WAND.L Regulatory News (WAND)

23 September 2015

WANdisco plc

Interim unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2015

Big Data customer wins gather further momentum

First Big Data customers go live

Financial highlights

· Revenue up 13% to $5.7m (2014 H1: $5.0m)

· Deferred revenue from booked sales up 16% to $18.0m (30 June 2014: $15.5m)

· Sales bookings $4.4m (2014 H1: $7.4m)

· Adjusted EBITDA1 loss reduced to $9.2m (2014 H1: $9.5m loss)

· Net cash of $15.2m (30 December 2014: $2.5m) and a currently unused $10.0m HSBC credit facility, making total cash and credit resources of $25.2m

Operational and strategic highlights

1 EBITDA loss excluding equity-settled share-based payment, capitalised product development costs, acquisition-related items and exceptional items.

David Richards, WANdisco Chief Executive, comments:

"Our penetration of the Big Data market has taken a big step forward in the first half of this year. We added eight new customers in the second quarter alone and the first three Big Data customers went into live production with our new WANdisco Fusion product.

Our partners increasingly view WANdisco as crucial in enabling their customers to go into live production with new Big Data applications. We are working increasingly closely on go to market activities and product integration with selected partners such as Oracle, IBM and Hortonworks.

In our ALM business, as previously highlighted, the transition in our sales organisation impacted sales during the period. Our offering remains highly relevant to today's increasingly distributed software development operations, and our live customer base of over 200 corporations offers ample sales opportunities. We have increased our focus on our core ALM offering and devoted more sales resource to this business.

With a compelling new Big Data product, increasing engagement of high-quality partners and a well-established ALM product, we expect to build momentum through the rest of this year."

Notes

An audio webcast recording of the analyst presentation will be available on the company website after the event.

All Group announcements and news can be found at http://www.wandisco.com

For further information please contact:

About WANdisco plc

WANdisco (LSE: WAND) is a provider of enterprise-ready, non-stop software that enables globally distributed organisations to meet today's data challenges of secure storage, scalability and continuous availability. WANdisco's products are differentiated by the company's patented, active-active data replication technology, serving crucial continuous availability requirements, including Hadoop Big Data and Application Lifecycle Management ("ALM"), including Apache Subversion and Git. Fortune Global 1000 companies, including Juniper Networks, Motorola, Intel and Halliburton, rely on WANdisco for performance, reliability, security and availability. For additional information, please visit www.wandisco.com.

BUSINESS REVIEW

During the first half we achieved an increase in momentum in our Big Data business, with our highest quarterly volume of contract wins coming in the second quarter.

Our ALM business was impacted, as previously highlighted, by a transition in our sales force as we establish the appropriate balance between our Big Data and ALM sales efforts.

Big Data

The Big Data marketplace has evolved significantly this year. Storage vendors are bringing to market Hadoop-compatible offerings, responding to their customers' requirements to store and process data both on Hadoop and on more traditional platforms, and to move and replicate data between the different platforms.

To address this emerging market for mixed storage, we evolved our product from Non-Stop Hadoop, which replicated data within single Hadoop distributions, to Fusion, which replicates data across multiple storage platforms. Fusion performs this mixed replication without the need for invasive access to the host platforms, making it easy for customers to install. We have integrated Fusion with our partners' Big Data offerings and have now achieved certification on both the Oracle Big Data Appliance and the IBM BigInsights appliance, for managing and analyzing big data.

Fusion ensures continuous data availability, high levels of processing performance to meet demanding service level requirements, and above all, cost savings from high utilisation of computing resource. Amongst our Fusion customers, the majority were taking Big Data into live production rather than running trial projects or non-critical operations. New enterprise features in Fusion include two features that were granted new US patents, relating to addition and removal of servers, without downtime, from replicated data networks. This enables hardware and software upgrades, addition of new locations, data migrations and rollouts of new applications - all without interruption of service.

