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FDP Fd Technologies Public Limited Company

1,304.00
24.00 (1.88%)
03 May 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Fd Technologies Public Limited Company LSE:FDP London Ordinary Share GB0031477770 ORD 0.5P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  24.00 1.88% 1,304.00 1,306.00 1,314.00 1,316.00 1,274.00 1,274.00 98,130 16:35:23
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
Cmp Processing,data Prep Svc 296.04M -4.01M -0.1429 -91.81 368.52M

FD Technologies PLC Results for the year ended 28 February 2022 (8567K)

10/05/2022 8:41am

UK Regulatory


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TIDMFDP

RNS Number : 8567K

FD Technologies PLC

10 May 2022

10 May 2022

FD Technologies plc

("FD Technologies" or the "Group")

Results for the year ended 28 February 2022

FD Technologies (AIM: FDP.L, Euronext Growth: FDP.I) today announces its results for the year ended 28 February 2022.

Business highlights

 
-  Successful delivery of accelerated growth strategy, with new Group 
    structure enabling each business unit to deliver its performance 
    targets and investment in KX driving our key metric of growth 
    in recurring revenue 
-  KX Insights platform launched, with 22 customers signed across 
    financial services, pharma, manufacturing and automotive contributing 
    to growth in exit Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of 25%, in line 
    with our target 
-  Go-to-market strategy on track, enabling KX to sign 99 subscription 
    agreements during the year (2021: 40), a 148% increase, while 
    also growing our existing customer base with Net Revenue Retention 
    increasing to 106% 
-  40% of KX new deal value in the year generated from Industry (2021: 
    19%), confirming our growing presence outside our core market 
    of financial services driven by high return on investment evidenced 
    by a Forrester report that shows typical payback on KX in less 
    than six months 
-  Landmark KX and Microsoft strategic partnership agreement, covering 
    the native integration of KX Insights on Azure and joint development 
    of financial services applications and services, validates our 
    strategy and provides significant growth potential 
-  Strong growth performance for First Derivative, ahead of our expectations 
    and built on enhancements in our engagement model and investment 
    in business leadership and go-to-market 
-  MRP delivered good growth and is well placed following the launch 
    of Prelytix 3.0, with enhanced AI and self-service capabilities 
-  Positive outlook across our business units, with FY23 guidance 
    for growth in KX ARR in the range of 35-40% and FY23 guidance 
    for Group revenue and adjusted EBITDA which target a return to 
    double-digit growth. 
 

Seamus Keating, CEO of FD Technologies, commented: "We have delivered a year of transformation across the Group, with each business unit achieving the Key Performance Indicators we set out in our strategy one year ago to accelerate our growth. KX, which was the principal focus of our investment in the year, delivered our target ARR growth, and enters the new financial year with increased momentum from our partnership with Microsoft enabled by the launch of our cloud native KX Insights platform. First Derivative recorded strong growth as it built on its reputation for domain knowledge and delivery excellence, while MRP continued to grow strongly from its leadership position in predictive lead generation. Across the Group, our investment in systems and people positions us to scale our operations to meet our growth ambitions. The opportunities across the markets in which we operate are significant and through continued execution of our strategy I am confident we can unlock value for our customers and accelerate our growth in the years ahead."

Financial Highlights

 
Year to end February                    2022       2021     Change 
Revenue                               GBP263.5m  GBP237.9m   11% 
Gross profit                          GBP106.1m  GBP101.0m    5% 
Profit before tax                      GBP9.0m   GBP11.1m   (19%) 
Reported diluted EPS                    22.9p      32.0p    (28%) 
Net cash / (debt)*                     GBP0.3m   (GBP9.9m)   n/a 
 
Adjusted performance measures 
Adjusted EBITDA**                     GBP31.0m   GBP40.5m   (23%) 
Adjusted diluted EPS (see note 4)       32.3p      59.0p    (45%) 
 
Performance against Key Performance    Target     Actual 
 Indicators 
KX exit Annual Recurring Revenue 
 (ARR) growth                           +25%       +25% 
First Derivative revenue growth         +10%       +24% 
MRP platform revenue growth             +20%      +18%*** 
 
   *     Excluding lease liabilities 

** Adjusted for share-based payments, acquisition and non-operational costs and income, depreciation and amortisation and IT Systems implementation costs expensed

*** At constant currency

Financial Highlights

 
-  Revenue up 11% to GBP263.5m (up 14% on a constant currency basis), 
    ahead of guidance, driven by good growth at First Derivative and 
    MRP balanced by a reduction in KX perpetual license revenue in 
    line with strategy 
-  KX exit Annual Recurring Revenue of GBP47.0m, up 25% in line with 
    target with recurring revenue representing 61% of revenue (2021: 
    51%) as we focus on high-value subscription revenue growth 
-  First Derivative revenue GBP148.0m, up 24%, driven by market demand 
    and strategy of generating value from our expertise and investment 
    in leadership and go-to-market capability 
-  MRP revenue up 16% to GBP51.1m, with platform revenue growth of 
    18% on a constant currency basis, as we focused the launch of 
    Prelytix 3.0 on existing customers 
-  Adjusted EBITDA GBP31.0m, within our guidance range following 
    the investment in R&D, go-to-market and operations in line with 
    our accelerated growth strategy 
-  Net cash GBP0.3m (2021: net debt GBP9.9m) excluding lease liabilities, 
    better than market consensus driven by continued focus on working 
    capital. 
 

Current trading and outlook

The Group enters the new financial year with good momentum and growing recurring revenue, providing a positive outlook for the year ahead. Our focus remains growth. In KX, we anticipate an acceleration in the key metric of ARR, with growth targeted in the range 35-40%. We expect both First Derivative and MRP to continue to deliver double-digit revenue growth and an improvement in margin.

FY23 guidance for the Group is for revenue in the range GBP290m to GBP300m and adjusted EBITDA in the range GBP36.5m to GBP38.5m.

For further information, please contact:

 
FD Technologies plc                         +44(0)28 3025 2242 
 Seamus Keating, Chief Executive Officer     www.fdtechnologies.com 
 Ryan Preston, Chief Financial Officer 
 Ian Mitchell, Head of Investor Relations 
 
Investec Bank plc 
 (Nominated Adviser and Broker) 
 Andrew Pinder 
 Carlton Nelson 
 Virginia Bull                              +44 (0)20 7597 5970 
 
Goodbody (Euronext Growth Adviser 
 and Broker) 
 David Kearney 
 Don Harrington 
 Finbarr Griffin                            +353 1 667 0420 
 
FTI Consulting 
 Matt Dixon 
 Dwight Burden 
 Elena Kalinskaya                           +44 (0)20 3727 1000 
 

About FD Technologies

FD Technologies is a group of data-driven businesses that unlock the value of insight, hindsight and foresight to drive organisations forward. The Group comprises KX, the leading technology for real-time continuous intelligence; First Derivative, which provides technology-led services in capital markets; and MRP, the only enterprise-class, predictive Accounts Based Marketing solution. FD Technologies operates from 12 offices across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, and employs more than 3,000 people worldwide.

For further information, please visit www.fdtechnologies.com and www.kx.com

Results presentation

FD Technologies will publish a pre-recorded presentation today at 07.05 BST on its website at https://fdtechnologies.com/investor-relations/presentations/. The Group will also host a live results Q&A session for analysts at 09.30 BST today.

