At the Annual General Meeting of Sopheon plc to be held later today, the chairman of the board will give shareholders an update and review of the business. This will include the following statement:
“In our Full Year results, we were delighted to report strong growth with revenues up by 28% to £10.5m, and a turnaround in profits, from an EBITDA loss of £0.2m to a profit of £1.5m. After a difficult 2009, which included taking some very tough spending adjustments, it was gratifying to see a return to growth and such a strong improvement in our bottom-line performance. We also strengthened the Group’s working capital position by refreshing our debt facilities with BlueCrest Capital, and by extending the maturity of convertible debt. This allowed us to enter 2011 with the confidence to expand headcount in targeted areas of the business. Most recently, we announced that we had filled two key leadership positions by hiring two vice presidents responsible for the EMEA region and for product development respectively.
In our trading update on 5 May, we noted that we had concluded 11 new and extension license orders since the start of the year; we are pleased to report this has since been increased to 15. Full year revenue visibility for 2011 from contracted business and recurring revenue streams has now risen to £6.6 million compared to £6.1 million on 5 May. This also compares favorably to the £6.0 million visibility noted at the time of our AGM statement a year ago. Nevertheless, last year this was followed by a very strong close to the second quarter, leading to record first half revenues. As at the time of last year’s AGM announcement, we currently have a very substantial amount of business that we are working to close in the remaining weeks of June. If successful, this would enable us to exceed the strong first half revenue performance of last year. In this regard, customer procurement practices remain thorough and cautious which, as we have noted in previous announcements, can make it difficult to accurately predict the timing and value of individual sales.
In our Statement of 5 May we noted that market interest in Sopheon’s solutions was showing a strong positive trend. That trend continues. Nearly twice as many prospective buyers visited our website and responded to our promotional campaigns from the start of this year through early June compared to the same period in 2010. This surge is partly attributable to prominent affirmation of the value of our software by influential third-party sources, including analysts and industry publications. One of our principal advantages in garnering such attention is that Sopheon is unique in offering a software system that provides end-to-end support encompassing product strategy, ideation and product development process execution. We are energized by the strength of our market position, and by our potential for continued, substantial growth.”
About Sopheon
Sopheon (LSE: SPE) is an international provider of software and services that help organisations improve the business impact of product innovation. Sopheon's solutions automate and govern the innovation process, enabling companies to increase revenue and profits from new products. Sopheon's solutions are used by industry leaders throughout the world, including BAE Systems, BASF, Corning, Electrolux, Honeywell, Novartis and SABMiller. Sopheon is listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange and on the Euronext in the Netherlands.
Revenue visibility is defined in Note4 of Sopheon’s 2010 annual report which is available from the investor section of www.sopheon.com .