In the short time since the release of Fusion, we secured eight new customers, all during the second quarter. Our new Fusion customers were drawn from all regions - EMEA, Americas and Asia-Pacific. They are all large organisations in our key industry segments of financial services, government agencies, consumer products and telecommunications. Their business requirements combined regulatory compliance, customer analysis and storage cost efficiencies - typified by Compare The Market in the UK insurance sector and by other new customers in financial services. Our first-half sales included collaborations with Oracle, Teradata, Hortonworks and HP, and also integrations with Cloudera and Amazon data platforms.

At the end of the first half we had 20 Big Data customers, all of which have intentions to scale up significantly their WANdisco solutions, once their implementations are in live production, as they take more data into their mission-critical applications. The first three of our Big Data customers went into live production after the end of the first half.

Application Lifecycle Management ("ALM")

The ALM business, as previously highlighted, was impacted during the period by our transition to a greater sales focus as we establish the appropriate balance of sales resources between Big Data and ALM.

We continue to see strong potential in the source code management segment of the ALM market that we focus on. 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.

Our core ALM product Subversion Multisite Plus has been upgraded to include support for the new version 1.9 of the open source Subversion code management system that most of our customers use. Our new August release incorporated improvements in performance, resource utilisation and administration.

Our assessment of the ALM market confirms that we have the right products for the market at this stage in its evolution. The devotion of new sales and marketing resource to ALM prospecting in traditional industry segments where open source adoption is strong, and a renewed focus on up-selling to our installed base of 200 customers, both under senior direction, are starting to bring momentum back into our sales pipeline. 

FINANCE REVIEW

Sales bookings were $4.4m (2014 H1: $7.4m). Sales bookings are total subscription contract values, subsequently recognised as revenue over the life of the contract. During this period of rapid evolution in our products, partnerships and sales organisation we continue to expect volatility in quarterly bookings.

Revenue grew 13% to $5.7m (2014 H1: $5.0m). This growth includes revenue deferred from previous periods.

Deferred revenue from sales booked during the first half and in previous periods (and not yet recognised as revenue) was $18.0m at 30 June 2015 (30 June 2014: $15.5m), reflecting future revenue from new and renewed contracts, many of them spanning multiple years.

Revenue growth and strong cost control, with cash costs held at approximately the same level as in the prior year period, resulted in the adjusted EBITDA loss narrowing to $9.2m (2014 H1: $9.5m).

Quarterly sales results are largely unrepresentative of our underlying commercial progress. Therefore, we intend to cease publishing quarterly sales updates, whilst continuing, though Regulatory News Statements, to provide updates on our business performance, key customer wins and other relevant developments.

Big Data

Sales bookings were $1.4m (2014 H1: $0.3m). Revenues were $0.8m (2014 H1: $0.1m). Both bookings and revenues showed significant growth on last year's first half as we saw for the first time a consistent revenue stream from our contract wins.

Contract pricing was encouragingly strong, particularly in those cases where we combined with global established storage vendors such as Oracle, demonstrating added value as part of pre-engineered stack.

ALM

$3.0m of sales bookings in the period came from our ALM products, (2014 H1: $7.1m). Sales to new customers are taking time to regain momentum after the steps taken to sharpen our focus on the ALM market and increase the productivity of our sales operations. Growth in renewals confirmed that our products continue to meet the needs of today's distributed software development teams.

ALM revenue was $4.9m (2014 H1: $4.9m), benefitting from the rollout of deferred revenue from prior period sales bookings.

Based on its operating scale and revenue potential, it remains our intention to advance the ALM business towards profitability in 2015.

Profit and loss

Our headcount was 162 as at 30 June 2015 (31 December 2014: 182). Headcount reductions in the period resulted from efficiencies in IT administration and in ALM product engineering and testing.

The adjusted EBITDA loss for the period (excluding equity-settled share-based payment, capitalised product development, acquisition-related items and exceptional items) was $9.2m (2014 H1: $9.5m loss). We continued to invest significantly in products and in go-to-market activities, while at the same time making cost savings across a number of functions.