Business Review

FD Technologies comprises KX, which operates at the frontier of real-time data analytics; First Derivative, which provides business and software engineering solutions for capital markets; and MRP, which uses KX to deliver predictive analytics for enterprise demand generation.

During the financial year the Group delivered on its accelerated growth strategy, making the investments in KX in R&D and go-to-market capability while also investing in operations to enable the Group to scale its growth. All the Group's business units performed strongly , with KX delivering 25% growth in exit ARR, First Derivative reporting a 24% increase in revenue and MRP achieving 18% growth in platform revenue at constant currency.

The investment and business unit performance resulted in the Group achieving its revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year. Revenue increased by 11% to GBP264m, slightly ahead of expectations. The underlying performance was even stronger following the planned reduction in KX perpetual license and software implementation revenue as we target growth in annual recurring revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was GBP31m, down 23% as a result of the investment to deliver our accelerated growth strategy and in line with our guidance in the half year report.

The work completed across our business units and at the Group level leaves us well positioned to accelerate our growth in the years ahead in addressable markets which are significant and where we have a strong customer proposition.

KX - at the frontier of real-time data analytics

KX is the leading technology for real-time decision intelligence, uniquely combining time-series data with historical context to enable in-the-moment decision making at scale. Deployable on-premise, in the cloud or at the edge, KX is widely adopted in financial services and is ideally suited to data-intensive areas including manufacturing, automotive, energy and telecommunications.

KX addresses a large and high growth opportunity as organisations evolve their decision-making processes to drive value from their real-time data assets. According to McKinsey, in its report the Data-driven Enterprise of 2025, currently only a fraction of data from connected devices is ingested, processed, queried, and analysed in real time due to the limits of legacy technology structures, the challenges of adopting more modern architectural elements, and the high computational demands of intensive, real-time processing. By 2025, McKinsey believes that reductions in cloud computing costs and advances in technology will result in the creation of vast networks of real-time data and insights.

IDC forecasts that by 2025, 30% of global data will be real-time with 49% stored and managed in the public cloud. This deluge of real-time data is driving demand for real-time analytics technologies and according to research firm MarketsandMarkets, the real-time analytics market is expected to grow from US$ 15.4 billion in 2021 to US$ 50.1 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 26.5%.

KX, as the world's most integrated real-time analytics and data management platform, is well placed to benefit from these trends. Forrester, in a recent total economic impact assessment, reported that KX delivered a typical 315% return on investment over three years, with payback in less than six months, underlining the value achievable from real-time decision making. During the year the strengths of KX were also recognised for the first time by leading industry analysts including Gartner in their report on the streaming analytics market.

The growing market opportunities drove the decision in May 2021 to accelerate growth in KX by investing in R&D, go-to-market and operations. This investment was successfully delivered during the year, as evidenced by the launch of the cloud-native KX Insights platform, the increasing ease-of-use and interoperability of KX, the investment in sales and marketing spend which contributed to a 148% increase in subscription deals, and the improved visibility provided by enterprise sales and marketing systems implemented during the year.

Microsoft strategic partnership agreement

These positive developments put us in a strong position to capitalise on our significant market opportunity, as evidenced by the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Microsoft that positions KX Insights as the premier real-time analytics technology on Azure.

The landmark agreement has two parts - firstly, KX Insights will be natively integrated on Azure so that it will appear as a Microsoft application and will be tightly integrated within its intelligent cloud ecosystem. Azure customers will be able to use their existing Microsoft commitment to consume KX Insights and the Azure salesforce will be incentivised to sell KX Insights. KX will be one of only a small number of software vendors to be natively integrated within Azure in this way.

Secondly, KX and Microsoft will jointly develop applications and services for the financial services sector, utilising the KX Insights platform for delivery. This will support existing and potential financial services customers with their cloud migration strategies.

These agreements represent a validation from Microsoft of the market-leading capabilities of the KX Insights platform, while KX chose Microsoft as a strategic partner due to its customer reach (95% of the Fortune 500 are Azure customers) and the commitment Microsoft displayed to the partnership during the detailed commercial and technical discussions. General public availability of services under both agreements is anticipated in H1 calendar 2023, with considerable customer interest already expressed during the market testing phase.

Operational and commercial progress

During the year KX made good operational progress, benefiting from additional spend in sales and marketing and R&D. These investments enabled KX to capitalise on the growing market opportunities and accelerate its growth during the year, as we focused on growing annual recurring revenue through subscription deals.

We adopted a 'land and expand' approach under which we expect the value of subscription deals to grow over time as customers increase their use of KX, given the high return on investment it delivers. We also successfully targeted upselling to existing customers as we make KX easier to adopt and use. Key to our approach was accelerating the time to value for our customers, by solving our customer's most pressing challenges and demonstrating the ROI of our technology.

Research and development

Our technology development priorities are aligned to our strategic objective to increase KX recurring revenue, by prioritising ease of adoption and use, interoperability with other technologies and integration with partners, particularly hyperscale cloud providers. In particular, we:

 
--  Launched our cloud-native platform KX Insights, leveraging the 
     benefits of cloud architecture to deliver rapid, scalable insights 
     without the burden of managing infrastructure or the need to optimise 
     for different cloud environments. Built on open standards such 
     as Docker and Kubernetes and using a microservices-based architecture 
     enables streamlined delivery and faster development, resulting 
     in faster time to value for our customers 
--  Made the power of KX accessible and easy to use by a broad range 
     of developers, including Python and SQL, through native integration 
     without degradation of performance, opening up a range of new opportunities 
     within existing and new customers 
--  Worked closely with partners, including Microsoft and Telit, to 
     integrate our technologies and embed KX as a key component in the 
     analytics ecosystem. 
 

Our technology priorities of increasing adoption by promoting ease of use and interoperability remain unchanged. In the current year our focus will be on delivering industry accelerators that enable the adoption of KX across our target markets, further enhancements to KX Insights to promote ease-of-use, and integration with Microsoft Azure ahead of general availability of KX Insights on Azure and applications and services for the financial services market.

Go-to-market

In line with our accelerated growth strategy we increased our investment in go-to-market significantly during the year. We also delivered systems and process improvements and adjusted our marketing propositions and sales commission structure, such that we now have a good understanding of the most effective methods to grow sales and increase our annual recurring revenue.

With our investment in go-to-market during the year, including new CRM systems in place to support pipeline qualification and development, together with compelling marketing messages around the value provided by KX, we are in a good position to deliver on the market opportunity.

Commercial progress

We achieved our key target of a 25% increase in exit ARR during the year, driven by growth in both existing and new customers and across both financial services and industry.

We signed 127 new deals during the year (2021: 77), of which 99 (2021: 40) were subscription deals as we transitioned away from perpetual license deals, in line with our strategy of focusing on ARR growth. We sell to new customers only on a subscription basis, and as a result we expect to see perpetual license revenue progressively decline.

Of our subscription deals, 30% by volume and 40% by value were in industry, highlighting the progress we are making in entering new markets. We are also growing our customer base, signing 26 new customers on subscription deals, of which 55% by value were from industry customers. Each of these new customers has significant expansion potential.

