TIDMGHT
RNS Number : 8208S
Gresham Technologies PLC
14 March 2023
14 March 2023
Gresham Technologies plc
Annual Financial Report Announcement
Gresham Technologies plc (LSE: "GHT", "Gresham", "Group",
"Company"), the leading software and services company that
specialises in providing solutions for data integrity and control,
banking integration, payments and cash management, is pleased to
announce its audited results for the financial year ended 31
December 2022 ("FY22").
Financial Highlights
-- Forward-looking Clareti Annualised Recurring Revenue ("ARR")
up 17% to GBP28.1m as at 31 December 2022
-- Group revenues up 32% to GBP48.7m
-- Clareti revenues up 39% to GBP35.5m
-- Clareti recurring revenues up 46% to GBP27.4m
-- Adjusted EBITDA(1) up 43% to GBP10.3m (2021: GBP7.2m)
-- Cash adjusted EBITDA(2) up 76% to GBP4.4m (2021: GBP2.5m)
-- Profit before tax as reported up GBP2.8m to GBP3.2m (2021:
GBP0.4m), including expenses adjusted in EBITDA metrics
above of GBP3.5m (2021: GBP3.5m)
-- Adjusted diluted earnings per share(3) up 50% to 7.5 pence
(2021: 5.0 pence)
-- Cash at 31 December 2022 of GBP6.3m and no debt after
payment of GBP4.4m in contingent consideration for previous
acquisitions (2021: GBP9.1m and no debt)(4)
-- Final dividend proposed at 0.75 pence per share (2021:
0.75 pence)
Operational Highlights
-- Standalone Clareti business cash profitable for the first
time, generating cash EBITDA(2) of GBP1.1m, as growth,
scale and operating leverage begin to take effect.
-- 12 new-name wins, including several Tier 1 financial institutions,
bringing total customers to more than 275 across 30 countries.
-- Electra business integration completed and delivering
initial cross-sells and operating synergies.
-- Strong growth in cloud and other recurring revenues.
-- Net ARR retention for the year of 102%, highlighting growth
within existing customer base.
-- Continued growth and development of key accounts.
-- Excellent economic returns being realised by Tier 1 firms
replacing legacy reconciliation software with Control.
-- Digital corporate banking product developed with Australia
and New Zealand Banking Group now deployed into production
use.
Outlook
-- Larger, more resilient Group, with more than GBP42m of
FY23 revenues under contract; providing significant visibility
and a robust platform to execute growth strategy.
-- Management confident about the prospects for the Group.
(1) Adjusted EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation, adjusted for one-off exceptional
charges and share-based payments. (see note 5 of the Group
financial statements).
(2) Adjusted EBITDA less capitalised development spend and any
IFRS16 lease-related cash payments.
(3) Diluted earnings per share, adjusted to add back share-based
payment charges, deferred tax charge on the intra-group sale of IP,
exceptional items and amortisation from acquired intangible
assets.
(4) Excludes any IFRS16 lease-related payables.
(5) The Electra acquisition completed on 22 June 2021.
(6) Percentage increases stated above are based on rounding to
the nearest GBP'000 as disclosed at detailed level within this
report.
Ian Manocha, CEO, commented:
"We are pleased to report on a year of profitable growth and
operational advancements that have delivered a step-change in the
Group's strategic position as a primary software partner in
financial markets. The Group's financial performance for the year,
ahead of initial expectations, reflects the building blocks put in
place over the last three years, with benefits from cross-selling
momentum, operational synergies and a greatly expanded market
opportunity starting to be realised.
As the macro environment remains challenging for many businesses
within the financial sector, it has served to highlight the
necessity for digital transformation and automation to streamline
processes and ultimately achieve cost saving synergies whilst also
complying with increasing regulation. With a core customer base
spanning more than 275 organisations across 30 countries and
significant visibility of revenues with GBP42m of FY23 orders
already under contract, the Board looks ahead with confidence in
the Group's continued success."
Presentations and Documents
A presentation for analysts will be held at 9am GMT today via
conference call and a separate presentation for existing and
potential shareholders will be held at 12.30pm GMT today via the
Investor Meet Company ("IMC") platform, details of which are set
out in the Company's announcement dated 14 February 2023.
A copy of the presentation to be tabled at both sessions is
available on Gresham's website: www.greshamtech.com .
A copy of this announcement has been submitted to the National
Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at
https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism and
www.greshamtech.com/investors .
The Annual Financial Report 2022 will be sent to shareholders in
due course.
Enquiries
Gresham Technologies plc +44 (0) 207 653
Ian Manocha / Tom Mullan 0200
investorrelations@greshamtech.com
Singer Capital Markets (Financial Adviser and +44 (0) 207 496
Broker) 3000
Shaun Dobson / Tom Salvesen / Jen Boorer
+44 (0) 203 405
Alma PR 0205
Josh Royston / Hilary Buchanan /Matthew Young greshamtech@almapr.co.uk
Inside information
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon the
publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information
Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in
the public domain.
Note to editors
Gresham Technologies plc is a leading software and services
company that specialises in providing real-time solutions for data
integrity and control, banking integration, payments and cash
management. Listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange
(GHT.L) and headquartered in the City of London, its customers
include some of the world's largest financial institutions and
corporates, all of whom are served locally from offices located in
the UK, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
Gresham's award-winning Clareti software platform is a highly
flexible and scalable platform, available on-site or in the cloud,
designed to address today's most challenging financial control,
risk management, data governance and regulatory compliance
problems. Learn more at www.greshamtech.com.
ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT ANNOUNCEMENT
In accordance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the
extracts below are from the Annual Financial Report 2022 in
un-edited full text. In order to comply with the regulatory
requirement to include un-edited text in this Annual Financial
Report Announcement, page and note references refer to page and
note numbers in the Annual Financial Report 2022.
The financial information contained herein for the year ended 31
December 2022 and the year ended 31 December 2021 does not
constitute the Company's statutory accounts for those years. The
statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2022 will be
delivered to the Registrar of Companies following the Company's
Annual General Meeting in due course.
The auditor's reports on the accounts for the years ending 31
December 2022 and 31 December 2021 were unqualified, did not draw
attention to any matters by way of emphasis, and did not contain a
statement under 498(2) or 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006.
CHAIR'S STATEMENT
Dear shareholder
Overview
I am pleased to report on another period of sustained progress
for Gresham Technologies. This year has seen the full benefits of
our M&A and integration programme being realised through the
transformational acquisition of Electra, while the optimisation of
our sales team has meant that core product lines have performed
consistently across a mixture of industries and geographies as more
global financial institutions invest in Gresham's expanded suite of
solutions. The Group's progression against its strategic vision has
been a result of strong leadership, market-leading solutions and a
highly committed and talented global team.
Throughout the period under review, we have built upon the
momentum delivered in FY21 and continued to execute effectively
against our growth strategy. We secured 12 new Clareti customers,
including substantial long-term agreements with three global Tier 1
financial institutions, and successfully executed on our land and
expand strategy by winning new projects with existing clients and
resulting in ARR net retention levels in excess of 100%.
Overall, the Group's performance has been strong with two
upgrades to forecasts during the year. Revenue for the period was
significantly up 32% to GBP48.7m (2021: GBP37.0m), adjusted EBITDA
increasing 43% to GBP10.3m (2021: GBP7.2m), and operating profit
increasing by GBP3m to GBP3.5m (2021: GBP0.5m). In a year that has
seen a number of challenging macroeconomic headwinds impacting the
wider sector, this is an outstanding achievement for the Group.
Based on the overall financial performance and the cash within
the business, the Board will be recommending a final dividend of
0.75 pence per share (2021: 0.75 pence) at the forthcoming AGM.
Delivery against our strategic vision
2022 saw strong progress against the major strategic goals
identified by the Board, including:
-- The full integration of Electra, and the realisation of
its impact on improving customer stickiness and incrementally
increasing ARR;
-- Very good revenue visibility across both Clareti and non-Clareti,
with over GBP42m of 2023 Group revenues already under
contract; and
-- Increased investment in global sales and marketing teams
to capitalise on the market opportunity.
People and culture
I am delighted to report that we have had another "best ever"
result from our annual Employee Engagement Survey. This continues a
six-year trend of improvement in overall engagement, with a
response rate increase to 72% and an overall engagement score of
82% (2021: 78%).
Gresham's excellent culture is exemplified by our high staff
retention rate, something of an anomaly for the sector. As a
people-oriented business, Gresham goes to great lengths to remain
competitive as an employer and ensure that it is a welcoming and
rewarding environment for all of its staff.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our team across
the globe for their hard work and dedication throughout the year,
without whom the successes during the year would not have been
possible.
ESG
The Board is committed to operating the business in a
sustainable way, which includes managing our impact on the
environment, our social responsibilities to our people and those
within our communities, improving outcomes for our customers, and
operating as an ethical business through direct and indirect
practices. Further details of the Group's ESG strategy can be found
starting on page 27.
During the period, Gresham released a comprehensive statement
regarding the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures
("TCFD") for financial year 2021. Disclosure for 2022 can be found
starting on page 30.
Outlook
Following another successful year, which has seen the Group
build on the momentum of previous periods, I am pleased to say that
Gresham has finished 2022 as a stronger company. Despite the
challenges that macro headwinds have brought to most industries and
businesses, we have continued to deliver against our strategic
priorities and established a strong foundation upon which to
achieve scalable growth and fully capitalise on the opportunities
available in the market.
