Aferian Share Discussion Threads

[masurenguy] 12/4/2022 23:53

Reduced my holding here. Shareprice is begining to stagnate and have better options elsewhere.

[masurenguy] 17/2/2022 08:19

Very positive outlook with more M & A activity on the horizon.

[ga_dti] 17/2/2022 07:52

Latest CEO interview discussing results for the year ended 30th November 2021:

[masurenguy] 10/2/2022 08:12

Topped up right at the open. Now @150.8p (+ 2.4%) - should be back to 160p soon !

[masurenguy] 10/2/2022 07:14

Great update and final dividend increased by 12%

RESULTS FOR YEAR END 2021

Double digit revenue & profit growth. Improved quality of earnings. Enhanced revenue visibility achieved.

Aferian plc announces its results for the year ended 30 November 2021.

Financial Highlights

-- Further improved quality of earnings and enhanced revenue visibility
-- higher-margin software and services revenue of approximately $22.4m , up 15%, including recurring revenue of $12.9m, up 21%
-- exit run rate ARR of $15.2m (2020: $10.6m), up 43%
-- Strong balance sheet maintained with strengthened cash position, and new banking facility of up to $100m to support our targeted M&A strategy
-- A final dividend of 2.09 pence (2.87 US cents) per share (2020: 1.87 pence / 2.39 US cents) in line with our new dividend policy to deliver returns to shareholders through growth and income

Strategic and Operational Highlights

-- Strong progress against our 2025 strategic goals in the first year of execution
-- Continued focus and investment to drive growth in recurring software revenues and conversion of the streaming and Pay TV convergence opportunity
-- 24i : continued focus on building recurring revenues and migrating subscribers from legacy systems to 24i's more flexible and extensible platform
-- Amino : grew revenues by 19% to $75.1m, maintaining strong margins and cash generation
-- Strategically important customer deployments achieved during the period across

24i and Amino:

-- 24i: deployed 24i's streaming platform for new customers including the Canadian Hockey League and Cinessance, a subscription video on demand service, which launched in November 2021 as the 'Netflix of French Film'
-- Amino: multiple new deployments of Amino's Android TV platform including at Go Malta and CableNet in Europe, Optage in APAC and Conway, Home Telecom and Hay

Communications in North America

-- Successful integration of Danish streaming and Pay TV platform specialist , Nordija (now part of 24i), immediately adding $2.1m ARR upon acquisition.
-- Continued product innovation and success , 24i's video platform named best OTT Video Platform in the Streaming Media European Readers' Choice Awards, and Amino's Hybrid Android TV streaming device securing CSI Magazine's Award for Best Customer Premise Technology 2021

Current trading and outlook

-- We enter 2022 in a solid position and continue to strengthen our pipeline of potential M&A opportunities as we seek to continue to deliver against our 2025 strategy.
-- The Board remains confident in the Group's ability to meet current full year expectations and in the Group's future prospects.

Donald McGarva, Chief Executive Officer of Aferian plc, said: "I am proud of the strong performance we've achieved in our first full year of executing and innovating against our 2025 strategy. We have delivered double digit growth across the majority of our key performance metrics and significantly improved our quality of earnings and revenue visibility with an exit run rate ARR up 43% on the previous year. This strong performance was delivered thanks to the incredible teamwork, resilience and hard work of our people and despite ongoing uncertainty brought on by the pandemic and global supply chain issues. We enter 2022 in a strong position both financially and operationally. Aferian sits at the centre of the converging worlds of streaming services and traditional Pay TV. This convergence excites our customers, engages viewers and energises our product teams as we continue to innovate new ways to make it easy for people to connect to TV and video when and how they want."

[masurenguy] 17/12/2021 12:57

Aferian strong pipeline, good position and high visibility give real confidence for 2022

CEO Donald McGarva discusses the trading update for the year ended 30 November 2021.