Key deals during the year included:

 
--  Providing a major telecommunications network with real-time network 
     orchestration capability to improve network performance, increase 
     customer satisfaction and deliver better spectrum utilisation 
--  Consolidated high performance analytics and back-testing platform 
     for all asset classes for a major sovereign wealth fund 
--  A contract with a global automotive manufacturer for wind-tunnel 
     analytics, with potential to extend further across its wind tunnel 
     facilities and deeper into its operations 
--  A significant contract with a major pharmaceutical company to 
     use KX Insights as the data management and analytics platform 
     for all clinical trial and patient data 
--  A contract to provide a hosted service for a major cryptocurrency 
     analytics platform, delivering real-time data management to support 
     retail and institutional investors with benefits including stability, 
     scalability and predictive analytics 
--  Deployment of KX to power a major healthcare manufacturing facility, 
     providing a complete analytics system capturing sensor data from 
     multiple sources to improve the efficiency of the facility. The 
     initial deal, signed during H1, was for a single factory and we 
     expect to close the next phase of roll out during the current 
     year. 
 

Infrastructure investment

Our accelerated growth strategy was supported during the year by investment to enable us to scale our operations. This included the implementation of CRM systems that are already delivering value, while we are in the process of implementing Oracle Cloud Fusion as the Group enterprise resource planning system. We also added resources across the business to support our growth ambitions.

First Derivative - business and software engineering solutions for capital markets

First Derivative delivered revenue growth of 24%, ahead of expectations and representing its strongest growth rate since 2016. This performance resulted from a range of measures taken to maximise the value First Derivative generates from its expertise, delivered into a solid market environment. In particular, improvements to our operating model saw more emphasis on the digital change market with new initiatives in cloud, data analytics and software development.

First Derivative has a very large addressable market, with Gartner forecasting that by 2025 investment banks will spend $761bn on technology services, representing annual growth of 6.5%. Of this we estimate more than $200 billion is addressable by First Derivative. We work with all the top 20 global investment banks and our focus during the year has been on delivering more for them, which in some cases has resulted in a doubling of their spend with us.

We deliver our services through business practices focused on our core competencies of expertise in the technologies used within capital markets and deep domain expertise. Our reputation for delivery excellence is key to our growth, with significant expansion potential in our customer base. Demand was solid throughout the year, driven by change programmes, regulatory and compliance work and managed services.

An example of First Derivative in action was the delivery during the year of a cloud migration project for a Tier 1 bank's critical risk management function. Working with Google Cloud platform, the team built a highly scalable, fault tolerant solution with much lower running costs and significant technical benefits for the bank including scalability and improved data access. The project took a year to complete from the discovery phase to successful go-live.

We increased our leadership and go-to-market spend to drive future growth and evolved our go-to-market and account management strategy to ensure we maximise the value of our expertise. We have evolved the way in which we engage with clients, resulting in a more sophisticated model that focuses on project outcomes rather than resources. This approach helped to deliver improved gross margins for the year, despite the additional leadership and sales and marketing spend.

To meet customer demand, we hired record employee numbers during the year, with the change in our engagement model resulting in the number of experienced hires exceeding graduate recruitment. Our recruitment and training programmes continue to be competitive differentiators and enable us to respond effectively to demand trends. Attrition levels as we exited lockdown were at the high end of our typical range, while wage inflation is also a factor but is mitigated through pricing and the more efficient delivery structures reference above. We are experiencing continued strong demand and anticipate another year of good growth in First Derivative, as well as continued margin improvement.

MRP - predictive analytics for enterprise demand generation

MRP provides global sales and marketing leaders with an account-based marketing platform (Prelytix), powered by KX, and supporting products and services that deliver high response rates and pipeline conversion. Tracking more than 1.5 billion intent signals per day, MRP enables customers to identify and engage targets earlier and more effectively. Its global presence is a further differentiator, resulting in Forrester naming it as a leader in ABM in its Q1 2022 report on the sector.

MRP delivered good growth during the year, up 16% to GBP51.1m, with margin improvement.

Customer contracts signed included:

 
--  A global enterprise communications company contracted with MRP 
     to develop a data-led omnichannel engagement strategy. Using Prelytix 
     enabled them to expand their marketing programmes and deliver 
     a near 500% increase in pipeline conversion 
--  A US-based fibre network provider using Prelytix to provide business-critical 
     account insights within a highly complex environment that requires 
     sophisticated, location-based sales and marketing strategies, 
     delivering a predictable qualified pipeline 
--  A multi-year contract to build and manage a global demand generation 
     engine for a financial software provider across its target markets. 
     From MRP Prelytix platform insights to a suite of engagement channels, 
     our approach consistently increases the brand's footprint, account 
     penetration and overall pipeline revenue. 
 

A major milestone was the launch in H2 of the financial year of Prelytix 3.0, which has enhanced self-service capabilities that enable customers to drive greater value from the platform without the need for services support, as well as AI capabilities to increase the customer's return on investment. Our initial focus has been transitioning our existing customer base to the new platform, and during the current financial year we anticipate our focus shifting to growth in new customers. This provides confidence in the growth outlook for MRP for FY23.

People

The Group currently employs more than 3,000 people, up from more than 2,500 at the same time last year. The increase was driven by the growth across the Group, particularly at First Derivative, and delivered by sustained recruitment campaigns through the year. Our employee policies are aimed at making FD Technologies an employer of choice within technology to support the growth opportunities across the Group.

Engaging with our employees has become even more important post pandemic as we seek to navigate more flexible approaches to work, ensuring we continue to deliver for our customers and collaborate effectively. Our annual engagement survey shows that 80% of our employees feel engaged, which we believe is an industry-leading figure that positively impacts productivity, customer service and retention rates. We have also introduced additional inclusion and diversity initiatives and programmes that are helping us to retain and develop our employees and invested in learning and development through the year to support career development across the Group.

Across the Group the delivery of our growth and our accelerated growth strategy has required the commitment and dedication of all employees and the Board would like to thank them for their contribution.

Summary and outlook

We successfully delivered a year of transformation across the business in line with our accelerated growth strategy, hitting our key targets and positioning ourselves for future growth. The market opportunities across our business units are exciting, particularly in KX where our KX Insights platform is driving an acceleration of growth in annual recurring revenue.

For FY23, we expect KX to generate growth in ARR in the range 35-40%, while in First Derivative and MRP we expect double digit revenue growth and continued margin improvement. At the Group level, our guidance is for revenue in the range GBP290m to GBP300m and adjusted EBITDA in the range GBP36.5m to GBP38.5m.

Financial review

Revenue and Margins

The table below shows the breakdown of Group performance by business unit for each of KX, First Derivative and MRP.