As we continue to progress, the Group will focus on:
-- Optimising our global sales and marketing capabilities
via strategic investments;
-- Continuing to grow and diversify ARR by leveraging the
platform we have built; and
-- Remaining cognisant of further M&A opportunities that
meet Gresham's financial criteria and enhance existing
operational capabilities.
The Board remains confident in the year ahead and the
medium-term opportunity for Gresham to address the expanded market
opportunity in front of us.
Peter Simmonds
Non-Executive Chair
13 March 2023
CEO'S STATEMENT
Dear shareholder
Overview: step-change in strategic opportunity
2022 has been a very pleasing year, with operational progress
right across the Group and a step-change in strategic opportunity,
reflecting all the building blocks we have put in place over the
last three years. In particular, the successful integration of the
2021 Electra acquisition has not only delivered initial contract
successes but, combined with our established Clareti team and
roadmap, is opening up far more extensive client conversations. The
proof points of that progress includes the high retention rate of
Electra clients, a number of cross-sell wins, and upgrades in our
trading performance through the year; resulting in positive Clareti
cash EBITDA as operating synergies have materialised.
Our Clareti technology solutions now provide major banking and
investment management clients with the tools to connect, reconcile
and control their data, enabling them to automate their post-trade
business processes and have confidence in their digital operations.
In the year, we signed 12 new clients to reach more than 275 across
30 countries and successfully added some of the world's largest
financial companies. This included one of world's largest asset
managers that signed a contract for Control and Data Services in
the cloud to replace a legacy reconciliation product and to
streamline its data aggregation processes. The US-based firm,
consistently ranked in the top five global asset managers by AUM,
will partner with Gresham to consolidate all market-facing
reconciliations and data controls for their corporate business onto
a modern cloud platform with an initial order value of $1.9
million.
We have also won key contracts in Europe and Asia Pacific,
highlighting the global challenges facing the financial sector, the
repeatability of our solutions and the increasing maturity of our
sales efforts. During the period, we also saw wins in the payments,
energy and digital asset sectors, as well as our core capital
markets segments.
Clareti ARR grew GBP4.1m, or 17%, to GBP28.1m and recurring
revenues increased by 46%, up GBP8.6m, to GBP27.4m, highlighting
the significant scale-up of the business over the last year. Higher
gross margins, as well as the growth in revenues, contributed to
Clareti Cash EBITDA of GBP1.1m and, at Group level, cash EBITDA up
76% to GBP4.4m. We finished the year with a strong balance sheet,
including cash balances of GBP6.3m after making the first deferred
consideration payment for Electra.
Market: continuous waves of regulation and digital
optimisation
A number of key drivers continue to support our growth
outlook:
Managing risk and regulation
All businesses need to invest in their core processing systems
and data platforms to create more intelligent and automated
solutions that reduce the need for manual interventions and the
risk of error. Within the financial services sector, this has been
compounded over the last 15 years by growing regulatory pressures
and scrutiny. This increases the need for financial institutions
and banks to have timely and accurate processing, coupled with
greater transparency and accountability. Our software helps
companies connect, reconcile and control the many disparate sources
of transaction, finance, and risk data to ensure accurate day to
day processing, and to satisfy and report on new and existing
regulations.
Given the size of our client base, this underpins a steady flow
of up-sell contracts and services opportunities for Gresham. New
regulation drivers in 2022 included The European Market
Infrastructure Regulation ("EMIR") Refit which is designed to amend
and simplify European markets infrastructure and brings with it
major changes, including an uplift in the number of reportable data
items.
In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission have proposed
shortening the standard settlement cycle for most broker-dealer
securities transactions from two business days following the trade
date (T+2) to one business day (T+1), with implications for how
broker-dealers, investment advisers and clearing agencies process
institutional trades.
The pressure on public finances globally has also meant there is
now an even greater focus by government departments and regulators
on maximising their collection of taxes, with implications right
across the eco-systems of many financial companies. Further
regulation and heightened scrutiny increase the need for banks and
fund managers to review, simplify and potentially upgrade their
systems. The global market for regulatory reporting solutions is
expected to reach USD $1.16bn by the end of 2026, with a CAGR of
19.5%.
Digital automation and platform modernisation
Aligned with the above, we are part of our clients' investment
to digitise their processes, reduce their operating costs through
automation, and serve their customers better. We are part of
programmes globally aimed at improving the quality, connectivity
and exploitation of data to deliver more intelligent business
outcomes. Of particular note are the ageing legacy reconciliation
systems implemented on-premise throughout the industry during the
1990s and early 2000s, which are expected to be replaced by modern,
more flexible, often cloud-based alternatives, over the coming
years.
Underpinning business success
Our software not only enables businesses to survive in the
modern era, but importantly, to become more competitive through
access to information and agile decision-making, which underpins
the launch of new products and innovative customer propositions.
Given the tightening economy and ever competitive nature of
financial markets, the operating efficiencies we deliver are
greatly valued by our clients.
Expanding market
The factors above underpin growth from our existing base and
traditional markets. However, the overall size of the addressable
market for Clareti solutions and the competitiveness of our
offerings are continually expanding, and we are increasingly
looking for opportunities to diversify further into new markets
such as retail banking and payments, energy and the control of
digital asset data processing. At a high level, the risk management
software market is valued at around $35bn and is expected to grow
at a CAGR of 10%+ in the medium-term.
Helping our clients manage macro headwinds
The macro and market backdrop will mean that banks and fund
management companies are mindful of ensuring value for money as
they review their IT budgets. Consequently, decision-making cycles
are likely to increase. However, these large enterprises have often
patched together legacy solutions or relied on in-house teams to
build and maintain software, with the obvious challenges of
retaining know-how. The result is often inaccurate, incomplete and
poor-quality data, frequent breakages, a black-box of manual
workarounds and quick fixes, and platforms that struggle in terms
of volume and speed as new regulations layer on further demand and
complexity.
In addition, as companies, CIOs and COOs pause for breath, they
are under pressure to focus on remaining agile and competitive, as
well as compliant, and are faced with dealing with unexpected
challenges such as remote working. In many cases we will respond to
RFPs to replace legacy systems, and in 2022 we won a number of
contracts where we replaced older competing technology, processes
and platforms built in-house over time. This all provides
opportunity for Gresham and adds to our own operational protection
even as economies struggle. Within banking, there are business and
product lines where a higher interest rate environment is in fact
favourable to financial success, and here there will be a desire to
reinvest in technology along the way.
Operational progress: executing on our strategy
Post the transformative acquisition of Electra, we have been
focused on integrating the business, processes and people, and
building a go-to-market platform and optimising our product
roadmap. This will propel us towards our ambition of creating a
leading GBP100m ARR fintech with high margins, strong cash
generation, and attractive valuation multiples typical of large
mature enterprise software firms.
Products and solutions: optimising our roadmap and branding
During the year we have seen the benefits of re-packaging our
platform capabilities, including Electra assets, into three Clareti
product lines: Control, Data and Connect; each with its own roadmap
to encourage agility and innovation. Our products can be combined
to quickly deliver complete digital solutions for customers into
environments where generic solutions are inadequate. They are
available on a subscription basis in the customers' data centres,
or on a software-as-a-service basis in a Gresham-hosted cloud.
Optional subscriptions for the collection and aggregation of
external data and/or the provision of managed services are also
available as routes to ARR up-sell.
Control
Clareti Control, our flagship offering, is an "out-of-the-box"
enterprise-grade business self-service platform for the
reconciliation, exception management and control of "any and all"
transaction data in financial markets. Clareti Control is now well
established in the market for "non-core" data problems such as
inter-systems reconciliations, with dozens of successful
implementations. Over the last few years, we have invested heavily
into developing functionality for the "core" cash and securities
reconciliations market, which legacy vendors have dominated for
nearly three decades. We have now completed large-scale legacy
vendor product migrations in the US, Asia and Europe; delivering
exceptional improvements in match rates, operating efficiencies,
and total cost of ownership. A high-performance upgrade loading and
matching technology went live at several customers, providing a
path to solving the next generation of problems as financial
markets move to ever tighter processing cycles.
Whilst many of our earlier customers chose to deploy Control
on-premise, our Clareti-as-a-Service cloud offering is gaining
traction in the market, and during the year we processed over 4.4
billion records in the cloud on behalf of our customers. We
continue to invest in cloud-native architecture, thin-client user
interfaces, and self-service functionality.
Data and Connect
Our Data and Connect solutions allow customers to participate in
the complex inter-connected global financial system without needing
to be concerned with third party data access, integration risk,
cost, and time to market.
Our Data solution provides a cloud data collection and
aggregation service for investment managers and fund
administrators. On average, a US medium-sized buy-side firm uses 59
data feeds, and we collect over 2,500 sources of data across our
cloud, highlighting the complexity for the client and the breadth
of our solution. Last year, our Data service processed over 14.5
billion records from our secure data centres and operated with
exceptionally high levels of service and support. We now retrieve,
process and deliver data to over 275 investment managers. Our goal
is to become the leading independent provider of bank and custodian
account data to the investment management industry. We are
investing to streamline the tooling that underpins the Data service
which will enable us to further improve margins as we scale.
Our Connect solutions enable customers to interact with their
bank partners for payments and statements, support straight through
processing to trading venues, connectivity to regulatory reporting
venues, and interoperability with other industry applications.
Connect provides not only connectivity but intelligent control over
highly complex real-time data flows. During 2022 we went live with
several customers on our latest cloud native platform and will
progressively migrate our installed base across to the new
technology.
