Accesso Technology Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 19/4/2022 09:33

We already know that ACSO had a very good 2021 and that this year has started well.

And that's despite last week's news from Merlin that although the number of its visitors across its global operations in 2021 rose from 22.1 million to 35.2 million, this was still "some way short of the 67 million recorded in 2019".

The CEO said "he expected domestic business to return to 2019 levels this year, but its international business would probably take until the end of next year".

Imagine ACSO's results when international business fully returns. In the meantime UK and US attraction visitors should be back to normal or almost normal this spring and summer:

[rivaldo] 11/4/2022 14:46

Shore Capital say Buy today - they predict $36.9m PBT this year, along with a whopping $121m cash pile by the end of the year. At which point the cash pile would represent almost 30% of the m/cap!



"Accesso to generate mass of cash predicts broker

Trading this year is said to have started well, with traction within North America

Accesso’s full-year results were encouraging says Shore Capital, which has stuck a buy rating on the virtual ticketing and queuing group.

Last year, 2021, was an exceptionally good year, it says, boosted by a greater mix towards higher-margin revenue segments, such as queuing, ticking and eCommerce positively impacted gross margins.

Transactional revenues continued to increase in line with easing restrictions, and an abnormal shift in revenue mix, along with prolonged cost savings, positively impacted group margins.

Trading this year is said to have started well, with traction within North America and an increasing consumer appetite for leading-edge eCommerce solutions.

As trading normalises, the cost base is expected to rise, given the operating model and industry wage pressures, however, ACSO has stated that it expects another cash generative year building on the year-end cash balance of above US$60mln.

In a new forecast for 2024, Shore Capital has pencilled in sales of US$165mln and underlying profits of US$36.9mln, with net cash rising to US$121mln by the year-end or more than double the end of 2021."

[rivaldo] 25/3/2022 08:32

New interview with the very bullish CEO, particularly as regards (1) consumers wanting to do everything on their smartphones, and (2) the benefits to operators of reducing labour costs, both of which are being enabled by using ACSO's products:



"Accesso Technology Group hails 'remarkable' profitability that is 'four times 2019'
Mar 23, 2022

Accesso Technology Group PLC's (AIM:ACSO, OTC:LOQPF) Chief Executive Steve Brown joins Proactive London's Katie Pilbeam to talk about their 'remarkable' year in 2021.

In the 12 months ended 31 December, accesso, which provides ticketing and queuing solutions for theme parks and entertainment venues, saw its revenues grow 123% to US$124.8mln. This resulted in a 346% increase in earnings (EBITDA) to US$28.1mln. It ended the period with net cash of US$64mln.

The firm recorded revenue and record profit during what he described as another challenging year and many of their markets continue on the recovery road."

[rivaldo] 24/3/2022 13:31

RNS - Canaccord have been buying. They've bought around another 530,000 shares since their last disclosure (via Hargreave Hale), so at least £4m's worth.

They now won 4.64m shares, or 11.25%:

[rivaldo] 23/3/2022 07:11

News - a new long-term contract win with a new client for eCommerce, on-site ticketing and mobile food & beverage technologies.....



"accesso® Kicks Off Multifaceted Partnership with Pyek Group, Powering Four North American Waterparks
Mar 21, 2022, 08:00 ET

International Solutions Provider Delivers Portfolio-Wide Support with eCommerce, Ticketing and Mobile F&B Solutions

ORLANDO, Fla., March 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- accesso Technology Group plc (AIM: ACSO), the premier technology solutions provider for attractions and venues worldwide, has signed a three-year agreement with Houston-based Pyek Group to serve as the dedicated provider of eCommerce, on-site ticketing and mobile food & beverage (F&B) technologies for the management group's four North American waterparks: Typhoon Texas Austin in Pflugerville; Typhoon Texas Houston in Katy; Cowabunga Canyon (formerly Wet 'n' Wild Las Vegas) in Spring Valley, Nevada; and, Cowabunga Bay Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada. Through this partnership, accesso solutions are actively supporting 160 salespoints across the four Pyek Group properties.

Consistently ranked among the United States' most-attended waterparks, Typhoon Texas Austin and Typhoon Texas Houston boast awards from the World Waterpark Association for excellence in safety and operations.....

Pyek Group has also implemented accesso solutions at two Nevada waterparks – Cowabunga Canyon and Cowabunga Bay Las Vegas – which the management group owns and manages through a merger completed in November 2021.....

"Pyek Group is pleased to welcome Accesso as our dedicated technology partner to support the operations of our state-of-the-art waterparks," said Evan Barnett, President of Pyek Group. "In today's digital environment, it's crucial to give guests robust, yet easy-to-use, control over their own experiences, and we're looking forward to making that concept a reality for our valued guests."