 
                                      FY22                                  FY21 
                       Group     KX       First      MRP     Group     KX       First      MRP     Group 
                                        Derivative                            Derivative           change 
                       GBPm     GBPm      GBPm       GBPm    GBPm     GBPm      GBPm       GBPm 
 
Revenue                263.5    64.4      148.0      51.1    237.9    74.3      119.4      44.2     11% 
Cost of sales         (157.3)  (19.9)    (108.6)    (28.8)  (136.9)  (20.5)    (90.3)     (26.1)    15% 
Gross profit           106.1    44.5      39.4       22.2    101.0    53.8      29.1       18.0     5% 
                        40       69                   44 
Gross margin             %        %       27 %         %      42%     72%        24%       41% 
 
R&D expenditure       (21.1)   (18.6)     (0.2)     (2.3)   (15.9)   (13.9)     (0.1)     (1.9)     32% 
R&D capitalised        18.6     16.1       0.2       2.3     13.4     11.5       0.1       1.8      38% 
Net R&D                (2.6)   (2.6)       0.0       0.0     (2.6)   (2.4)       0.0      (0.1)     1% 
 
Sales and marketing 
 costs                (47.4)   (23.6)    (14.5)     (9.3)   (39.3)   (20.6)    (10.8)     (7.9)     21% 
 
Adjusted admin 
 expenses             (25.2)   (8.6)     (10.9)     (5.7)   (18.7)   (6.6)      (7.8)     (4.3)     35% 
 
Adjusted EBITDA        31.0     9.8       14.0       7.3     40.5     24.3      10.5       5.7     (23%) 
                                 15 
Adj. EBITDA margin      12%       %        9 %       14%      17%     33%        9%        13% 
 

The financial performance for the year reflected the successful implementation of the Group's accelerated growth strategy, with investment in R&D, sales and marketing and operations enabling higher growth during the year and setting KX on the path to becoming the market-leading technology for real-time streaming analytics. The change in Group structure to comprise three business units - KX, First Derivative and MRP - was designed to enable each to communicate its distinct value proposition and maximise its growth opportunity, and the results in FY22 show that strategy is delivering the benefits anticipated.

Group revenue increased by 11% to GBP263.5m (2021: GBP237.9m), driven by growth in First Derivative and MRP balanced by lower professional services and perpetual license revenue in KX, in line with our stated strategy to focus on growth in ARR. Group gross profit increased by 5% to GBP106.1m, reflecting improved margin performance in First Derivative and MRP while in KX the reduction in high-margin perpetual license revenue in line with our strategy resulted in gross margin of 69% (2021:72%).

The Group's accelerated growth strategy resulted in increased expenditure on R&D (GBP5.2m), sales and marketing (GBP8.1m) and operational costs to scale the business (GBP6.5m). These investments for growth enabled our business units to achieve their targets for the year, particularly KX where exit ARR grew by 25%. The impact of the investment and the focus on ARR resulted in EBITDA falling by 23% to GBP31.0m, in line with our guidance.

KX

 
                      KX total         Financial services         Industry 
                 FY22  FY21  Change   FY22   FY21   Change   FY22  FY21  Change 
                 GBPm  GBPm           GBPm   GBPm            GBPm  GBPm 
 
Revenue          64.4  74.3  (13%)    55.4   65.3    (15%)   9.1   9.0     0% 
Perpetual        3.6   10.7  (66%)    1.8     7.9    (77%)   1.8   2.8   (36%) 
Recurring        39.2  37.7    4%     35.5   35.0     1%     3.7   2.7    37% 
Total licenses   42.8  48.4  (12%)    37.4   43.0    (13%)   5.4   5.4     0% 
Services         21.6  25.9  (17%)    18.0   22.3    (19%)   3.6   3.6     0% 
 
Gross profit     44.5  53.8  (17%) 
Adjusted 
 EBITDA          9.8   24.3  (60%) 
 

FY22 was a transformational year for KX as it invested to accelerate growth in ARR while phasing out perpetual license sales and focusing on delivering customer value, resulting in faster implementations and therefore lower services revenue. This strategy resulted in a decrease of 13% in KX revenue to GBP64.4m, although recurring revenue increased by 4% to GBP39.2m and now represents 61% of KX revenue (2021: 51%).

Our Industry sector performed strongly during the year, with recurring revenue up by 37% led by deals across industries such as pharma, telecommunications, manufacturing and automotive. Financial services revenue declined principally as a result of the reduction in perpetual license and professional services revenue set out above. Gross profit decreased by GBP9.3m (17%), principally due to the GBP7.1m reduction in high margin perpetual license revenue and GBP4.3m decrease in services revenue, while adjusted EBITDA fell by GBP14.5m (60%) principally as a result of the decline in gross profit and increase in sales and marketing cost, in line with our growth acceleration strategy.

 
Performance metrics               FY22  FY21  Change 
 
Exit annual recurring revenue 
 (ARR) GBPm                       47.0  37.6   25% 
Net revenue retention (NRR)       106%  99% 
Gross profit margin               69%   72% 
R&D expenditure as % of revenue   29%   19% 
Sales and marketing spend 
 as % of revenue                  37%   28% 
Adjusted EBITDA margin            15%   33% 
 

KX achieved its target of 25% growth in exit ARR to GBP47m. The Net Revenue Retention rate of 106% is ahead of the 99% recorded for 2021 and tracking towards our mid-term goal of more than 120%. Churn remains minimal and we are confident that our strategy of targeting expansion within new customers will enable us to achieve this goal.

First Derivative

 
               FY22   FY21   Change 
               GBPm   GBPm 
 
Revenue        148.0  119.4   24% 
Gross profit   39.4   29.1    35% 
Adjusted 
 EBITDA        14.0   10.5    33% 
 

Revenue growth in the year was ahead of expectations at 24%, reflecting a solid demand environment and improvements to our delivery model, as outlined in the Business review. This is enabling us to achieve greater value for our expertise and domain knowledge, which resulted in improved margins despite the impact of wage inflation and attrition during the year. Growth was delivered from a combination of doing more for existing clients and also winning new contracts, including the renewal of a large managed services contract for a further five years with an increased scope and assisting with the strategic reorganisation of one of our customers. It remains the case that most of our engagements are long-term in nature.

There is considerable opportunity for First Derivative to build on its existing customer relationships and to increase its share of the market for digital change, and we continue to believe it can deliver double digit revenue growth while growing its gross margin.

 
Performance metrics      FY22  FY21 
 
Gross profit margin      27%   24% 
Adjusted EBITDA margin    9%    9% 
 

Gross margins increased to 27% from 24% reflecting a combination of improved utilisation resulting from the changes to our delivery model, while adjusted EBITDA margin was maintained at 9% following investment in our sales and leadership capability to drive our longer-term growth.

MRP

 
               FY22  FY21 
               GBPm  GBPm  Change 
 
Revenue        51.1  44.2   16% 
Platform       27.0  24.2   11 % 
Services       24.0  19.9   21 % 
 
Gross profit   22.2  18.0   23% 
Adjusted 
 EBITDA        7.3   5.7    27 % 
 

MRP targets growth in platform revenue, from a combination of subscriptions to the Prelytix platform and data-driven engagement between our customers and their prospects. Our services revenue is derived from enabling customers to engage with prospective customers and to progress them through their sales funnel.

MRP reported a strong performance in the year, with platform revenue increasing by 11% to GBP27.0m (18% at constant currency, just short of our target of 20% growth). The launch during H2 of Prelytix 3.0, containing increased AI and self-service capabilities, provides confidence in another period of good growth for platform revenue during FY23.

 
Performance metrics      FY22  FY21 
 
Platform revenue GBPm    27.0  24.2 
Gross profit margin      44%   41% 
Adjusted EBITDA margin   14%   13% 
 

MRP achieved its target of increasing its gross margin, up from 41% to 44% as a result of improved utilisation of its services, which also helped to increase adjusted EBITDA margin to 14%. MRP continues to target revenue and margin growth as it executes on its market opportunity.