Digital Banking
Over the last few years, we have reported regularly on the
progress of our strategic innovation partnership with ANZ. I am
pleased to confirm that the first product deliverable from the
partnership, a cloud-native bank account platform, successfully
progressed into first production use at the end of the year. ANZ
continues to fund the product development work via a chargeable
Innovation Service, and an exciting roadmap for future funded
releases has been jointly mapped out. We intend to promote this
solution in the global market in 2023 under a new product brand.
Launch plans are prepared and we look forward to sharing further
details in due course.
New contract wins
In addition to our Control and Data contract win with the top
five global asset manager and the Connect win with Tier 1 bank
announced in December 2022, we have had other notable new customer
wins in the year. This included one of Europe's largest privately
held banking and financial services firms that signed a contract
for Clareti Control to replace legacy vendor products across its
global asset management business, consolidating all reconciliations
and data controls onto a single modern cloud platform. The initial
contract has a minimum five-year term with total committed
subscription fees in excess of GBP1m. In Asia, we signed one of
Singapore's newest digital banks, and there were multiple new names
in Europe, several of which are public references available on our
website.
Customer success - expanding within current clients
In May we were pleased to announce one of our largest ever
contracts, a significant subscription agreement for Clareti
software with an existing customer, one of the world's largest
commercial and retail banks, for GBP6.3m (over five years). This
followed an initial contract for the first deployment of Clareti
Control within its UK operations in June 2020. As a result of the
success of the initial project, the bank has chosen to adopt our
technology as its single enterprise control platform across the
entire UK business including retail accounts, cards, payments, and
commercial banking. The platform will be used to deploy a range of
new controls, as well as replace existing manual processes and
legacy vendor solutions.
In December, we announced an initial $1.3m enterprise agreement
with one of world's largest banks, to extend the use of Connect
across their entire post-trade prime brokerage business. The
solution will replace legacy FIX processing infrastructure to
streamline market connectivity and client onboarding. The contract
has a five-year committed term, with minimum incremental
subscription fees and additional recurring usage-based fees. This
award was particularly pleasing as we have been working directly
with this client since our acquisition of Inforalgo in July
2020.
The two Tier 1 bank early adopters of our Control for Cash and
Securities product are now live at scale and realising the benefits
of replacing legacy systems. One of these implementations has
delivered a 35% improvement in automated match rates, giving the
client a substantial economic benefit in terms of headcount.
We continue to maintain and grow our relationship with
long-standing client, ANZ Bank. In September, we signed contracts
totalling over AUD $19m to cover the period until September 2023.
This contributed to account growth of approximately 15%, with
uplifts in both the Clareti and non-Clareti businesses from
recurring software, recurring managed services, consulting and
contracting services.
During the year, our professional service teams supported 64 new
go-lives with customers and were engaged in over 150 active
projects. We now have reference clients in all of our targeted
industry segments and key geographies across the breadth of our
solution portfolio.
People
Gresham's commitment to its people is at the centre of what we
do. We continue to invest in both our team and our community to
ensure we remain both an attractive and enjoyable work environment
for current and future employees. These investments have focused on
optimising operational efficiencies post-Electra through upskilling
and consolidating, while providing all of the resources required to
support our people in their work through collaboration tooling,
on-line training, internal events, leadership and mental health
accreditations.
A stand-out in the year has been our success in hiring and
building out our sales and marketing team. We now have a strong
team in place across Europe, US and Asia; and, given the global
breadth of our client wins over the last year, we believe this
leaves us very well placed to expand within our current client base
as well as win new ones.
These investments in our people have been a success and I am
pleased to report a sixth consecutive record result from our annual
employee engagement survey. It was hugely pleasing to see the total
response rate increase to 72%, while our overall engagement score
increased to 82%. We are particularly pleased to report that our
newly added questions on diversity and inclusion scored very well
and validate our efforts in that area.
Brand and vision
In the decade since commencing the Clareti business, Gresham has
transformed into a respected provider of data and process control
solutions to global financial markets. Our programme of
acquisitions has further strengthened our market presence and
extended our product portfolio and customer base. Our vision is for
Gresham to become a world-leading provider of cloud-based
post-trade solutions aligned with our mission of making business
flow and reducing friction in financial markets.
Acquisitions
Over the last few years we have successfully made three small
bolt-on acquisitions, C24, B2, and Inforalgo; each with c.GBP1m ARR
when acquired. We have now fully integrated the transformational
acquisition of Electra, which we made in 2021, contributing over
GBP9m of ARR. All four acquisitions have been financially and
strategically accretive and the average 3x ARR we have paid for
these businesses highlights our discipline, track record and return
for shareholders. We continue to look at acquisitions that are
in-line with our strategic vision. However, we will remain focused
on how we allocate capital and be selective in making further
acquisitions.
Current trading and outlook: robust foundations and positioned
to grow
Our success reflects our research, planning and focus on
delivering value to our clients. The team's years of hard-work,
together with significant investments in people and infrastructure,
have put in place the building blocks of a diversified and scalable
fintech platform with a market-leading product portfolio, highly
invested cloud architecture, established blue-chip global customer
base, and an ambitious, proven management team.
We have started 2023 well, and, while macro challenges persist,
we have highlighted that the pressure for efficiency and
competitiveness means our clients and target clients have a need to
engage with us in tougher times as well as good ones. We have a
business today which has a good balance between Europe and the US,
and a growing presence in Asia, with a core addressable market
greater than c.$500m and opportunity to expand further across the
wider financial services sector.
We entered 2023 with very good visibility across both Clareti
and non-Clareti, with over GBP42m of Group revenues already under
contract and confidence in our growth outlook. We have a good
pipeline of new clients in our core markets, and we also have
demand in the insurance, energy, government and other sectors which
we continuously look at how best to service. With the difficult
economic backdrop, we continue to carefully manage product and
people investments and ensure that, as the operating leverage of
our model becomes increasingly evident, we can deliver sustained
growth over the next few years.
With the support of shareholders in building our platform, and
the hard work of our talented global team, we have created the
foundations for success and remain confident in our ambition to
build a GBP100m ARR SaaS business with best-in-class performance
metrics expected of a valuable global financial technology company
of substantial scale.
Ian Manocha
Chief Executive
13 March 2023
FINANCIAL REVIEW
Forward-looking annualised recurring revenue ("ARR")
Our ARR is an aggregated value of all recurring revenues that
are either fully or partially contracted for the next twelve months
and/or are highly expected to renew in the next twelve months.
Future uplifts in variable usage or contingent recurring fees are
not included in ARR, unless they are contractually certain with all
deliverables having already been met.
2022 2021 Variance %
Clareti Clareti ARR at
ARR start of year GBPm 24.0 12.3 N/a
Acquired with GBPm - 9.2 N/a
Electra
Organic increase
in ARR GBPm 4.1 2.5 1.6 64%
----- ----- --------- ------
Clareti ARR at
end of year KPI GBPm 28.1 24.0 4.1 17%
----- ----- --------- ------
Other ARR Other ARR GBPm 3.5 4.1 (0.6) (15%)
----- ----- --------- ------
Group ARR Group ARR GBPm 31.6 28.1 3.5 12%
Our ARR from our strategic growth business, Clareti, is a
critical KPI for the Group as it provides a forward-looking view of
the minimum expected revenues in the next twelve months; which
gives confidence to business planning and investment decisions. The
organic Clareti ARR growth in 2022 was GBP4.1m, an increase of 17%
on the opening Clareti ARR position. Included within this organic
growth is the impact of the foreign exchange movements in the year,
which contributed GBP1.8m, the prior year benefitting by GBP0.3m;
therefore the constant currency organic ARR growth grew from
GBP2.2m in the prior year to GBP2.3m in 2022. Whilst still strong
double digit constant currency organic growth, this is behind our
target rate of 20%+. Our retention and upsell measures remain
strong, with the trailing twelve-month net Clareti ARR retention
rate being 102%, a reduction from the 106% rate in the prior year
(both on a constant currency basis). We calculate our net ARR
retention rate as ARR from the end of the period from customers
existing at the start of the period, divided by ARR at the start of
the period. There remains a significant market opportunity to both
upsell and cross-sell to our continually growing existing customer
base that we are strategically investing in capturing. Going
forward, we expect to improve these rates to at least 2021
levels.
ARR from our Other businesses have fallen by GBP0.6m to GBP3.5m
in 2022, largely as a result of our decision to discontinue
supporting the last remaining line from our own high-margin legacy
solutions. It remains encouraging to see the ongoing longevity of
these business lines continuing to provide predictability and
further ability to invest with confidence in the Clareti
business.
In addition to Group ARR of GBP31.6m, expected revenues from
non-recurring contracts in place as at 31 December 2022 total
GBP10.4m, giving visibility over GBP42.0m of revenue for 2023
before any new or incremental contracts are won.
Income Statement
Constant currency Income Statement headlines
Due to the levels of transactions occurring in currencies other
than the Group's functional reporting currency of GBP, largely USD
and AUD, the Group has benefitted to a material degree from the
weakness experienced in the GBP throughout the year. The table
below shows 2022 performance if transactions had been reported on
the same average exchange rates for the year as 2021 had been.