Product development expenditure for the period was $4.3m (2014 H1: $4.2m). All of this expenditure was devoted to new product features and was capitalised.

Total cash costs of $19.2m were approximately in line with the prior year period (2014 H1: $18.7m) and also with the preceding half (2014 H2: $19.4m). Cost control will continue to be a focus.

Balance sheet and cash flow

Trade and other receivables at 30 June 2015 were $13.0m (31 December 2014: $14.5m). $2.7m of receivables was billed by the period end (31 December 2014: $4.4m), $8.6m comprised contractual payments not yet billed (31 December 2014: $8.0m), largely from multi-year contracts, and $1.7m related to non-trade receivables (31 December 2014: $2.1m).

Net cash stood at $15.2m at 30 June 2015 (31 December 2014: $2.5m). This includes the benefit of $26.1m of new equity funds (net of fees) raised from UK and US investors and announced on 23 January 2015. In addition, we retain a revolving credit facility with HSBC Bank plc, announced on 5 August 2014, which remained undrawn at 30 June 2015. The funds available will be used to finance continued expansion in the Big Data market, including product development and go-to-market activities.

OUTLOOK

We now have 20 Big Data customers, all of them large or global organisations with intentions to scale up their Big Data operations once in live production. With our first three Fusion customers having gone live, we expect to expand progressively the solutions of many of our existing customers.

It is encouraging that many of our sales in the first half resulted from collaborations with global storage and data management partners such as Oracle, HP and Teradata. We are deepening these relationships and expect growth in the sales we achieve with these and other Big Data partners.

In our ALM business, we have restored our focus on our core product, in use by over 200 customers. We have made changes in sales and marketing, continuing after the end of the first half, which we believe will bring a greater focus to our sales to both new and existing customers.

As we continue our investment in our markets, we have at the same time exerted strong cost discipline, and will continue to do so.

At this stage in the company's growth we are experiencing variability in quarterly sales bookings, and expect that to continue as we progress through a period of rapid change in our operations and in the Big Data market. Nevertheless, with a compelling new Big Data product, increasing engagement of high-quality partners, and a well-established ALM product, we expect to build momentum through the rest of this year.

Condensed consolidated statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income

for the six months ended 30 June 2015

The notes on pages 10 to 16 form an integral part of this condensed consolidated half yearly financial report.

Condensed consolidated balance sheet

as at 30 June 2015

The notes on pages 10 to 16 form an integral part of this condensed consolidated half yearly financial report.

Condensed consolidated statement of changes in equity

for the six months ended 30 June 2015

The notes on pages 10 to 16 form an integral part of this condensed consolidated half yearly financial report.

Condensed consolidated statement of cash flows

for the six months ended 30 June 2015

The notes on pages 10 to 16 form an integral part of this condensed consolidated half yearly financial report.

Notes to the condensed consolidated half yearly financial statements

for the six months ended 30 June 2015

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 half yearly financial statements ("Half yearly financial statements") as at and for the six months ended 30 June 2015 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

Basis of accounting

These half yearly financial statements have been prepared in accordance with AIM rules for Companies and IAS 34 "Half yearly Financial Reporting" as adopted by the European Union ("EU"). They do not include all the information required for a complete set of International Financial Reporting Standards ("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 consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ended 31 December 2014.

These half yearly financial statements were authorised for issue by the Company's Board of Directors on 14 September 2015.

The annual financial statements of the Group are prepared in accordance with IFRSs as endorsed by the EU, IFRIC ("IFRS Interpretations Committee) interpretations, under the historical cost accounting convention, and with those parts of Jersey Law (1991) applicable to companies under IFRS. The half yearly financial statements have, other than in respect of the matters referred to below, been prepared applying the accounting policies and presentation that were applied in the preparation of the Group's published Consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2014. Accordingly, these half yearly financial statements should be used in conjunction with the Group's published annual financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2014.