Adjusted EBITDA

The reconciliation of operating profit to adjusted EBITDA is provided below:

 
                                              FY22  FY21 
                                              GBPm  GBPm 
 
Operating Profit                              6 .4  17.0 
 
Acquisition and non-operational costs          3.1   1.3 
Non-Operational Other Income                 (2.5)     - 
IT Systems implementation costs expensed *     2.3     - 
Share based payment and related costs          1.7   2.4 
Depreciation and amortisation                 20.1  19.8 
 
Adjusted EBITDA                               31.0  40.5 
 
 

* IT Systems implementation costs expensed represents ERP and CRM implementation costs following the IFRIC update on accounting for cloud implementation costs

Profit before tax

Adjusted profit before tax decreased by 46% to GBP11.0m (2021: GBP20.2m). The principal cause was adjusted EBITDA being GBP9.5m lower than 2021 as a result of the investment made during the year to accelerate growth and the planned reduction in perpetual license revenue. Increased amortisation costs relating to investment in R&D was more than offset by a reduction in financing costs as our gross debt position improves, resulting in adjusted profit before tax falling by GBP9.2m.

Reported profit before tax was down 19% on 2021 to GBP9.0m. The major factors here were an increase in acquisition and non-operational related costs, mainly due to costs associated with the ERP programme being expensed as incurred and corporate finance activity, balanced by a lower impact from foreign currency translation and a profit on the disposal of associate RXDataScience Inc, during the year.

The reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to reported profit before tax is provided below.

 
                                               FY22   FY21 
                                               GBPm   GBPm 
 
Adjusted EBITDA                                31.0   40.5 
Adjustments for: 
Depreciation and amortisation                 (6.8)  (6.9) 
Amortisation of software development costs   (10.2)  (9.3) 
Financing costs                               (3.0)  (4.2) 
 
 
Adjusted profit before tax                     11.0   20.2 
Adjustments for: 
Amortisation of acquired intangibles          (3.1)  (3.6) 
Share based payment and related costs         (1.7)  (2.4) 
Acquisition and non-operational costs         (3.1)  (1.3) 
Non Operational Other Income                    2.5      - 
IT Systems implementation costs expensed *    (2.3)      - 
Loss on foreign currency translation          (1.8)  (3.2) 
Share of profit/(loss) of associate             0.3  (0.1) 
Gain on disposal of associate                   6.9      - 
Finance income                                  0.2    1.6 
 
 
Reported profit before tax                     9 .0   11.1 
 
 

* IT Systems implementation costs expensed represents ERP and CRM implementation costs following the IFRIC update on accounting for cloud implementation costs

Earnings per share

On a reported basis, the Group recorded a profit of GBP6.4m after tax, compared to GBP9.0m in the prior year, for the reasons stated above as well as a higher tax charge of GBP2.6m (2021: GBP2.1m). Reported diluted earnings per share was 22.9p (2021: 32.0p), adjusted diluted earnings per share was 32.3p (2021: 59.0p per share).

The adjusted profit after tax for the year of GBP9.1m (2021: GBP16.6m) represented a decrease of 45%. The calculation of adjusted profit after tax is detailed below:

 
                                                        FY22     FY21 
                                                        GBPm     GBPm 
 
Reported profit after tax                                6.4      9.0 
 
Adjustments from profit before tax (as per the 
 table above)                                            2.1      9.0 
Tax effect of adjustments                              (1.3)    (1.4) 
Discrete tax items                                       1.9        - 
 
 
Adjusted profit after tax                                9.1     16.6 
 
 
Weighted average number of ordinary shares (diluted)   28.0m    28.1m 
 
Reported EPS (fully diluted)                           22.9p    32.0p 
 
Adjusted EPS (fully diluted)                           32.3p  59 . 0p 
 

Balance sheet

Total assets increased by GBP2.1m to GBP352.1m (2021: GBP350.0m), driven by increases in intangible assets of GBP8.1m to GBP155.6m (2021: 147.5m), as the Group capitalises internal software development costs in accordance with IFRS Accounting Standards and the deferred tax asset of GBP3.3m to GBP18.0m (2021: GBP14.7m). These were partially offset by cash and cash equivalents decreasing by GBP6.6m to GBP48.6m (2021: GBP55.2m) due to repayment of borrowings . As a result, loans and borrowings fell to GBP71.6m (2021: GBP92.8m) of which GBP48.2m related to bank loans (2021: GBP65.1m) and the remainder to lease liabilities. Total liabilities decreased by GBP7.7m to GBP159.6m (2021: GBP167.3) primarily due to the reduction in loans and borrowings.

Cash generation and net debt

The Group generated GBP28.9m of cash from operating activities before taxes paid (2021: GBP46.7m) representing 93% conversion of adjusted EBITDA. We continued to focus on cash collection, which resulted in a conversion rate ahead of our target of 80-85% of adjusted EBITDA .

At the year end, the Group had returned to net cash of GBP0.3m (2021: net debt* GBP9.9m), excluding lease liabilities. The factors impacting the movement in net debt are summarised in the table below:

 
                                                       FY22    FY21 
                                                       GBPm    GBPm 
 
Opening net debt*                                     (9.9)  (49.4) 
 
Cash generated from operating activities               28.9    46.7 
Taxes paid                                            (0.4)   (1.3) 
Capital expenditure: property, plant and equipment    (2.8)   (1.5) 
Proceeds from sale of property plant and equipment      0.9       - 
Capital expenditure: intangible assets               (18.9)  (13.8) 
Disposal of associate                                  11.0       - 
Investment movements                                    0.1    11.3 
Issue of new shares                                     0.8     8.3 
Interest, foreign exchange and other                 (9.3 )  (10.3) 
 
Closing net cash / (debt)*                              0.3   (9.9) 
 
 
   *     Excluding lease liabilities 

During the year the Group sold its stake in associate RxDataScience Inc for proceeds of GBP11m, recording a gain of GBP6.9m. The investment in RXDataScience occurred as part of the Group's strategy of assisting companies that were adopting KX in new and innovative ways. This programme has been de-emphasised in recent years and the Group has instead focused its efforts on signing partnership agreements. During the year another of the Group's investments, Quantile Technologies, was conditionally acquired by the London Stock Exchange. On completion the Group expects to receive net proceeds of approximately GBP8.6m. In addition there are potential deferred consideration payments for both RXDataScience and Quantile Technologies dependent on future performance.

Definition of terms

The Group uses the following definitions for its key metrics:

Exit annual recurring revenue (ARR): is the value at the end of the accounting period of the software and subscription recurring revenue to be recognised over the proceeding twelve months.

Net revenue retention rate (NRR) : is based on the actual revenues in the quarter annualised forward to twelve months and compared to the annualised revenue from the four quarters prior. The customer cohort is comprised of customers in the quarter that have generated revenue in the prior four quarters.

Adjusted admin expenses: is a measure used in internal management reporting which comprises administrative expenses per the statement of comprehensive income of GBP51.9m (2021: GBP42.0m) adjusted for depreciation and amortisation of GBP20.1m (2021: GBP19.8m), share based payments and related costs of GBP1.7m (2021: GBP2.4m), acquisition and non-operational costs of GBP3.1m (2021: GBP1.3m), IT Systems implementation costs expensed GBP2.3m (2021: nil), and Other GBP(0.5)m (2021: GBP(0.2)m) .