Variance
on constant
currency
2022 2021 basis %
Actual Constant
basis currency
basis
Group revenue GBPm 48.7 46.6 37.0 9.6 26%
------- ---------- ----- ------------- ----
Group gross margin GBPm 33.9 32.4 25.2 7.2 29%
Group gross margin
% % 70% 70% 68% 2%
------- ---------- ----- ------------- ----
Group adjusted
EBITDA GBPm 10.3 10.2 7.2 3.0 42%
Group adjusted
EBITDA % % 21% 22% 19% 3%
------- ---------- ----- ------------- ----
Cash adjusted EBITDA GBPm 4.4 4.2 2.5 1.7 68%
Cash adjusted
EBITDA % % 9% 9% 7% 2%
Revenues
Our income is analysed between revenues from Clareti Solutions
and from our 'Other' non-strategic solutions and services, revenues
from each business of these business segments are then broken
into:
-- Recurring revenues - which are generated for software
and software-related services such as support, maintenance,
and other ongoing managed services; all of which are contracted
or expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
-- Non-recurring revenues - include professional services,
contracting, training and other services that are expected
to be one-off or periodic in nature.
Given the transformational nature of the Electra acquisition, we
have also broken out the Clareti business to show Electra revenues
(and gross margin in the Earnings section below) as individual line
items within the Clareti business.
2022 2021 Variance %
Clareti solutions Recurring GBPm 15.8 13.5 2.3 17%
Recurring - Electra GBPm 11.6 5.3 6.3 119%
----- ----- --------- -----
Recurring -
Clareti total KPI GBPm 27.4 18.8 8.6 46%
Non-recurring 7.5 6.4 1.1 17%
Non-recurring
- Electra 0.6 0.3 0.3 100%
----- ----- --------- -----
Non-recurring
- Clareti total GBPm 8.1 6.7 1.4 21%
----- ----- --------- -----
Total Clareti
revenues KPI GBPm 35.5 25.5 10.0 39%
Other solutions
& services Recurring GBPm 4.3 4.6 (0.3) (7%)
Non-recurring GBPm 8.9 6.9 2.0 29%
----- ----- --------- -----
Total GBPm 13.2 11.5 1.7 15%
----- ----- --------- -----
Group Total KPI GBPm 48.7 37.0 11.7 32%
----- ----- --------- -----
Clareti Solutions
Clareti recurring revenues increased by 46%, up GBP8.6m on 2021,
which included a full year contribution of GBP11.6m from Electra
against a GBP5.3m contribution in 2021 (since the acquisition late
in June 2021). Excluding the impact of Electra, Clareti recurring
revenues increased by 17%, or GBP2.3m since the prior year. These
increases were as a result of new recurring revenue sales,
increased consumption of Clareti solutions from our existing
customers, and currency gains of GBP1.4m; GBP1.2m of which coming
from predominantly USD-based Electra business.
Clareti non-recurring revenues increased by 21%, up GBP1.4m on
the prior year, with a relatively small services contribution from
Electra in both years. Excluding the impact of Electra, the
increase was 17%. This increase is being driven by new
implementations associated with the increase in Clareti recurring
revenues and GBP0.3m of currency gains.
Other Solutions & Services
Total revenues from Other solutions and services increased by
15% to GBP13.2m, exceeding our original expectations. This business
line includes revenues from a legacy partner relationship where we
act as a reseller of third party software; our sole remaining, own
IP, legacy software product (EDT) which we discontinued support for
on 31 December 2022; and our contracting services business where we
provide fixed margin services at a margin of 13% under twelve-month
contractual terms.
Recurring revenues within the Other solutions and services
portfolio decreased by 7% to GBP4.3m as a result of own-IP software
customers not renewing contracts and slightly lower end-user
consumption fees from existing customers of our reseller
arrangement. Non-recurring Other revenues, the vast majority of
which is our contracting services business, increased by GBP2.0m
compared to 2021. The mix of revenues within the Other solutions
and services portfolio continues to evolve, being increasingly
weighted towards lower margin business lines. We continue to manage
the portfolio carefully benefitting from good visibility of
customer intentions.
Earnings
2022 2021 Variance %
Clareti Solutions Gross margin GBPm 19.9 16.6 3.3 20%
Gross margin -
Electra GBPm 10.6 4.9 5.7 116%
Gross margin -
Clareti total GBPm 30.5 21.5 9.0 42%
Gross margin % 85% 83% 2% N/a
Gross margin -
Electra % 87% 88% (1%) N/a
Gross margin -
Clareti total % 86% 84% 2% N/a
Other solutions
& services Gross margin GBPm 3.5 3.7 (0.2) (5%)
Gross margin % 27% 37% (5%) N/a
Group Gross margin GBPm 34.0 25.2 8.8 35%
Gross margin % 70% 68% 2% N/a
Adjusted EBITDA KPI GBPm 10.3 7.2 3.1 43%
Adjusted EBITDA KPI % 21% 19% 2% N/a
Cash Adjusted
EBITDA KPI GBPm 4.4 2.5 1.9 76%
Cash Adjusted
EBITDA KPI % 9% 7% 2% N/a
Statutory profit/(loss)
after tax GBPm 2.9 (1.0) 3.9 N/a
Adjusted diluted
EPS KPI Pence 7.54 5.02 2.52 50%
Gross margin
Across all business segments, the majority of our cost of sales
is made up of: (i) customer-specific third party costs incurred in
providing our hosted cloud solutions; (ii) third party contractor
costs incurred by our contracting services business; and (iii)
fixed-term payrolled employees that provide fixed margin
contracting/recruitment services to ANZ.
In line with long-standing Group strategy, the growth in the
high margin Clareti business has offset the continued and expected
decline in gross margin being generated from the legacy Other
solutions and services businesses. At a Group level, gross margins
have increased from 68% to 70%. These percentage margins are not
changed to any material degree when considered on a constant
currency basis.
The gross margin within Clareti business (including Electra) has
increased from 84% to 86%, due to the continued growth of the high
margin recurring revenues.
As planned and described in the revenue section above, the Other
solutions and services business mix has continued to move in
balance towards the lower margin software reselling and contracting
services business lines from our higher margin legacy owned IP
(EDT), which we discontinued support of on 31 December 2022.
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortisation) is analysed excluding exceptional items and
share-based payment charges; which is consistent with the way in
which the Board reviews the financial results of the Group. We also
consider this to be consistent with the manner in which similar
small-cap LSE (or AIM) listed companies present their results and
how we understand the global investment community assesses
performance, with this particularly being the case for growth
shares in which the recurring cash performance is considered
important. However, whilst we consider them consistent and
appropriate, this EBITDA measure and the cash adjusted EBITDA
measure below are not necessarily directly comparable to other
companies as they are not strictly governed IFRS accounting
measures, nor should they be considered as a substitute for, or
superior to, any IFRS measures.
Group adjusted EBITDA has improved by GBP3.1m, or 43%, since the
prior year with margin improving by 2% to 21% in 2022. This is as a
result of the existing higher margin Clareti business continuing to
grow and beginning to drive improved operational leverage as it
scales along with the impact of the Electra acquisition, which
offset the continued reducing margin of the Other solutions and
services business lines. Whilst we will ensure that we maximise the
current market opportunity through appropriate strategic
investments, we do expect to continue to see improvements to these
margins in future years.
Cash Adjusted EBITDA
Cash adjusted EBITDA refers to adjusted EBITDA reduced by the
value of capitalised development spend and any IFRS16 lease-related
cash expenses classified as depreciation and interest. We consider
this a good measure of cash profitability for a modern SaaS
business who continue to invest in product development to ensure
they remain market leading.
Group cash adjusted EBITDA has also improved on the prior year,
with GBP1.9m of the GBP3.1m improvement in adjusted EBITDA
(mentioned above) dropping through to improvement cash EBITDA. The
GBP1.2m difference between the improvements in the two EBITDA
measures is as a result of a full year of capitalised development
spend and IFRS 16 lease-related cash expenses in the acquired
Electra business. This has resulted in a cash adjusted EBITDA
margin of 9%, an improvement of 2% on the prior year. Like adjusted
EBITDA, we expect to see continued improvements in these margins in
future years.
The Clareti standalone business reached an important milestone
during 2022, becoming cash adjusted EBITDA positive for the first
time, generating a margin of 3%. As the Clareti business continues
to scale this will continue to drive Group cash adjusted EBITDA
improvements.
Statutory profit/(loss) after tax and Adjusted diluted EPS
There has been an increase in statutory profit after tax to a
profit of GBP2.9m from a loss of GBP1.0m in the prior year. This
increase of GBP3.9m is due to the combination of: improved adjusted
operating profit of GBP2.9m as a result of the growth and improved
profitability of the Group; offset by: reduced exceptional expenses
of GBP1.3m (see below); increased share-based payment charges of
GBP0.6m; increased amortisation on acquired intangibles largely due
to a full year of amortisation of the intangibles acquired through
the Electra acquisition in June 2021 of GBP0.6m; and a reduced tax
charge of GBP1.0m.
Adjusted diluted EPS has improved by 50% to 7.5 pence per share.
Adjusted earnings used in this calculation adjust the statutory
result after tax for: exceptional items; amortisation of acquired
intangibles, share-based payments and the deferred tax charge in
relation to the sale of the IP acquired with Electra from the US to
the UK business (see taxation below).
Exceptional items
During the year, the Group recognised exceptional costs of
GBP0.2m, all of which were one-off costs in relation to the
integration of the Electra business. In 2021, GBP1.8m of
exceptional costs were recognised, of which: (i) GBP1.3m were
acquisition costs in relation to the acquisition of Electra on 22
June 2021; and (ii) GBP0.5m related to various integration expenses
in relation to the same acquisition. Offsetting the exceptional
costs in 2021 was exceptional income of GBP0.3m, which occurred
from currency hedging activities taking place to fund the USD
denominated Electra acquisition. There was no such exceptional
income in 2022.