Aferian total revenue of approx. $92.0m representing a c11% increase on FY20

[km18] 14/12/2021 14:17

Aferian plc, the B2B video streaming solutions company, issued a trading update this morning. The Group expects to report that all its key financial metrics have tracked ahead of the prior year, and in line with Board expectations, representing an overall strong trading performance. As well as delivering further progress against its stated 2025 growth strategy, the Group has also successfully navigated well-documented global supply chain challenges. Top line performance is improving, bottom line performance is improving. Valuation is reasonable with forward PE ratio around 14, there is even a modest dividend yield around 2.4%. Share price lacks near term momentum, but an interesting company and certainly one to monitor for now...from WealthOracleAM

[slim9] 13/12/2021 10:26

Looking Good.

The visibility we have into next year's performance is high.

:-)

[masurenguy] 13/12/2021 07:29

Positive Update !

Trading update

The Group expects to report that all its key financial metrics have tracked ahead of the prior year, and in line with Board expectations, representing an overall strong trading performance. As well as delivering further progress against its stated 2025 growth strategy, the Group has also successfully navigated well-documented global supply chain challenges.

At a headline level, the Group expects to report(1) :

-- total revenue of approximately $92.0m representing a c11% increase on the previous year ended 30 November 2020 ("FY20")

-- adjusted operating profit(2) growth up over 10% on last year

-- improved quality of earnings thanks to higher-margin software and services revenue of approximately $22.5m: a c15% increase on FY20. This includes recurring revenue of approximately $13m, a c17% increase on FY20

-- enhanced revenue visibility with an exit run rate Annual Recurring Revenue ("ARR") of approximately $15.0m, up 42% from $10.6m ARR as at 30 November 2020

-- a strengthened net cash position of $14.0m at 30 November 2021 30 November 2020: $9.5m).

This improved net cash position comes alongside the Group's expectation that it will report a net working capital outflow for the year as a whole. Whilst there is no underlying change to our debtor profile or cash generated, navigating the well-known supply chain issues in the period was challenging and the timing of some device shipments was pushed very close to our year end. This means cash will be collected after the end of the period. In addition to the strong growth in exit ARR, the Group has further visibility of next year's devices revenue as the Group's customers place orders up to 60 weeks in advance in response to extended lead times in the supply chain.

Donald McGarva, Chief Executive Officer of Aferian plc, said: "This financial year Aferian has delivered an overall strong performance, with each of the key metrics tracking ahead of last year. Our 2025 strategy continues to evolve our business into a leading video streaming solutions company with more predictable and higher-quality recurring software and services revenue. The visibility we have into next year's performance is high. I am particularly proud of our team's delivery here, especially given the backdrop of tough supply chain challenges all organisations have had to manage.

[slim9] 10/12/2021 11:27

Cheers.

Looking forward to results. :-)

[masurenguy] 01/12/2021 15:23

Company year end was yesterday and there is normally a trading update in early December so we should probably expect to see this sometime next week. In the August interims McGarva stated: "We enter the second half in a solid position and continue to strengthen our pipeline of potential M&A opportunities as we seek to continue to deliver against our 2025 strategy. The Board remains confident in the Group's ability to meet current full year expectations and in the Group's future prospects as it executes it strategy and vision to make it easy for people to connect to the TV and video they love."

[masurenguy] 01/12/2021 15:10

Streamers set to make TV channels minority viewing

The dominance of the traditional television broadcasters will soon end as their offering are eclipsed by other ways of viewing, according to a new report. Deloitte, a professional services company, predicts that by 2023 broadcasts by the likes of the BBC and ITV will fall below half of the public’s viewing hours for the first time — even when live broadcasts and catch-up programming are combined. Viewers will be tempted away by on-demand services such as Netflix and Apple TV+, while YouTube, TikTok and videos watched through games consoles represent a smaller but growing threat to traditional television. Paul Lee, Deloitte’s head of technology, said that broadcast TV had slid from 73% of viewing hours in 2017 to 61% last year and was on track to fall to 49% by 2023. Over the same period, video on demand has risen from 7% in 2017 to 19% last year and is forecast to rise to 31% in 2023.