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

Year ended 28 February 2022

 
                                                                   2022       2021 
                                                        Note    GBP'000    GBP'000 
 
Revenue                                                    2    263,463    237,867 
 
Cost of sales                                              2  (157,327)  (136,888) 
 
Gross profit                                               2    106,136    100,979 
 
Operating costs 
Research and development costs                                 (21,125)   (15,948) 
- Of which capitalised                                           18,553     13,398 
Sales and marketing costs                                      (47,355)   (39,252) 
Administrative expenses                                        (51,949)   (42,036) 
Impairment loss on trade and other receivables                    (695)      (215) 
 
Total operating costs                                         (102,571)   (84,053) 
 
Other income                                                      2,816         96 
 
Operating profit                                                  6,381     17,022 
 
Finance income                                                      262      1,606 
Finance expense                                                 (3,015)    (4,183) 
Loss on foreign currency translation                            (1,834)    (3,240) 
Net finance costs                                               (4,587)    (5,817) 
 
Share of gain/(loss) of associate, net of tax                       262       (58) 
Profit on sale of Associate                                       6,943          - 
 
Profit before taxation                                            8,999     11,147 
 
Income tax expense                                              (2,572)    (2,150) 
 
Profit for the year                                               6,427      8,997 
 
Profit for the year                                               6,427      8,997 
Other comprehensive income 
Items that will not be reclassified subsequently 
 to profit or loss 
Equity investments at FVOCI - net change in fair 
 value                                                          (1,408)      2,349 
Net gain on sale of FVOCI holding                                   150      4,746 
 
Items that will or may be reclassified subsequently 
 to profit or loss 
Net exchange gain/(loss) on net investment in foreign 
 subsidiaries                                                     3,237   (10,657) 
Net (loss)/gain on hedge of net investment in foreign 
 subsidiaries                                                   (1,183)      2,611 
Other comprehensive income for the year, net of 
 tax                                                                796      (951) 
 
Total comprehensive income for the year attributable 
 to owners of the parent                                          7,223      8,046 
 
                                                        Note      Pence      Pence 
Earnings per share 
Basic                                                   4(a)       23.1       32.7 
Diluted                                                 4(a)       22.9       32.0 
 

All profits are attributable to the owners of the Company and relate to continuing activities.

Consolidated balance sheet

As at 28 February 2022

 
                                                        2022     2021 
                                               Note  GBP'000  GBP'000 
Assets 
Property, plant and equipment                     5   28,343   33,541 
Intangible assets and goodwill                    6  155,607  147,513 
Equity accounted investee                                  -    2,649 
Other financial assets                                19,676   14,760 
Trade and other receivables                            3,745    3,312 
Deferred tax assets                                   17,998   14,719 
Non-current assets                                   225,369  216,494 
Trade and other receivables                           74,029   75,102 
Current tax receivable                                 4,172    3,208 
Cash and cash equivalents                             48,564   55,198 
Current assets                                       126,765  133,508 
Total assets                                         352,134  350,002 
Equity 
Share capital                                            139      139 
Share premium                                        100,424   99,396 
Merger reserve                                             -    8,118 
Share option reserve                                  18,404   16,790 
Fair value reserve                                     9,755   10,682 
Currency translation adjustment reserve              (3,574)  (5,628) 
Retained earnings                                     67,391   53,177 
Equity attributable to owners of the Company         192,539  182,674 
Liabilities 
Loans and borrowings                              7   62,504   83,596 
Trade and other payables                               3,190    2,431 
Deferred tax liabilities                              15,307   11,428 
Non-current liabilities                               81,001   97,455 
Loans and borrowings                                   9,054    9,244 
Trade and other payables                              60,596   53,591 
Current tax payable                                      382      269 
Employee benefits                                      8,562    6,769 
Current liabilities                                   78,594   69,873 
Total liabilities                                    159,595  167,328 
Total equity and liabilities                         352,134  350,002 
 

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

Year ended 28 February 2022

 
                                                                Share                  Currency 
                                  Share     Share    Merger    option  Fair value   translation   Retained    Total 
                                capital   premium   reserve   reserve     reserve    adjustment   earnings   equity 
                                GBP'000   GBP'000   GBP'000   GBP'000     GBP'000       GBP'000    GBP'000  GBP'000 
Balance at 1 March 
 2021                               139    99,396     8,118    16,790      10,682       (5,628)     53,177  182,674 
Total comprehensive 
 income for the year 
Profit for the year                   -         -         -         -           -             -      6,427    6,427 
Other comprehensive 
 income 
Net exchange gain on 
 net investment in foreign 
 subsidiaries                         -         -         -         -           -         3,237          -    3,237 
Net exchange loss on 
 hedge of net investment 
 in foreign subsidiaries              -         -         -         -           -       (1,183)          -  (1,183) 
 
Net change in fair 
 value of equity investments 
 at FVOCI                             -         -         -         -     (1,408)             -          -  (1,408) 
Net gain/(loss) on 
 sale of FVOCI holding                -         -         -         -         481             -      (331)      150 
Total comprehensive 
 income for the year                  -         -         -         -       (927)         2,054      6,096    7,223 
Transactions with owners 
 of the Company 
Tax relating to share 
 options                              -         -         -        80           -             -          -       80 
Exercise of share options             -       773         -         -           -             -          -      773 
Issue of shares                       -       255         -         -           -             -          -      255 
Share based payment 
 charge                               -         -         -     1,534           -             -          -      1,534 
Transfer                              -         -   (8,118)         -           -             -      8,118        - 
Balance at 28 February 
 2022                               139   100,424         -    18,404       9,755       (3,574)     67,391  192,539 
 

Consolidated statement of changes in equity continued

Year ended 28 February 2021

 
                                                                Share                  Currency 
                                  Share     Share    Merger    option  Fair value   translation   Retained     Total 
                                capital   premium   reserve   reserve     reserve    adjustment   earnings    equity 
                                GBP'000   GBP'000   GBP'000   GBP'000     GBP'000       GBP'000    GBP'000   GBP'000 
Balance at 1 March 
 2020                               136    91,002     8,118    13,775       3,587         2,418     44,125   163,161 
Total comprehensive 
 income for the year 
Profit for the year                   -         -         -         -           -             -      8,997     8,997 
Other comprehensive 
 income 
Net exchange loss on 
 net investment in foreign 
 subsidiaries                         -         -         -         -           -      (10,657)          -  (10,657) 
Net exchange gain on 
 hedge of net investment 
 in foreign subsidiaries              -         -         -         -           -         2,611          -     2,611 
Net change in fair 
 value of equity investments 
 at FVOCI                             -         -         -         -       2,349             -          -     2,349 
Net gain on sale of 
 FVOCI holding                        -         -         -         -       4,746             -          -     4,746 
Total comprehensive 
 income for the year                  -         -         -         -       7,095       (8,046)      8,997     8,046 
Transactions with owners 
 of the Company 
Tax relating to share 
 options                              -         -         -       820           -             -          -       820 
Exercise of share options             3     8,281         -         -           -             -          -     8,284 
Issue of shares                       -       113         -         -           -             -          -       113 
Share based payment 
 charge                               -         -         -     2,250           -             -          -     2,250 
Transfer on forfeit 
 of share options                     -         -         -      (55)           -             -         55         - 
Balance at 28 February 
 2021                               139    99,396     8,118    16,790      10,682       (5,628)     53,177   182,674 
 