Taxation
For the year ended 31 December 2022, the Group has recorded a
net tax charge of GBP0.4m (2021: GBP1.4m). The material drivers for
the variance from the prior year being: an increase in overseas
current tax charges of GBP0.5m as a result of the increased profits
from our US and Australian operations as those businesses continue
to grow, with US taxes also increasing as a result of the Electra
acquisition; and the prior year including a one-off deferred US tax
charge of GBP1.4m as a result of the Group's long-term global tax
planning, part of which included the sale of the IP acquired in the
Electra acquisition from our US business to our UK business to
ensure the UK remains the centralised IP generating entrepreneur
within the Group.
Cashflow
The Group's financial position remained very strong throughout
2022. At a headline level, the cash balance at the year-end of
GBP6.3m was behind that of the prior year-end of GBP9.1m. Whilst
the total deferred consideration payments from acquisitions made
during the year of GBP4.4m explains much of this, there are also a
number of other movements beneath the headline balances which are
described below.
Operating cashflow, excluding working capital and exceptional
items, has increased by GBP3.1m to GBP10.3m in the year as a result
of the improved cash EBITDA of the Group; including the Clareti
business becoming cash EBITDA generative for the first time.
Operating cash outflow from exceptional items has reduced by
GBP1.3m to GBP0.2m. The prior year included increases that were
one-off in nature, with the significant majority being advisory and
integration fees in respect of the Electra acquisition; the outflow
during 2022 being the finalisation of the Electra integration.
The movement in working capital has reduced by GBP2.1m to
negative GBP0.8m. There are a number of one-off items causing this
swing, including a GBP0.5m payment of US sales tax in relation to
the acquired Electra business which had originally been held back
from the acquisition fees paid, and GBP1.0m of customer payments
made early in December 2021 with early payment not occurring in
2022.
The Group received net tax of GBP0.6m in 2022, whereas during
2021 a net payment of GBP1.1m was made. Gross tax payments were
made in the year of GBP1.9m (2021: GBP1.1m), the increase on the
prior year largely as a result of increased profitability in
Australia and the US; the latter also benefitting from a full year
of the Electra business. During 2022 the Group also received gross
tax receipts of GBP2.5m as a result of research and development
activities performed during 2020 and 2021, where enhanced relief
was available. No such reclaim was received in 2021, with the 2020
claim which was made during 2021 not being received from HMRC until
January 2022.
The capitalised development expenditure of GBP5.2m has increased
by GBP1.0m from the prior year, the increase coming from a full
year of such expenditure from the acquired Electra business, as
well as movements in foreign exchange rates and inflationary
increases.
During 2022 the Group spent GBP0.8m on other capital spend, an
increase of GBP0.7m. GBP0.6m of this increase was one-off in
nature, in relation to the complete refurbishment of our New York
office which re-opened in the third quarter.
During the year the Group paid GBP0.4m of contingent
consideration in relation to the July 2020 Inforalgo acquisition,
in the prior year the initial consideration of GBP0.9m was paid.
The Inforalgo contingent consideration payments are now complete
and were paid in full as the target metrics agreed with the sellers
were fully met.
The Group paid GBP19.6m (net of cash acquired) of initial
consideration to acquire Electra in June 2021, which was funded
through a GBP20.2m (net of costs) capital raise. During the third
quarter of 2022, upon meeting the success criteria measured on the
first anniversary of the acquisition, the first contingent
consideration payment was made in full of GBP4.0m.
The Group received GBP0.1m upon the exercise of share options
during the year (2021: GBP0.1m).
Included within "Other" is the recording of negative effect of
foreign exchange rate changes of GBP1.1m, arising upon the
revaluation of Group's the non-GBP entity opening balance sheets
upon consolidation, the equivalent in the prior year was a positive
GBP0.2m.
As has been the strategy of the Group for a number of years,
with increasing Clareti sales (now including Electra) from the
growing annuity base and new customer wins, coupled with carefully
selected and controlled investments, we expect the cash-generation
capacity of the business to continue and are looking at
opportunities to best utilise excess cash generated. In order to
maximise our returns, we plan to increase levels of investment in
distribution and customer success, whilst continuing to invest
excess cash efficiently in bank deposits and giving appropriate
consideration to M&A opportunities.
2022 2021 Variance %
Opening cash and cash equivalents
at 1 January GBPm 9.1 8.9 0.2 2%
Operating cashflow excluding
exceptional items GBPm 10.3 7.2 3.1 43%
Operating cashflow from
exceptional items GBPm (0.2) (1.5) 1.3 87%
Total operating cashflow
excluding working capital GBPm 10.1 5.7 4.4 77%
Movement in working capital GBPm (0.8) 1.3 (2.1) (162%)
------------------------------------------ ------ ------ ------- --------- --------
Cash inflow from operations GBPm 9.3 7.0 2.3 33%
Net tax receipts/(payments) GBPm 0.6 (1.1) 1.7 155%
Capital expenditure - development
costs GBPm (5.2) (4.2) (1.0) (24%)
Capital expenditure - other GBPm (0.8) (0.1) (0.7) (700%)
Principal paid on lease
liabilities GBPm (0.6) (0.6) - -
Inforalgo acquisition (net
of cash acquired) GBPm (0.4) (0.9) 0.5 56%
Electra acquisition GBPm (4.0) (19.6) 15.6 80%
Shares issued - Electra
acquisition (net of costs) GBPm - 20.2 (20.2) (100%)
Shares issued - upon option
exercises GBPm 0.1 0.1 - -
Dividend GBPm (0.6) (0.5) (0.1) (20%)
Other GBPm (1.2) (0.1) (1.1) (1100%)
------------------------------------------ ------ ------ ------- --------- --------
Net increase/(decrease)
in cash and cash equivalents GBPm (2.8) 0.2 (3.0) N/a
------------------------------------------ ------ ------ ------- --------- --------
Closing cash and cash equivalents
at 31 December KPI GBPm 6.3 9.1 (2.8) (31%)
Consolidated statement of financial position
Property, plant and equipment and right-of use assets have
increased to GBP0.9m and GBP1.6m, from GBP0.2m and GBP1.5m
respectively, largely as a result of the extension of our Sydney
office lease and New York office refurbishment. Our lease
liabilities have also increased by equivalent amounts due to this
lease extension.
Intangible fixed assets remain the largest item on the balance
sheet at GBP62.8m (2021: GBP62.3m), consisting of software
development assets of GBP23.6m; separately identified assets
acquired with previous acquisitions of GBP19.5m and goodwill of
GBP19.7m.
Trade receivables increased from GBP3.8m to GBP4.8m and accrued
income (a contract asset) have increased from GBP1.2m to GBP1.8m.
Trade receivables have increased due to a combination of increased
revenues and the prior year's cash balance benefitting from early
receipts from a customer that did not reoccur in December 2022.
Accrued income has also increased due to the increased revenues in
2022 as well as timing differences in December invoicing.
Income tax receivable has reduced from GBP1.1m to nil due to a
timing difference in the receipt of funds from HMRC in relation to
R&D credits, in which the cash from the 2021 claim in relation
to 2020 activity was received in January 2022, whereas the cash
from the 2022 in relation to 2021 activity was received in December
2022.
Deferred tax liabilities have decreased by GBP0.7m to GBP6.1m as
a result of further research and development spend qualifying for
enhanced tax relief increasing the liability by GBP1.1m offset by a
reduction of GBP0.5m from the unwinding of timing difference
arising on acquired intangibles, a GBP0.4m increase in tax losses
available and a GBP0.5m increase in deferred tax on share
options.
Non-current contingent consideration has reduced from GBP3.6m to
nil and current contingent consideration has increased by GBP3.9m
to GBP4.0m. The prior year current contingent consideration was in
relation to the final contingent consideration payment due on the
2020 Inforalgo of GBP0.4m and the first contingent consideration
payment of US$4.8m due on the 2021 Electra acquisition - both were
paid in full during 2022. The remaining contingent consideration
payment, now classed as current, is in relation to the final amount
of US$4.8m due on the Electra acquisition, which is also expected
to be paid in full during 2023.
Trade payables increased from GBP1.1m to GBP1.5m, which is
largely aligned with the increased size of the business. Accruals
increased to GBP4.3m (2021: GBP3.9m) with the increase largely
being in relation to an increased bonus provision due to both a
strong performance against set targets and reflecting a full years
bonus at full rates for the former Electra employees. Contract
liabilities have decreased from GBP12.0m to GBP11.1m largely due to
the timing of and size of prepayments made in the non-Clareti
business.
Financial outlook
Management are very pleased with the overall financial progress
of the Group during 2022, delivering two upgrades to Group numbers.
We are delivering growth which in turn is driving improved
profitability, aided by synergies gained through the Electra
acquisition. The constant currency organic growth in Clareti ARR
was 10% for 2022, a respectable result but below our stated target
of 20%+. Similarly, both net retention and new business generation
growth rates were lower than in 2021, although the Group expects to
return to target levels in 2023 and future years.
Whilst the strategic decision was taken to discontinue support
for the Group's one remaining own-IP software product (EDT), the
other (non-Clareti) software portfolio as a whole has continued to
surpass expectations, although without the own-IP software revenues
the general trend towards lower margin products and services will
continue. We expect our contracting services business to remain
relatively stable in 2023.