Together, Pyek Group and accesso are streamlining and enhancing the guest experience at all four waterpark venues with the introduction of three distinct solutions:

With support of the fully hosted accesso Passport® eCommerce ticketing suite, Pyek Group is empowered to deliver an easy-to-use eCommerce experience for guests of its North America waterparks, conveniently available via desktop, tablet or mobile device. Pre-trip planning is a seamless experience for guests, with Pyek Group's ability to deliver personalized up-sell, cross-sell and quick-sell opportunities across its online storefront – from beverage packages to parking passes, cabana rentals and more.
To support on-site transactions, Pyek Group is leveraging the accesso SiriuswareSM point-of-sale ticketing solution, which provides operators with a complete view of their guests' purchasing behavior all on one platform.
With accesso's guest experience management platform, Pyek Group has enabled mobile F&B functionality across its waterpark properties, providing guests access to mobile ordering and restaurant arrival time booking functionality. The solution gives guests the power to curate the dining experience they desire, with easy access to dining information and menu specifics that they can explore at their own pace – all from the convenience of their mobile device. Once they decide on their restaurant, they can book an arrival time or go straight to ordering their food. When ordering, guests can customize their selections, claim special offers customized for them and choose their preferred method of order fulfillment – from anywhere throughout a venue, at any time and with any device."

[rarecontributor] 22/3/2022 21:31

It is true that there’s a $9.91m tax benefit included in the $22.018m profit figure but it’s also true that capitalisation of development costs was only $0.72m in 2021 compared with an amortization of development costs of $9.32m. That makes the profit figure look worse than it really is as I’ve gone over in a couple of previous posts. The Cash EBITDA figure of $28.14 and change in Net cash of $34.25m tell the real story. An excellent set of results given that distribution revenue was down $9.1m on 2019 levels during the first half of 2021 due to Covid closures in theatres and live entertainment venues and ended up $11m down for year based on 2019 revenue. Californian and European parks were mostly shut too. In fact overall theme park attendance was 27.7% down on 2019 levels. I find it difficult to believe that with continued recovery from Covid affects during 2022 combined with the significant amount of new business gained and the very strong order book that revenue for this year will be any less than $140m. Admin costs were flagged as being 8 – 12% higher for 2022 largely due to increased labour levels to capitalise on the increased demand but the additional revenue will easily absorb that. I see a re-rate to at least 5 to 6 times revenue during the course of this year which would support Peel Hunt’s target of 1300p.

[w13ken] 22/3/2022 18:38

Cheers for the updates Rivaldo. I topped up again this morning and have high hopes for the next 18 months.

[rivaldo] 22/3/2022 14:43

Depends which figures you use! The 61.1c adjusted EPS for last year equates to around 46p EPS, so that's a historic P/E at 818p of 17.8, but which includes the significant income tax benefit.

Better to use the figures in this analysis now up from Peel Hunt, who have a 1300p target price (to which the upside is some 60%, not the 37% quoted!):



"Accesso investors thrilled as ‘outstanding’ performance impresses City analysts

Accesso is highly undervalued, according to stockbroker Peel Hunt, which calls it a huge Covid-19 exit play.

Having white-knuckled through Covid lockdowns investors in Accesso Technology Group PLC (AIM:ACSO, OTC:LOQPF) are again seeing the AIM-quoted stock as something of a thrill-ride, as parks reopened though 2021.

Accesso was boosted on Tuesday by upbeat set of financial results which, in the words of chief executive Steve Brown, saw a "simply outstanding" performance for the theme park ticketing and virtual queuing services firm.

The shares advanced around 7%, trading at 822p, after the company revealed 123% revenue growth to US$124.80 in 2021, driving a 346% increase in earnings (EBITDA) to US$28.1mln.

“We delivered record revenue and record profit during another challenging year in our end markets as they continued to recover at varying levels through the year,” said CEO Brown.

Key to the performance has been the appetite of theme park operators to make efficiency gains, reduce labour costs and optimise digital revenue streams – all in the wake of the reopening of parks following the Covid-impacted 2020.

“In the near term, we'll invest squarely behind this increased level of demand to secure the long-term, repeatable revenue during the crucial adoption phase,” Brown added.

“We will also see a welcome return to more normal operations and full staffing levels which will support the growing demand for our solutions and allow for continued innovation."

Analysts at Peel Hunt, meanwhile, reckon Accesso will now deliver another cash generative year, despite expected higher costs in 2022.

“We expect to upgrade revenue for 2022 by 3%, driven mainly by the faster than expected recovery in lower-margin distribution seen in 2021,” Peel Hunt analyst James Lockyer said in a note.

The analyst also expects to upgrade his expectations for cash earnings by some 17% for 2022 and 22% for next year.

“Given this strong outperformance and upgrade we reiterate our ‘buy’ recommendation and 1,300p price target. Today’s share price implies Accesso is trading on a 2x FY2023 EV/Sales and 15x FY2023 EV/cash earnings on our new numbers.

“This shows Accesso as highly undervalued given its operational leverage, a play on the offline to online shift, and a huge Covid-19 exit play.”

With a 1,300p price target, Peel Hunt sees some 37% upside to the current share price.