Consolidated cash flow statement

Year ended 28 February 2022

 
                                                           2022      2021 
                                                        GBP'000   GBP'000 
Cash flows from operating activities 
Profit for the year                                       6,427     8,997 
Adjustments for: 
Net finance costs                                         4,587     5,818 
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment             6,308     6,876 
Amortisation of intangible assets                        13,817    12,889 
Equity-settled share based payment transactions           1,534     2,250 
Profit on disposal of associate                         (6,943)         - 
Profit on disposal of fixed assets                        (222)         - 
Other income                                            (2,499)         - 
Grant income                                              (317)      (49) 
Share of (profit)/loss of associate                       (262)        58 
Tax expense                                               2,572     2,150 
                                                         25,002    38,989 
Changes in: 
Trade and other receivables                             (1,585)     1,707 
Trade and other payables                                  5,473     5,972 
Cash generated from operating activities                 28,890    46,668 
Taxes paid                                                (407)   (1,253) 
Net cash from operating activities                       28,483    45,415 
Cash flows from investing activities 
Interest received                                            19        40 
(Increase) in loans to other investments                      -     (122) 
Settlement of loans to other investments                      -       992 
Acquisition of subsidiaries                               (118)         - 
Acquisition of other investments                           (95)     (510) 
Sale of associate                                        11,001         - 
Sale of other investments                                   175    10,987 
Acquisition of property, plant and equipment            (2,777)   (1,502) 
Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment         920         - 
Acquisition of intangible assets                       (18,931)  (13,775) 
Net cash used in investing activities                   (9,806)   (3,890) 
Cash flows from financing activities 
Proceeds from issue of share capital                        773     8,284 
Drawdown of loans and borrowings                              -    34,208 
Repayment of borrowings                                (19,141)  (38,350) 
Payment of lease liabilities                            (3,598)   (4,554) 
Interest paid                                           (2,932)   (4,564) 
Net cash used in financing activities                  (24,898)   (4,976) 
Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents    (6,221)    36,549 
Cash and cash equivalents at 1 March                     55,198    26,068 
Effects of exchange rate changes on cash held             (413)   (7,419) 
Cash and cash equivalents at 28 February                 48,564    55,198 
 

1. Basis of preparation

The consolidated financial statements consolidate those of the Company and its subsidiaries (together referred to as the "Group").

The financial information included in this preliminary announcement does not constitute statutory accounts of the Group for the years ended 28 February 2022 nor 29 February 2021 but is derived from those accounts. Statutory accounts for 2021 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and those for 2022 will be delivered following the Company's Annual General Meeting. The auditors have reported on those accounts; their reports were (i) unqualified, (ii) did not include a reference to any matters to which the auditors drew attention by way of emphasis without qualifying their report, and (iii) did not contain a statement under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

Both the consolidated financial statements and the Company financial statements have been prepared and approved by the Directors in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRSs").

2. Operating and business segments

Information about reportable segments

 
                                         KX                FD               MRP               Total 
                                   2022     2021       2022     2021     2022     2021      2022      2021 
                                  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000   GBP'000   GBP'000 
Revenue by segment 
Revenue                            64,418   74,294  147,988  119,412   51,057   44,161   263,463   237,867 
Gross profit                       44,520   53,826   39,376   29,128   22,240   18,025   106,136   100,979 
 
Adjusted EBITDA                     9,782   24,256   13,982   10,491    7,283    5,747    31,047    40,494 
Acquisition and non operational 
 costs                                                                                   (3,082)   (1,337) 
IT Systems implementation 
 costs expensed                                                                          (2,287)         - 
Non operational other 
 income                                                                                    2,499         - 
Share based payment and 
 related costs                                                                           (1,671)   (2,370) 
Depreciation and amortisation                                                           (16,994)  (16,081) 
Amortisation of acquired 
 Intangibles                                                                             (3,131)   (3,684) 
Operating profit                                                                           6,381    17,022 
Net finance costs                                                                        (4,587)   (5,817) 
Profit on sale of associate                                                                6,943         - 
Share of profit/(loss) 
 of associate, net of 
 tax                                                                                         262      (58) 
Profit before taxation                                                                     8,999    11,147 
 

Geographical location analysis

 
                   Revenues       Non-current assets 
                  2022     2021       2022       2021 
               GBP'000  GBP'000    GBP'000    GBP'000 
UK              79,355   68,718     87,448     59,837 
EMEA            46,463   39,371     16,826     16,561 
The Americas   110,697  103,401    118,576    122,313 
Asia Pacific    26,948   26,377      2,952      3,064 
Total          263,463  237,867    225,802    201,775 
 

Disaggregation of revenue

 
                                       KX                FD               MRP              Total 
                                   2022     2021     2022     2021     2022     2021     2022     2021 
                                GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000 
Type of good or service 
Sale of goods - perpetual         3,589   10,595        -        -        -        -    3,589   10,595 
Sale of goods - recurring        39,192   37,707        -        -   27,015   24,244   66,207   61,951 
Rendering of services            21,637   25,992  147,988  119,412   24,042   19,917  193,667  165,321 
                                 64,418   74,294  147,988  119,412   51,057   44,161  263,463  237,867 
Timing of revenue recognition 
At a point in time                3,589   10,595        -        -        -        -    3,589   10,595 
Over time                        60,829   63,699  147,988  119,412   51,057   44,161  259,874  227,272 
                                 64,418   74,294  147,988  119,412   51,057   44,161  263,463  237,867 
 

3. Dividends

 
                                               2022     2021 
                                            GBP'000  GBP'000 
Dividends paid to the owners of the parent 
Final dividend relating to the prior year         -        - 
Interim dividend paid                             -        - 
                                                  -        - 
 

The dividends recorded in each financial year represent the final dividend of the preceding financial year and the interim dividend of the current financial year.

No final dividend was declared in relation to the comparative period and no interim dividend was declared or paid relating to the current or prior year. The cumulative dividend paid during the year amounted to nil (2021: nil) per share.

After the respective reporting dates, the following dividends were proposed by the Directors. The dividends have not been provided for and there are no income tax consequences.

 
                                       2022     2021 
                                    GBP'000  GBP'000 
Nil per ordinary share (2021: nil)        -        - 
 

4. a) Earnings per ordinary share

Basic

The calculation of basic earnings per share at 28 February 2022 was based on the profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of GBP6,427k (2021: GBP8,997k), and a weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue of 27,782k (2021: 27,505k).

 
                                 2022        2021 
                                Pence       Pence 
                            per share   per share 
Basic earnings per share         23.1        32.7 
 

Weighted average number of ordinary shares

 
                                                              2022    2021 
                                                            Number  Number 
                                                              '000    '000 
Issued ordinary shares at 1 March                           27,717  27,150 
Effect of share options exercised                               58     352 
Effect of shares issued as purchase consideration                -       - 
Effect of shares issued as remuneration                          7       3 
Weighted average number of ordinary shares at 28 February   27,782  27,505 
 

Diluted

The calculation of diluted earnings per share at 28 February 2022 was based on the profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of GBP6,427k (2021: GBP8,997k) and a weighted average number of ordinary shares after adjustment for the effects of all dilutive potential ordinary shares of 28,036k (2021: 28,126k).

 
                                   2022        2021 
                                  Pence       Pence 
                              per share   per share 
Diluted earnings per share         22.9        32.0 
 

Weighted average number of ordinary shares (diluted)

 
                                                         2022    2021 
                                                       Number  Number 
                                                         '000    '000 
Weighted average number of ordinary shares (basic)     27,782  27,505 
Effect of dilutive share options in issue                 254     621 
Weighted average number of ordinary shares (diluted) 
 at 28 February                                        28,036  28,126 
 

At 28 February 2022 518,137 shares (2021: 120,058 shares) were excluded from the diluted weighted average number of ordinary shares calculation as their effect would have been anti-dilutive. The average market value of the Group's shares for the purposes of calculating the dilutive effect of share options was based on quoted market prices for the year during which the options were outstanding.