As has been the strategy for many years, we are successfully
continuing to increase the levels of revenue predictability
throughout the Group. In addition to the significantly increased
Clareti recurring revenue base, we have high levels of contracted
backlog of Clareti services for ongoing implementations and
innovation services, and a high portion of the non-Clareti
portfolio already is already under contract for 2023. Nevertheless,
given the uncertain macro-economic environment, we intend to invest
prudently in 2023, prioritising distribution, product and customer
success, to ensure we are best placed to take advantage of the
significant market opportunities.
Tom Mullan
Chief Financial Officer
13 March 2023
CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT
Notes Year ended Year ended
31 December 31 December
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Revenue 4,5 48,719 37,026
Cost of sales (14,774) (11,799)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Gross profit 33,945 25,227
Adjusted administrative expenses (26,999) (21,146)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Adjusted operating profit 6,946 4,081
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Adjusting administrative items:
Exceptional costs 5 (153) (1,821)
Exceptional income 5 - 330
Amortisation of acquired intangibles 14 (2,315) (1,673)
Share-based payments 23 (1,027) (369)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
(3,495) (3,533)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Total administrative expenses (30,494) (24,679)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Operating profit 5,6 3,451 548
Finance revenue 9 6 4
Finance costs 9 (219) (121)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Profit before taxation 3,238 431
Taxation 10 (356) (1,443)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Profit/(loss) after taxation attributable
to the equity holders of the Parent 2,882 (1,012)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Earnings per share
Statutory pence pence
Basic earnings per share 11 3.46 (1.31)
Diluted earnings per share 11 3.41 (1.31)
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
Adjusted
Basic earnings per share 11 7.65 5.08
Diluted earnings per share 11 7.54 5.02
------------------------------------------- -------- ----------------- --------------
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
Notes Year ended Year ended
31 December 31 December
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
---------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Profit/(loss) after taxation attributable
to the equity holders of the Parent 2,882 (1,012)
---------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Other comprehensive expenses
Items that will or may be re-classified
into profit or loss:
Exchange differences on translating foreign
operations 24 (937) (184)
---------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Total other comprehensive expenses (937) (184)
---------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Total comprehensive income/(expense) for
the year 1,945 (1,196)
---------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
Notes
At 31 December At 31 December
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
Assets
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment 13 899 218
Right-of-use assets 16 1,592 1,466
Intangible assets 14 62,788 62,267
Deferred tax assets 10 - 232
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
65,279 64,183
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
Current assets
Trade and other receivables 18 6,515 5,403
Contract assets 18 2,558 1,665
Income tax receivable 18 - 1,204
Cash and cash equivalents 19 6,280 9,139
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
15,353 17,411
Total assets 80,632 81,594
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
Equity and liabilities
Equity attributable to owners
of the Parent
Called up equity share capital 22 4,172 4,168
Share premium account 24 23,941 23,876
Own share reserve 22 (296) (609)
Other reserves 24 536 536
Foreign currency translation
reserve 24 (1,315) (378)
Retained earnings 24 21,968 18,288
Total equity attributable to
owners of the Parent 49,006 45,881
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
Non-current liabilities
Contract liabilities 20 354 60
Lease liabilities 16 953 770
Deferred tax liability 10 6,067 6,831
Provisions 20 146 144
Contingent consideration 20 - 3,575
7,520 11,380
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables 20 19,166 19,616
Lease liabilities 16 709 642
Income tax payable 20 244 131
Contingent consideration 20 3,987 3,944
24,106 24,333
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
Total liabilities 31,626 35,713
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
Total equity and liabilities 80,632 81,594
-------------------------------- ------ ----------------- ---------------
The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors
and authorised for issue on 13 March 2023.
On behalf of the Board
Ian Manocha Tom Mullan
Chief Executive Chief Financial Officer
13 March 2023 13 March 2023
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
Notes Share Share Own Other Foreign Retained Total
capital premium share reserves currency earnings
account reserve translation
reserve
GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000
-------------------------- ------ --------- --------- --------- ---------- ------------- ---------- --------
At 1 January 2021 3,508 4,341 (778) 536 (194) 19,453 26,866
Attributable loss
for the period - - - - - (1,012) (1,012)
Other comprehensive
expenses - - - - (184) - (184)
-------------------------- ------ --------- --------- --------- ---------- ------------- ---------- --------
Total comprehensive
(expenses)/income - - - - (184) (1,012) (1,196)
Issue of equity
shares 22 656 20,344 - - - - 21,000
Share issue costs 22 - (870) - - - - (870)
Exercise of share
options 22 4 61 - - - - 65
Transfer of own
shares held by Employee
Share Ownership
Trust to employees 22 - - 169 - - - 169
Share-based payments 23 - - - - - 369 369
Dividend paid - - - - - (522) (522)
At 31 December 2021 4,168 23,876 (609) 536 (378) 18,288 45,881
-------------------------- ------ --------- --------- --------- ---------- ------------- ---------- --------
Attributable profit
for the period - - - - - 2,882 2,882
Other comprehensive
expenses - - - - (937) - (937)
-------------------------- ------ --------- --------- --------- ---------- ------------- ---------- --------
Total comprehensive
(expenses)/income - - - - (937) 2,882 1,945
Exercise of share
options 22 4 65 - - - - 69
Transfer of own
shares held by Employee
Share Ownership
Trust to employees 22 - - 313 - - 92 405
Deferred tax movement
in respect of share
options 10 - - - - - 301 301
Share-based payments 23 - - - - - 1,027 1,027
Dividend paid 12 - - - - - (622) (622)
At 31 December
2022 4,172 23,941 (296) 536 (1,315) 21,968 49,006
-------------------------- ------ --------- --------- --------- ---------- ------------- ---------- --------
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW
Notes Year ended Year ended
31 December 31 December
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
--------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Cash flows from operating activities
Profit/(loss) after taxation 2,882 (1,012)
Depreciation of property, plant and
equipment 13 191 175
Amortisation of intangible assets 14 4,723 4,042
Amortisation of right-of-use assets 16 714 581
Share-based payments 23 1,027 369
Increase in trade and other receivables (886) (776)
Increase in contract assets (775) (220)
Increase in trade and other payables 1,560 1,996
(Decrease)/increase in contract liabilities (199) 256
Decrease in sales tax provision arising (496) -
on acquisition
Taxation 10 356 1,443
Exchange gain on financial instrument 5 - (330)
Net finance costs 9 213 117
--------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Cash inflow from operations 9,310 6,641
Income taxes received 2,473 -
Income taxes paid (1,893) (1,114)
--------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Net cash inflow from operating activities 9,890 5,527
Cash flows from investing activities
Interest received 9 6 4
Exchange gain on financial instrument 5 - 330
Purchase of property, plant and equipment 13 (806) (145)
Payments to acquire subsidiary undertaking
(net of cash) - (19,639)
Payment of contingent consideration
on acquisition of Inforalgo 20 (369) (923)
Payment of contingent consideration
on acquisition of Electra 20 (3,987) -
Payments to acquire intangible fixed
assets 14 (5,195) (4,150)
--------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Net cash used in investing activities (10,351) (24,523)
Cash flows from financing activities
Interest paid 9 (138) (39)
Principal paid on lease liabilities 16 (645) (590)
Dividends paid 12 (622) (522)
Share issue proceeds (net of costs) 22 69 20,195
--------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
Net cash (used in)/from financing
activities (1,336) 19,044
Net (decrease)/increase in cash and
cash equivalents (1,797) 48
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning
of year 9,139 8,876
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes (1,062) 215
Cash and cash equivalents at end
of year 19 6,280 9,139
--------------------------------------------- ------ ------------- -------------
NOTES TO THE CONDENSED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
1. Basis of preparation
The Group's financial statements have been prepared in
accordance with UK adopted international accounting standards in
conformity with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and in
accordance with international financial reporting standards and
international accounting standards as issued by the International
Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") and Interpretations
(collectively "IFRSs"). The accounting policies which follow set
out those policies which apply in preparing the financial
statements for the year ended 31 December 2022.
The Group's financial statements have been prepared on a
historical cost basis except contingent consideration.
The Group financial statements are presented in Sterling, which
is also the Group's functional currency. All values are rounded to
the nearest thousand pounds (GBP'000) except when otherwise
indicated.
2. Responsibility statements under the disclosure and
transparency rules
The Annual Financial Report for the year ended 31 December 2022
contains the following statements:
The directors confirm that to the best of their knowledge:
-- the Group financial statements have been prepared in accordance
with IFRS as issued by IASB and Article 4 of the IAS Regulation,
and give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities,
financial position and profit and loss of the Group; and
-- the Annual Financial Report 2022 includes a fair review
of the development and performance of the business and
the financial position of the Group and the Parent Company,
together with a description of the principal risks and
uncertainties that they face.
The name and function of each of the directors for the year
ended 31 December 2022 are set out in the Annual Financial Report
2022.
3. Segment information
The segmental disclosures reflect the analysis presented on a
monthly basis to the chief operating decision maker of the
business, the Chief Executive Officer and the Board of
Directors.
In addition, the split of revenues and non-current assets by the
UK and overseas have been included as they are specifically
required by IFRS 8 "Operating Segments".
For management purposes, the Group is organised into the
following reportable segments:
-- Clareti Solutions - supply of solutions predominantly to the
finance and banking markets across Asia Pacific, EMEA and North
America. Includes both software and services that can be accessed
in the cloud, on-premise or deployed into hybrid environments.
