has initially adopted IFRS 16 "Leases". Several other new standards are also effective from 1 January 2019 but they do not have a material effect on the Group's financial statements.

The effect of initially applying IFRS 16 is as follows:

- Recognition of an asset and also related lease liability for certain of the Group's operating leases (mainly office premises).

- Removal of rent costs on these operating leases and replacement with depreciation charge on the asset and interest on the lease liability.

IFRS 16 replaces IAS 17 "Leases" and related interpretations.

The Group has adopted IFRS 16 using the cumulative effect method (without practical expedients), with the effect of initially applying this standard recognised at the date of initial application (i.e. 1 January 2019). Accordingly, the information presented for 2018 has not been restated - i.e. it is presented, as previously reported, under IAS 17 and related interpretations.

a Impact of conversion

The following table summarises the impact of transition to IFRS 16 on retained earnings at 1 January 2019.

3. Changes in significant accounting policies - Adoption of IFRS 16 (continued)

The following tables summarise the impacts of adopting IFRS 16 on the Group's interim statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income for the six months ended 30 June 2018 and the Group's interim statement of financial position for each of the line items affected. There was no material impact on the Group's interim statement of cash flows for the six month period ended 30 June 2018.

4. Revenue and segmental analysis

a Operating segments

The Directors consider there to be one operating segment, being that of development and sale of licences for software and related maintenance.

b Geographical segments

The Group recognises revenue in three geographical regions based on the location of customers, as set out in the following table:

Management makes no allocation of costs, assets or liabilities between these segments since all trading activities are operated as a single business unit.

c Major customers

Included in total revenue are revenues of $1,599,000 (27% of revenue) (Six months to 30 June 2018: $nil), which arose from sales to one of the Group's largest customers and revenue of $667,000 (11% of revenue) (Six months to 30 June 2018: $1,450,000), which arose from sales to another of the Group's largest customers.

No other single customers contributed 10% or more to the Group's revenue (2018: $nil).

d Split of revenue by timing of revenue recognition

e Contract balances

The following table provides information about receivables, contract assets and liabilities from contracts with customers

5. Exceptional item

The exceptional (loss)/gain arose on Sterling denominated intercompany balances. These balances were retranslated at the closing exchange rate at 30 June 2019 which was 1.27 (compared with 1.27 at the end of 31 December 2018). In the prior half year, rates increased to 1.32, a 2% reduction compared with the rate of 1.35 at 31 December 2017. Due to the size and nature of the exchange loss in 2019 and gains in 2018, they have been included as exceptional items.

The exceptional (loss)/gain on intercompany balances in the Consolidated statement of profit or loss, is offset by an equivalent exceptional exchange gain/(loss) on the retranslation of the intercompany balances, which is included in the retranslation of net assets of foreign operations, included in the other comprehensive income.

6. Non-GAAP profit measures - Cash overheads and Adjusted EBITDA

Management has presented the performance measures adjusted EBITDA and cash overheads because it monitors these performance measures at a consolidated level and it believes that these measures are relevant to an understanding of the Group's financial performance.

Adjusted EBITDA and cash overheads are not defined performance measures in IFRS. The Group's definition of adjusted EBITDA and cash overheads may not be comparable with similarly titled performance measures and disclosures by other entities.

7. Loss per share

a Basic loss per share

Basic loss per share is calculated based on the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders and the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding:

b Adjusted loss per share

Adjusted loss per share is calculated based on the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders before exceptional items, acquisition-related items and the cost of equity-settled share-based payment, and the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding:

c Diluted loss per share

Due to the Group having losses in all periods presented, the fully diluted loss per share for disclosure purposes, as shown in the Condensed consolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, is the same as for the basic loss per share.

8. Other non-current assets

9. Trade and other receivables

10. Loans and borrowings

At 30 June 2018, the $3.1m of bank loan (31 December 2018: $3.9m) represents term debt drawn down with Silicon Valley Bank. The facility comprised $5.0m term debt, with an interest-only period to 31 May 2018, followed by a three-year maturity at a floating interest rate charged at 1.5% above the US prime rate.

11. Deferred income

Deferred income represents contracted sales for which services to customers will be provided in future periods.

12. Share-based payment

WANdisco plc operates share option plans for qualifying employees of the Group. Options in the plans are settled in equity in the Company and are normally subject to a vesting schedule but not conditional on any performance criteria being achieved.

The terms and conditions of the share option grants are detailed in the Group annual financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2018.

Summary of share options outstanding

13. Contingent liabilities

The Group had no contingent liabilities at 30 June 2019 (30 June 2018: None, 31 December 2018: None).

14. Post-balance sheet events

There are no significant or disclosable post-balance sheet events.