Trading Update - Sopheon

Sopheon plc, the international provider of software and services for complete Enterprise Innovation Performance solutions, announces an update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2013.

Revenues for the year ended 31 December 2013 are expected to be around £13.2 million, compared to reported revenues for 2012 of £12.7 million. Early indications are that EBITDA will be in line with market expectations of £1.8 million. In our announcement issued on 7 November, we noted that meeting our commercial goals would require a strong finish to the year, with several sales opportunities to close. The final weeks of 2013 did indeed prove exceptionally busy, and revenues in the fourth quarter exceeded previous highs.

The robust finish to the year has led to a high services backlog for 2014. Coupled with a rising maintenance base, this means that visibility for the current year already stands at £6.6 million. Furthermore, the Group entered 2014 with a strong sales pipeline. As always, we note that results in any particular period are impacted by the timing of individual sales events. We have maintained a controlled expansion of staff levels since late 2012 and will continue to link investment with performance. This approach is core to positioning the business for scalable growth, and staff levels will be sustained through the coming year.

Strategic developments continued through the final quarter of last year, and in November we released Accolade 9.0, incorporating a full redesign of our Roadmapping solution as well as adding a broad range of features to other Accolade modules. In the same month we concluded a major corporate milestone by securing court approval for the Group’s capital reduction, thereby reducing the deficit on the Group’s accumulated reserves and completing a further milestone in the corporate changes that started with last year’s transfer from Euronext to Alternext. As we have noted however, incorrect processing by certain market participants in the Netherlands means that the board is considering a repeat of the share consolidation procedure conducted last summer and will update the market as appropriate. Recently we also announced the extension of our equity line facility, and that we are negotiating new debt facilities with a major bank to replace BlueCrest Capital who are winding down their lending business.

Financial expectations noted above are subject to the completion of year-end financial close and audit processes. Sopheon plans to issue results for the year ended 31 December 2013, on 20 March 2014.

Barry Mence, Chairman, commented:
“Energized by our record fourth quarter performance, we are staying focused on keeping the Sopheon Accolade suite at the forefront of the emerging market for enterprise innovation performance, and are working diligently to drive and position our business for sustainable and accelerated growth.”