These primary offerings within this segment include:
o Clareti Control products
o Clareti Connect products
-- Other Solutions - supply of a range of well-established
solutions to enterprise-level customers in a variety of end
markets
-- Contracting Services - Supply of IT contracting services to one banking customer
Transfer prices between segments are set on an arm's length
basis in a manner similar to transactions with third parties.
Segment revenue, segment expense and segment result include
transfers between business segments. Those transfers are eliminated
on consolidation.
Other
Notes Clareti Solutions Contracting Adjustments, Consolidated
Solutions Services central
overheads
and elimination
2022 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Revenue 4 35,519 4,976 8,224 48,719
Cost of sales (5,032) (2,546) (7,196) (14,774)
Gross profit 30,487 2,430 1,028 33,945
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Gross profit % 86% 49% 13% 70%
Adjusted administrative
expenses (26,898) (101) - (26,999)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Adjusted operating profit 3,589 2,329 1,028 6,946
Adjusting administrative
items:
Exceptional costs 5 (153) (153)
Amortisation of acquired
intangibles 14 (2,315) (2,315)
Share-based payments 23 (1,027) (1,027)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Adjusting administrative
expenses (3,495) (3,495)
Operating profit 3,451
Finance revenue 9 6
Finance costs 9 (219)
Profit before taxation 3,238
Taxation 10 (356)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Profit after taxation 2,882
Adjusted operating profit 6,946
Amortisation of intangibles 14 2,408
Depreciation of property,
plant and equipment 13 191
Amortisation of right-of-use
assets 16 714
Adjusted EBITDA 10,259
Development costs capitalised 14 (5,195)
Principal paid on lease
liabilities 16 (645)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Cash adjusted EBITDA 4,419
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Segment assets 80,632
Segment liabilities (31,626)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Other
Notes Clareti Solutions Contracting Adjustments, Consolidated
Solutions Services central
overheads
and elimination
2021 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Revenue 4 25,470 5,222 6,334 - 37,026
Cost of sales (3,978) (2,338) (5,483) - (11,799)
Gross profit 21,492 2,884 851 - 25,227
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Gross profit % 84% 55% 13% 68%
Adjusted administrative
expenses (20,996) (150) - - (21,146)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Adjusted operating profit 496 2,734 851 - 4,081
Adjusting administrative
items:
Exceptional costs 5 (1,491) (1,491)
Amortisation of acquired
intangibles 14 (1,673) (1,673)
Share-based payments 23 (369) (369)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Adjusting administrative
expenses (3,533) (3,533)
Operating profit 548
Finance revenue 9 4
Finance costs 9 (121)
Profit before taxation 431
Taxation 10 (1,443)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Loss after taxation (1,012)
Adjusted operating profit 4,081
Amortisation of intangibles 14 2,369
Depreciation of property,
plant and equipment 13 175
Amortisation of right-of-use
assets 16 581
Adjusted EBITDA 7,206
Development costs capitalised 14 (4,105)
Principal paid on lease
liabilities 16 (590)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Cash adjusted EBITDA 2,511
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
Segment assets 81,594
Segment liabilities (35,713)
------------------------------- ------ ----------- ----------- ------------ ----------------- -------------
The Group has a customer relationship with one banking customer
which is considered by the Directors to be individually
significant; revenue from this relationship exceeded 10% of the
Group's revenue, totalling GBP20,593,000 (2021: GBP17,618,000)
which includes low margin contracting revenue of GBP10,229,000
(2021: GBP8,442,000).
Adjusting administrative items
Operating performance is analysed excluding exceptional items,
share-based payment charges and amortisation from acquired
intangibles which is consistent in with the way in which the Board
and most stakeholders review the financial performance of the
Group. These adjusting items are all either non-cash or
non-recurring IFRS expenses (or income) that do not reflect the
underlying performance of the business. In the case of share-based
payment charges, management acknowledge that these awards are
potentially paid in "lieu" of cash salary or bonuses, however the
actual charge represents a non-cash expense. Adjusting for these
items is also consistent with the manner in which similar small and
mid cap LSE (or AIM) listed present their results and how we
understand the investment community to assess performance, where,
for growth shares the recurring cash performance of the business is
considered most important. In addition, these adjustments are also
aligned with the performance methodology used by the panel of debt
providers that tendered for the revolving credit facility
established during the year in order to assess and continually
monitor credit worthiness, risk and upon which covenants are
set.
The adjusting administrative items are:
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
---------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Acquisition and associated integration costs 153 1,814
Advisory fees for new share option scheme - 7
---------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Exceptional costs 153 1,821
Exceptional income - (330)
Total exceptional items 153 1,491
---------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Amortisation on acquired intangibles 2,315 1,673
Share-based payments 1,027 369
---------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Total adjusting administrative items 3,495 3,533
---------------------------------------------- -------- --------
During the year the Group incurred GBP153,000 exceptional costs
relating to legal and professional fees for the integration costs
of prior year acquisitions.
During the year ended 31 December 2021 the Group incurred
exceptional costs of GBP1,814,000 which included legal, due
diligence and professional fees for the acquisition of Electra
Information Systems and associated integration costs.
Exceptional legal and tax advisory costs were incurred in the
year ended 31 December 2021 of GBP7,000 associated with
implementation of a new ten-year share option incentive scheme.
These costs are not expected to occur for a further ten years.
Exceptional income of GBP330,000 was recognised in the year
ended 31 December 2021 on realising a gain on the completion of a
contract to forward purchase US dollars. The contract was entered
into to minimise the currency risk on the acquisition of Electra
Information Systems. This income has been treated as exceptional as
it is non-recurring.
Due to the amount and nature of amortisation of acquired
intangibles and share-based payments both costs were treated as an
adjusting administrative item.
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA is disclosed within the financial statements to
show the underlying performance of the group on a consistent basis
and to aid understanding of the financial performance during the
year.
Notes 2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
--------------------------------------------------- -------------- ------------------- -------------------
Profit before taxation 3,238 431
Adjusting items:
Amortisation of intangibles 14 4,723 4,042
Depreciation of property, plant and
equipment 13 191 175
Amortisation of right-to-use assets 16 714 581
Notional interest on lease liabilities 9 45 43
Finance revenue 9 (6) (4)
Interest payable 9 174 78
EBITDA 9,079 5,346
Exceptional items 5 153 1,491
Share-based payments 23 1,027 369
Adjusted EBITDA 10,259 7,206
-------------- ------------------- -------------------
Adjusted EBITDA is not an IFRS measure or not considered to be a
substitute for or superior to any IFRS measures. It is not directly
comparable to other companies.
Geographic information 2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Revenues from external customers (by destination)
UK 6,953 5,998
EMEA 4,460 3,151
United States 14,607 9,096
Americas 1,307 517
Australia 20,840 17,738
Asia Pacific 552 526
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
48,719 37,026
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
EMEA includes revenue from external customers located primarily
in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Finland and South
Africa. Americas includes revenue primarily from Canada. Asia
Pacific includes revenue from external customers located primarily
in Malaysia and Singapore.
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Non-current assets
UK 63,077 62,777
EMEA 425 448
North America 740 396
Asia Pacific 1,037 562
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
65,279 64,183
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Non-current assets consist of property, plant and equipment,
right-of-use assets, intangible assets and deferred tax assets.
4. Taxation
Tax on profit on ordinary activities
Tax charge in the income statement
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Current income tax
Overseas tax charge/(credit) - adjustment to
prior years 45 (93)
Overseas tax charge - current year 1,570 1,118
UK corporation tax credit - adjustment to prior
years (1,293) (1,045)
Total current income tax 322 (20)
Deferred income tax
Movement in net deferred tax liability 34 1,231
Tax rate change adjustments - 232
------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Total deferred income tax 34 1,463
Total charge in the income statement 356 1,443
------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
The UK corporation tax credit included GBP1,273,000 (2021:
GBP1,045,000) relating to the surrender of prior year tax losses
under the HMRC R&D tax credit scheme.
Reconciliation of the total tax charge
The tax charge in the income statement for the year is lower
(2021: higher) than the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK
of 19.0% (2021: 19.0%). The differences are reconciled below:
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------------------------------ -------- --------
Profit before taxation 3,238 431
Profit before taxation multiplied by the UK
standard rate of corporation tax of 19.0% (2021:
19.0%) 615 82
Effects of:
Expenses not deductible for tax purposes 573 288
Impact of tax rate change on timing differences 139 234
Difference in overseas tax rates 375 785
Movement in unprovided deferred tax losses (86) (305)
Adjustments to prior years in respect of current
tax (1,248) (1,138)
Adjustments to prior years in respect of deferred
tax 2,165 1,802
Research and development enhanced relief claim (2,177) (1,703)
Deferred tax on the inter-group sale of intellectual
property - 1,398
Total tax charge reported in the income statement 356 1,443
------------------------------------------------------ -------- --------
Tax credit recognised in equity:
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
----------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Deferred tax credit recognised directly in 301 -
equity
Total tax credit recognised directly in equity 301 -
----------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Deferred tax
Deferred tax liabilities
The movement on the deferred tax liability is shown below:
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
At 1 January (6,599) (737)
Recognised in income (34) (1,463)
Recognised in equity 301 -
Arising on acquisition of intangibles in subsidiaries - (4,055)
Foreign exchange 265 (344)
------------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
At 31 December (6,067) (6,599)
------------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Deferred tax recognised relates to the following:
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------------------------ -------- --------
Tax losses available for offset against future
taxable income 3,979 3,639
Employee share award schemes 766 310
Capitalised development costs (5,577) (4,545)
Accelerated depreciation for tax purposes on
fixed assets 540 828
Other timing differences 379 -
Inter-group sale of intellectual property (1,300) (1,398)
Acquired intangibles - software and customer
relationships (4,854) (5,433)
31 December (6,067) (6,599)
------------------------------------------------ -------- --------
Comprising: 2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
------------------------------------------------ -------- --------
Asset - 232
Liability (6,067) (6,831)
31 December (6,067) (6,599)
------------------------------------------------ -------- --------
Unrecognised tax losses
The Group has tax losses that are available indefinitely for
offset against future taxable profits of the companies in which the
losses arose as analysed below. Deferred tax assets have not been
recognised in respect of these losses as they may not be used to
offset taxable profits elsewhere in the Group and they have arisen
in subsidiaries that have been loss making for some time.