4. b) Earnings before tax per ordinary share

Earnings before tax per share are based on profit before taxation of GBP8,999k (2021: GBP11,147k). The number of shares used in this calculation is consistent with note 4(a) above.

 
                                                       2022        2021 
                                                      Pence       Pence 
                                                  per share   per share 
Basic earnings before tax per ordinary share           32.4        40.5 
Diluted earnings before tax per ordinary share         32.1        39.6 
 

Reconciliation from earnings per ordinary share to earnings before tax per ordinary share:

 
                                              2022        2021 
                                             Pence       Pence 
                                         per share   per share 
Basic earnings per share                      23.1        32.7 
Impact of taxation charge                      9.3         7.8 
Basic earnings before tax per share           32.4        40.5 
Diluted earnings per share                    22.9        32.0 
Impact of taxation charge                      9.2         7.6 
Diluted earnings before tax per share         32.1        39.6 
 

Earnings before tax per share is presented to facilitate pre-tax comparison returns on comparable investments.

4. c) Adjusted earnings after tax per ordinary share

Adjusted earnings after tax per share is based on an adjusted profit after taxation of GBP9,051k (2021: GBP16,602k). The adjusted profit after tax has been calculated by adjusting the profit after tax GBP6,427k (2021: GBP8,997k) for the amortisation of acquired intangibles after tax effect of GBP2,715k (2021: GBP3,184k), share based payment and related charges after tax effect of GBP1,353k (2021: GBP1,911k), acquisition and non operational costs after tax effect of GBP4,473k (2021: GBP1,102k), profit on sale of associate after tax and share of profit of associate after tax effect of GBP7,206k (2021: loss GBP58k), the loss on foreign currency translation after tax effect of GBP1,485k (2021: loss GBP2,613k), and finance income from sale of investment after tax effect of GBP197k (2021: GBP1,263k). The number of shares used in this calculation is consistent with note 4(a) above.

 
                                                               2022        2021 
                                                              Pence       Pence 
                                                          per share   per share 
Adjusted basic earnings after tax per ordinary share           32.6        60.4 
Adjusted diluted earnings after tax per ordinary share         32.3        59.0 
 

5. Property, plant and equipment

Group

 
                           Leasehold   Plant and      Office  Right-of-use 
                        improvements   equipment   furniture        assets     Total 
                             GBP'000     GBP'000     GBP'000       GBP'000   GBP'000 
Cost 
At 1 March 2021                6,224      11,886       1,349        32,590    52,049 
Additions                        318       2,442          17           377     3,154 
Disposals                    (1,144)        (10)           -       (3,131)   (4,285) 
Exchange adjustments              46          54           -           335       435 
At 28 February 2022            5,444      14,372       1,366        30,171    51,353 
Depreciation 
At 1 March 2021                3,321       6,845         894         7,448    18,508 
Charge for the year              531       1,673         219         3,885     6,308 
Disposals                      (337)        (10)           -       (1,636)   (1,983) 
Exchange adjustments              29          36           3           109       177 
At 28 February 2022            3,544       8,544       1,116         9,806    23,010 
 
 
                           Leasehold   Plant and      Office  Right-of-use 
                        improvements   equipment   furniture        assets     Total 
                             GBP'000     GBP'000     GBP'000       GBP'000   GBP'000 
Cost 
At 1 March 2020                5,958      17,163       1,763        30,914    55,798 
Additions                        371       1,090          42         2,975     4,478 
Disposals                       (60)     (6,169)       (450)         (379)   (7,058) 
Exchange adjustments            (45)       (198)         (6)         (920)   (1,169) 
At 28 February 2021            6,224      11,886       1,349        32,590    52,049 
Depreciation 
At 1 March 2020                2,851      11,228       1,096         3,480    18,655 
Charge for the year              624       1,790         249         4,214     6,877 
Disposals                       (60)     (6,169)       (450)             -   (6,679) 
Exchange adjustments            (94)         (4)         (1)         (246)     (345) 
At 28 February 2021            3,321       6,845         894         7,448    18,508 
Carrying amounts 
At 1 March 2020                3,107       5,935         667        27,434    37,143 
At 28 February 2021            2,903       5,041         455        25,142    33,541 
At 28 February 2022            1,900       5,828         250        20,365    28,343 
 

6. Intangible assets and goodwill

Group

 
                                                                     Internally 
                                      Customer   Acquired     Brand   developed 
                            Goodwill     lists   software      name    software     Total 
                             GBP'000   GBP'000    GBP'000   GBP'000     GBP'000   GBP'000 
Cost 
Balance at 1 March 2021      103,527    12,467     28,535       733      83,531   228,793 
Development costs                  -         -          -         -      18,553    18,553 
Additions                          -         -        378         -           -       378 
Exchange adjustments           2,974       367        856        10       (544)     3,663 
At 28 February 2022          106,501    12,834     29,769       743     101,540   251,387 
Amortisation 
Balance at 1 March 2021            -    10,426     22,619       652      47,583    81,280 
Amortisation for the year          -     1,083      2,475        42      10,217    13,817 
Exchange adjustment                -       323      1,012         9       (661)       683 
At 28 February 2022                -    11,832     26,106       703      57,139    95,780 
 
 
                                                                     Internally 
                                      Customer   Acquired     Brand   developed 
                            Goodwill     lists   software      name    software     Total 
                             GBP'000   GBP'000    GBP'000   GBP'000     GBP'000   GBP'000 
Cost 
Balance at 1 March 2020      110,639    13,259     29,908       769      70,280   224,855 
Development costs                  -         -          -         -      13,398    13,398 
Additions                          -         -        377         -           -       377 
Exchange adjustments         (7,112)     (792)    (1,750)      (36)       (147)   (9,837) 
At 28 February 2021          103,527    12,467     28,535       733      83,531   228,793 
Amortisation 
Balance at 1 March 2020            -     9,848     21,556       633      38,402    70,439 
Amortisation for the year          -     1,235      2,332        50       9,272    12,889 
Exchange adjustment                -     (657)    (1,269)      (31)        (91)   (2,048) 
At 28 February 2021                -    10,426     22,619       652      47,583    81,280 
Carrying amounts 
At 1 March 2020              110,639     3,411      8,352       136      31,878   154,416 
At 28 February 2021          103,527     2,041      5,916        81      35,948   147,513 
At 28 February 2022          106,501     1,002      3,663        40      44,401   155,607 
 

7. Loans and borrowings

This note provides information about the contractual terms of the Group and Company's interest-bearing loans and borrowings, which are measured at amortised cost.

 
                               Group            Company 
                             2022     2021     2022     2021 
                          GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000  GBP'000 
Current liabilities 
Secured bank loans          5,311    5,492    5,311    5,492 
Lease liabilities           3,743    3,752    1,445    1,398 
                            9,054    9,244    6,756    6,890 
Non-current liabilities 
Secured bank loans         42,925   59,622   42,926   59,622 
Lease liabilities          19,579   23,974    8,549   11,442 
                           62,504   83,596   51,475   71,064 
 

8. Report and accounts

Copies of the Annual Report will be available as of 8 June 2022 on the Group's website, www.fdtechnologies.com and from the Group's headquarters at 3 Canal Quay, Newry, BT35 6BP.

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