Elsewhere, analysts at Shore Capital – which also rate Accesso as ‘buy’ - said they’ve been pleased with the quick recovery and the upgrades.

“We continue to believe that Accesso has a compelling proposition in line with industry digital / consumer trends and is well placed for future sustainable growth.”

Accesso, in this morning’s statement, pointed to a positive start to 2022.

Investors were told trading volumes for January and February had been "encouraging".

For example, accessoPassport ticket business for North America was double that of 2019 as a result of the new customers brought on board over the past two years.

“Whilst we remain cognisant of the relatively early stage in the year, the impact of tiered pricing at higher volumes and revised terms related to enterprise renewals, we are cautiously optimistic about another year of good progress,” the company highlighted."

[montyhedge] 22/3/2022 13:40

I make p.e around 21 is that right?

[nchanning] 22/3/2022 11:12

I don't think 1400p will be a great result, but it will happen if the share price doesn't rerate. It's a sitting duck with that cash pile a buyer wouldn't even need to put much equity in . This is really a high quality business now , barring once in a century pandemics ...

[aimingupward2] 22/3/2022 09:47

£14 is pretty modest. Just over 3 yrs ago, when neither the company nor it’s markets were as developed, the share price was around double that. So plenty to look forward to here.

[nchanning] 22/3/2022 09:01

Every indication that there will be substantial growth again in FY 2022 , clearly 132m revenue is far too low a forecast as it stands . If we continue to show explosive profitable growth in a sticky vertical market software industry this should trade at 5 x sales at a bare minimum. The share price needs to go up soon or someone will take this out at 1400p ...

[capitalist] 22/3/2022 08:00

I agree Rivaldo.
I especially liked the doubling of EPS.
Time for a rerating, hopefully.

[rivaldo] 22/3/2022 07:20

Wow. Fantastic results today - this in a year heavily impacted by Covid!

Covid and the increased need for ecommerce/mobile ticketing and social distancing have made this a perfect environment for ACSO's services, which are expanding to now include food and beverage for example.

Hugely cash-generative too. ACSO now have around a £50m cash pile - approaching 20% of the m/cap.

And a very bullish outlook as global economies open up - this year's figures could show even better progress:

"accesso has made a strong start to the 2022 financial year, with trading volumes in January and February providing an encouraging basis for this year's performance. In North America, our accesso Passport ticket volumes were double what we saw in the first two months 2019. This robust performance continues to be supported by the removal of COVID-19 restrictions across the world as well as the benefit from a significant number of customers onboarded during the past 2 years and increasing customer appetite for a leading-edge eCommerce solution."

I love this paragraph, which shows the fundamental shift in ACSO's operating environment:

"The significantly higher utilisation of our solutions by both venue operators and their visitors is a clear indication that the relationship with technology in our end markets has undergone a fundamental change. Bearing in mind, a significant portion of our revenue is transaction based and we are confident this new level of engagement with our technologies is here to stay. Many guests who before purchased tickets at the front entry or food at the restaurant counter are now mobile users. Guests that previously utilised our virtual queuing solution via a wearable device are now doing so via their smartphone. Operators have seen our technology transform the quality of their experience, deliver greatly enhanced revenues, and lower their operating costs. They are never going back."

[aimingupward2] 21/3/2022 17:52

Tiny volume of trade today, by contrast with Friday's big figure.

Annual results expected in a day or two.

[bouleversee] 18/3/2022 19:20

I don't find that surprising at all; they have achieved new contracts and the world is opening up -till it doesn't if covid starts getting the upper hand again, of course, or nobody can afford to go on holiday.

[aimingupward2] 18/3/2022 17:32

Yes, an astonishing imbalance of trades. Over 570K bought and fewer than 30K sold.

It'll be very interesting to see what next week brings.

[wad collector] 18/3/2022 16:55

Today's rise does seem rather disproportionate, are we missing something that is under the radar? Or is it just a realisation that the fall has been disproportionate? A lot more volume than the rest of the week combined today, there must be a reason.

[wad collector] 18/3/2022 16:52

Today's rise does seem rather disproportionate, are we missing something that is under the radar? Or is it just a realisation that the fall has been disproportionate?

[rivaldo] 18/3/2022 14:32

Yep, results are normally mid/end of March, so not long to go.

[rimau1] 18/3/2022 13:55

I bought this morning as this has been on my watchlist for a while and i think there should be results announced in March?

[rivaldo] 18/3/2022 11:06

A sudden surge - and on a very healthy 563,000 shares traded already today.

[nchanning] 15/2/2022 14:01

By the end of this year we might be looking at $100m net cash position - perhaps we might see an a big acquisition that adds another 10m of EBITDA

[rivaldo] 02/2/2022 11:43

Flash news just out - Merlin are to take over CadburyWorld in Bourneville "under a 50-year agreement" (more details to follow):



Could well be a long-term revenue opportunity for ACSO too once Merlin get their feet under the table.