The tax effect of exchange differences recorded within the
consolidated statement of comprehensive income is a credit of
GBP178,000 (2021: GBP35,000).
Temporary differences associated with Group investments
At 31 December 2022, there was no recognised deferred tax
liability (2021: GBPnil) for taxes that would be payable on the
unremitted earnings of certain of the Group's subsidiaries as the
Group has determined that undistributed profits of its subsidiaries
will not be distributed in the foreseeable future.
Unrecognised potential deferred tax assets
The deferred tax not recognised in the consolidated 2022 2021
statement of financial position is as follows:
GBP'000 GBP'000
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Gresham Technologies (Luxembourg) S.A. 793 816
Gresham Technologies (Holdings) SARL 109 103
Inforalgo Information Technology Limited - 243
Gresham Technologies (Singapore) Limited 137 125
Gresham Technologies (TDI) Limited 119 116
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Tax losses 1,158 1,403
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Gross tax losses unrecognised 5,155 5,857
----------------------------------------------------- -------- --------
Future tax rates
The main UK corporation tax rate is due to increase to 25% from
1 April 2023 as substantively enacted by the Finance Act 2021.
Therefore, the rate used to calculate deferred tax balances at 31
December 2022 is 25%.
The Group's recognised and unrecognised deferred tax assets in
the UK, Luxembourg, Australian and US subsidiaries have been shown
at the rates in the following table, being the substantively
enacted rates in these countries.
2022 2021
% %
------------ ----- -----
UK 25 25
Luxembourg 25 25
Australia 30 30
US 27 27
------------ ----- -----
5. Earnings
Earnings per share
Basic earnings per share amounts are calculated by dividing
profit or loss for the year attributable to owners of the Parent by
the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding during
the year.
Diluted earnings per share amounts are calculated by dividing
profit or loss attributable to owners of the Parent by the weighted
average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the year plus
the weighted average number of ordinary shares that would be issued
on the conversion of all the dilutive potential ordinary shares
into ordinary shares except when such dilutive instruments would
reduce the loss per share.
The following reflects the earnings and share data used in the
basic and diluted earnings per share computations:
2022 2021
----------------------------------- ----------- -----------
Basic weighted average number of
shares 83,393,061 77,132,796
Employee share options - weighted
(note 23) 1,133,957 890,100
Diluted weighted average number
of shares 84,527,018 78,022,896
------------------------------------ ----------- -----------
Notes 2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
-------------------------------------------- ------ -------- --------
Adjusted earnings attributable to owners
of the Parent 6,377 3,919
Adjusting items:
Exceptional items 5 (153) (1,491)
Amortisation of acquired intangibles 14 (2,315) (1,673)
Deferred tax charge on inter-group sale
of intellectual property 10 - (1,398)
Share-based payments 23 (1,027) (369)
Statutory earnings attributable to owners
of the Parent 2,882 (1,012)
-------------------------------------------- ------ -------- --------
Earnings per share
Statutory pence pence
Basic earnings per share 3.46 (1.31)
Diluted earnings per share 3.41 (1.31)
-------------------------------------------- ------ -------- --------
Adjusted
Basic earnings per share 7.65 5.08
Diluted earnings per share 7.54 5.02
-------------------------------------------- ------ -------- --------
During the year ended 31 December 2022, share options granted
under share option schemes were exercised and the Group issued
85,000 (2021: 83,000) ordinary shares accordingly (ranking pari
passu with existing shares in issue). See note 22 for further
details.
There have been no other transactions involving ordinary shares
or potential ordinary shares between the reporting date and the
date of completion of this Annual Financial Report 2022.
6. Dividends paid and proposed
The final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2021 was
approved at the Company Annual General Meeting on 10 May 2022 and
paid on 19 May 2022 of 0.75 pence per share, equating to a total of
GBP622,000. The Company will be proposing a final dividend for
approval at the AGM for the year ended 31 December 2022 of 0.75
pence per share.
7. Intangible assets
Separately identified
intangibles on
acquisition
Development Patents Software Customer Goodwill Total
costs and licences relationships
2022 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
Cost
At 1 January 31,072 858 12,120 14,210 19,848 78,108
Additions 5,195 - - - - 5,195
Disposals - (91) - - - (91)
Exchange adjustment 34 10 - - 55 99
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
At 31 December 36,301 777 12,120 14,210 19,903 83,311
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
At 1 January (10,378) (763) (3,105) (1,378) (217) (15,841)
Charge for year (2,360) (48) (1,212) (1,103) - (4,723)
Eliminated on
disposal - 91 - - - 91
Exchange adjustment (7) (10) - - (33) (50)
At 31 December (12,745) (730) (4,317) (2,481) (250) (20,523)
--------------------- ------------ --------- ---------- ---------
Net carrying
amount
At 31 December 23,556 47 7,803 11,729 19,653 62,788
At 1 January 20,694 95 9,015 12,832 19,631 62,267
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
Separately identified
intangibles on
acquisition
Development Patents Software Customer Goodwill Total
costs and licences relationships
2021 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000 GBP'000
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
Cost
At 1 January 26,996 832 7,161 2,410 5,625 43,024
Additions 4,105 45 4,959 11,800 14,279 35,188
Disposals - (6) - - - (6)
Exchange adjustment (29) (13) - - (56) (98)
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
At 31 December 31,072 858 12,120 14,210 19,848 78,108
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
At 1 January (8,117) (739) (2,141) (669) (250) (11,916)
Charge for year (2,326) (43) (964) (709) - (4,042)
Eliminated on
disposal - 6 - - - 6
Exchange adjustment 65 13 - - 33 111
At 31 December (10,378) (763) (3,105) (1,378) (217) (15,841)
--------------------- ------------ --------- ---------- ---------
Net carrying
amount
At 31 December 20,694 95 9,015 12,832 19,631 62,267
At 1 January 18,879 93 5,020 1,741 5,375 31,108
--------------------- ------------ -------------- --------- --------------- ---------- ---------
Development costs
Development costs are internally generated and are capitalised
at cost. These intangible assets have been assessed as having a
finite life and are amortised on a straight-line basis over their
useful lives of two to eleven years. These assets are tested for
impairment where an indicator of impairment arises and annually
prior to them being made available for use.
For the years ended 31 December 2022 and 31 December 2021 the
Group has capitalised development costs in respect of individual
Clareti applications which have been individually assessed against
the required capitalisation criteria and been individually assigned
useful economic lives reflecting the maturity and availability of
comparable applications in our markets. These useful economic lives
are assessed to be between two and eleven years.
No changes have been made to development costs capitalised in
prior years in respect of the Clareti platform, which continue to
be amortised on a systematic basis over the existing useful
economic life of eleven years.
Patents and licences
Patents and licences are the third-party costs incurred in
seeking and obtaining protection for certain of the Group's
products and services. These intangible assets have been assessed
as having a finite life and are being amortised evenly over their
useful economic life, to a maximum of ten years. Patents have a
remaining life of three years and licences have a remaining life of
one to ten years.
Separately identified acquired intangibles
Separately identified intangibles acquired through business
combinations represent software and customer relationships which
arose through the acquisitions of C24 Technologies Limited, B2
Group, Inforalgo and Electra Information Systems.
Software is amortised over its useful economic life, which is
deemed to be ten years.
Customer relationships acquired in the year are amortised over
their useful economic life, which is deemed to be twelve years for
the Electra acquisition, eight years for the Inforalgo and C24
Technologies Limited acquisitions and six years for B2 Group.
Goodwill
Goodwill arose on the acquisition of our Asia Pacific real-time
financial solutions business, C24 Technologies Limited, B2 Group,
Inforalgo and Electra Information Systems. It is assessed as having
an indefinite life and is assessed for impairment at least
annually.
8. Related party transactions
Key management compensation (including Directors)
2022 2021
GBP'000 GBP'000
----------------------- -------- --------
Directors' emoluments
Remuneration 652 648
Social security costs 137 145
Bonuses 298 401
Pension 22 22
Share-based payments 406 116
------------------------ -------- --------
1,515 1,332
----------------------- -------- --------
Details of Directors' compensation are included in the
Directors' Remuneration Report.
There is no single party known that the Directors consider to be
a controlling shareholder or ultimate parent undertaking. Refer to
page 80 for details of all significant shareholders that the
Company has been notified of.
9. Events after the reporting date
A dividend of 0.75 pence per share has been approved by the
Board to propose to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting.
10. Additional information
Principal risks and uncertainties
The principal risks and uncertainties facing the Group together
with actions being taken to mitigate them and future potential
items for consideration are set out in the Strategic Report section
of the Annual Financial Report 2022.
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