There are no new standards or amendments to standards that are effective for the first time for the financial year beginning 1 January 2015, that have had a material impact on the half yearly financial statements.

Going concern

As at 30 June 2015 the Group had net assets of $16,504,000 (30 June 2014: $17,171,000; 31 December 2014: $4,597,000) as set out in the Condensed consolidated balance sheet above. The Directors have prepared detailed forecasts of the Group's performance. As a consequence, the Directors believe that WANdisco plc and the Group are well placed to manage their business risks successfully despite the current uncertain economic outlook. After making enquiries the Directors have a reasonable expectation that WANdisco plc and the Group have sufficient working capital available for its present requirements that is for the next twelve months from the date of this report. Accordingly, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the half yearly financial statements.

Functional and presentational currency

The half yearly financial statements are presented in US dollars, which is also the presentational currency of the Group. Billings to the Group's customers during the period were all made in US dollars by WANdisco, Inc. with certain costs being incurred by WANdisco International Limited in sterling and WANdisco, Pty Ltd in Australian dollar. All financial information has been rounded to the nearest thousand US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Use of judgements and estimates

In preparing these half yearly financial statements, management has made judgements, estimates and assumptions 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 that applied to the Group's consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ended 31 December 2014.

3. Segmental analysis

Operating segments

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

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.

The Group has no customers representing individually over 10% of revenue (2014: Nil).

4. Exceptional items

5. Reconciliation of loss from operations to adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation ("Adjusted EBITDA")

6. Net finance income/(costs)

7. Taxation

8. Loss per share

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:

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:

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 and loss and other comprehensive income, is the same as for the basic loss per share.

8. Intangible assets

The carrying amount of the intangible assets is allocated across cash-generating units ("CGUs"). A CGU is defined as the smallest group of assets that generate cash inflows from continuing use that are largely independent of the cash inflows of other assets or groups thereof. The recoverable amount of the CGUs are determined using value in use ("VIU") calculations. As at 30 June 2015 the Group had one CGU, the DConE CGU. The Group's patented DConE replication technology forms the basis of the Group's products for the ALM market. This technology also underpins the enterprise-ready Apache-Hadoop products the Group has developed for the Big Data market.

Development costs are predominantly capitalised staff costs associated with new products and services. Development costs are allocated to the DConE CGU. There was no indication of impairment at either 30 June 2015, 30 June 2014 or 31 December 2014.

Other intangibles arose as part of the acquisitions of AltoStor, Inc. in November 2012 and OhmData, Inc. in June 2014. The intangibles arising as part of these acquisitions are allocated to the DConE CGU. The recoverable amount of which has been determined on a VIU basis as described above.

Software primarily relates to an item of software purchased from Syntevo GmBH for consideration of $1 million in September 2012. This software was fully amortised at 31 December 2014 and was disposed of on 20 February 2015 to SmartSVN GmbH for consideration of €1.

The above amortisation charge forms part of operating expenses in the Condensed consolidated statement of profit or loss.

9. Trade and other receivables

10. Deferred income

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

11. 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 2014.

As part of the acquisitions of OhmData, Inc. on 27 June 2014, AltoStor, Inc. in November 2012 and TortoiseSVN.net community website in June 2013 restricted shares in WANdisco plc were issued to former owners. These shares have been treated as contingent payments and have been accounted for under IFRS 2 "Share-based Payments" as employee benefit expenses.

Summary of share options outstanding

The fair value of each option grant is estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following weighted average assumptions:

- The dividend yield is based on the Company's forecast dividend rate and the current market price of the underlying common stock at the date of grant.

- Expected life in years is determined from the average of the time between the date of grant and the date on which the options lapse.

- Expected volatility is based on the historical volatility of shares of listed companies with a similar profile to the Company.

- The risk-free interest rate is based on the treasury bond rates for the expected life of the option.

12. Contingent liabilities

The Group had no contingent liabilities at 30 June 2015 (30 June 2014: None, 31 December 2014: None).

13. Post-balance sheet events

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