Complete article:

[masurenguy] 18/11/2021 07:34

The launch of Cinessance in North America on both iOS and Android, bringing a catalogue of French movies to fans underserved by the major streaming services like Netflix. Another brick in the wall !

[sharw] 02/11/2021 08:48

Most of that rise followed the news of a contract win which you yourself highlighted on 30/9

[masurenguy] 01/11/2021 14:41

Over the past 2 months the shareprice has increased by 10%. They normally issue a trading update early in December, following the year end on November 30th.

[slim9] 30/9/2021 20:11

Yep - It's a good foot hold. Seems little interest in this one YET !!!!!!!!!!

[nhb001] 30/9/2021 14:29

Thanks for sharing that video presentation Masurenguy. It was very interesting. I learnt some stuff about Aferian I didn't know before.....and I have owned it for 2 1/2 years.

[masurenguy] 30/9/2021 07:30

Good contract win, although no financial value has been disclosed.

New OTT service dedicated to French cinema selects 24i as a one-stop-shop software solution

Amsterdam, Netherlands, 30 September 2021- 24i , the video streaming expert, has been selected to provide its end-to-end streaming platform to Cinessance , the first globally-accessible video on demand platform dedicated to French cinema. Cinessance is the first video on demand platform of French cinema, accessible anywhere in the world. The service will feature French films across a wide range of genres, with consumers able to choose between renting individual titles and taking out a monthly subscription plan. It plans to launch its service in the US and Canada later this year with a library of hundreds of classic and modern movies which will be available on web browsers, Android and iOS, with support for casting via Chromecast and AirPlay.

24i will supply its Smart Video backend, Smart Apps front-end applications and Backstage content and application management interface, together with CDN services. This fully cloud-based solution covers all elements of the Cinessance end-to-end workflow from content ingest and management to the applications on multiple devices. Cinessance will target the hundreds of million French speakers worldwide and Francophiles who are interested in French culture and will benefit from the English subtitles on offer at launch. The company plans to expand to add further devices, additional international markets and a catalogue of up to 500 titles in 2022.

[masurenguy] 21/9/2021 16:25

Latest investor presentation by Donald McGarva, Group CEO and Mark Carlisle, Group CFO.

[goldry] 20/9/2021 19:10

We'll I'd missed the dividend declaration and it was paid into my iWeb account today. 18 days after payment date! If I'd known I'd have complained...

[richjp] 05/8/2021 18:04

I had a good run with this share a few years ago then sold out.

I have been back in for some months now, primarily because Kestrel have a holding. Kestrel seem to me overall to have a good record and I have done OK elsewhere by following them.

The results are fine but this just does not seem to be a high profile share. For me it's one to hang on to for a couple of years.

[masurenguy] 05/8/2021 13:55

Topped up with a few more @149.7p

Major Shareholders as at 1 August 2021

Kestrel Partners: 18,608,937: 22.4%
Premier Miton Investors: 14,470,307: 17.4%
Investec Wealth & Investment: 8,364,429: 10.0%
Chelverton Asset Management: 4,850,000: 5.8%
Close Brothers Asset Management: 4,839,023: 5.8%
24i Media PF: 3,197,180: 3.9%
BGF: 2,907,897: 3.5%
Ari Charles Zaphiriou-Zarifi: 2,470,713: 3.0%

Sub Total: 59,708,728: 71.9%

[simon gordon] 05/8/2021 11:56

One issue for AFRN is that none of their acquisitions has ever really fired dramatic growth. I woke up to how lackluster 24i had been at the Prelims earlier this year and sold out after it re-rated.

In H1 'software and services revenue' was up $0.2m, $9.9m from $9.7m.

The $250m story is enticing but growth of only 2.1% is not setting the world on fire.