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[adventurous] 26/1/2017 08:42

The cash balance drop of £4m came in H1, without checking I believe it was mainly related to Sensium.

The next six months should give a clearer picture as the "amazing" sales should kick in!

[rollthedice] 26/1/2017 08:28

EBITDA positive is neither here nor there as it excludes so many expenditure areas. Bottom line is that revenues are unchanged £32.1m 2015 - c£32m 2016 and cash balances have fallen from £7.7m to £3.4m so business still ran a loss in 2016.

I'll be interested when FST are generating free cashflow until then it's not worth holding IMHO.

[chillpill] 26/1/2017 08:27

If they had held on to Sensium they would currently be having to raise money at 20 or rip so good to be shot of that in terms of shareholder value.

Definitely encouraging. I get impression they are holding a little bit back.

Agreed terribly presented. The fatcats need to communicate better with their paymasters(shareholders).

[krr13] 26/1/2017 08:12

Agreed. They could have made it sound more positive.

[sweenoid] 26/1/2017 08:00

They can't even produce a half descent RNS statement. The prose is awful. It's good news but the way they convey it is shambolic.

This statement looks like it was written , not edited and sent off?

Lacking in content! Do they really want to be a PLC?

Having said that it's obviously good news
S

[krr13] 26/1/2017 07:43

As expected. Good to see they are at least EBITA positive for 2016 with further growth expected in 2017. Not sure there is much else they could have said.

[monty panesar] 26/1/2017 07:09

In dull FST speak the statement is very bullish. Reasons for genuine optimism and making some decent profits this year.

Will be interested to see the broker figures.

[life of crime] 25/1/2017 20:14

If the BoD do not deliver this year they will be under much more scrutiny and I am sure they know it.

Enjoy Burns' Night, Scottish or not!

[nod] 24/1/2017 20:05

Those Director salaries are outrageous for a small company that does not make any profit or barely a profit in a good year.In H1 2016, the EBITDA loss for Sensium was £3.9m. The sale in July brought in £1.3m plus Royalties at 3% net revenue. The royalties are ongoing.I have no doubt that Sethill will have excuses up his sleeve as to why Digital Audio did not perform as well as expected.

[life of crime] 24/1/2017 16:20

The board have been able to use Sensium as the reason for poor performance. That no longer applies and this is the year of delivery. There are no excuses moving forward and we will stand or fall on how widely DAB spreads worldwide and whether FS can leverage their current advantage with Google to good effect.

Fwiw I think they are well placed as a streamlined business and remind me of IMG from that point of view. I am not expecting fireworks from the trading update, presuming it comes this week, as Google Home is in its infancy and last year will be dragged down by Sensium. However, this is the year when performance has to come good. If not, then I will probably bail out in a year's time and move on. Let us hope we are pleasantly surprised by the update.

[the drewster] 24/1/2017 15:29

How many CEOs (we're not unique), manage to erode 100% of a company's enterprise value when they took over?

We are valued at LESS than the total funds raised since Anthony took over at the top, that means the EV when he took over has been completely eroded, quite some achievement (though I doubt one he brags about).

[the drewster] 24/1/2017 08:47

... and the FST model to profit from that is from a hardware supply angle.
I hope the barriers to entry for competition are holding up, as "the competition" have had plenty of time to catch up, or find new technologies ... perhaps the inept financial performance of FST itself is sufficient to keep competition away?

[monty panesar] 24/1/2017 06:00

I'm expecting a fairly bland statement for the 2016 results. I expect a cautiously optimistic statement for the current year.
Expectations for the growth of connected audio market are increasing...a lot.

[the drewster] 23/1/2017 14:07

Well, they say there's a first time for everything.

Cashflow positive now and going forwards (confirmation req'd)
Exec salaries and central overheads under control (confirmation req'd)
Google & Amazon involvement
Connected audio current and projected revenues
R&D current and planned expenditure

[life of crime] 23/1/2017 13:56

Frontier is up a couple of percent on a down day for the markets. Makes you wonder if someone has got wind of a decent trading update in advance.

[monty panesar] 23/1/2017 07:15

This is what is expected:

With the sale of the Healthcare division and re-focusing on Digital Audio, the Group has established a solid platform on which to build as it seeks to take full advantage of the medium and long term growth opportunities in both Digital Radio and Smart Audio.

Excluding Healthcare, Group full year revenues for 2016 are expected to show single figure growth year on year. As outlined above, Digital Radio revenues are expected to be broadly flat compared to 2015. Smart Audio revenues are expected to improve in the second half of the year relative to H2 2015. The first shipments of Minuet, Frontier's Google Cast-enabled solution, are expected in Q4 2016.

The UK currently accounts for about one third of Group revenues. At a global level, Group revenues (in Sterling) are likely to benefit from a sustained drop in the Sterling / Dollar exchange rate. It is too early to judge if the Brexit decision will have a significant impact on UK trading but the increase in import prices may have a negative impact on volumes.

Historically, end-users for Frontier-based products (DAB and Internet radios) have been predominantly European-based. With the introduction of the Group's Google Cast-enabled Smart Audio solution, the North American market is expected to become more important for Toumaz from 2017 onwards.

Having disposed of the Healthcare business, the Group expects to be EBITDA positive in H2 2016 and to be close to break-even on a continuing basis for FY 2016.

[nod] 23/1/2017 05:37

Last year we had strong growth. The big question for me will be whether the Execs take all profits when the Accounts are released.21 Jan 2016"Frontier Silicon, the Digital Audio business, performed well in 2015. Revenues were up 24.5% to £31.8m (2014: £25.5 million) with its two units, digital radio and connected audio, both achieving healthy growth.The business has been EBITDA positive, before the allocation of central overheads, since April 2015 and for the year as a whole. "

[life of crime] 22/1/2017 13:46

I am expecting a trading update next week, possibly tomorrow. With the loss making health division now gone, I expect a profitable statement as retailers had a good Xmas which, hopefully, will translate into strong DAB sales.

It will be interesting to hear how sales went for the only Google speaker we know about. If there are more FS enabled speakers out there then we should be told about it in the statement. I am still optimistic that the streamlined business will do well and will be a target for a bigger chip firm, tempted by their dominance in the DAB sector and the growing connected audio market. I hope my optimism is well founded!

[the drewster] 18/1/2017 15:57

Does anyone actually KNOW if there will even be a trading statement?

[monty panesar] 13/1/2017 06:37

I am not expecting a knockout trading statement but expect it to be fairly optimistic for the future. The DAB rollout appears to show continued steady growth. Google Home had a late launch for the Xmas market so sales in that area could be a tad behind their hopes. There are clearly some issues with Google Home and Alexia however sales appear to be strong and the trend in sales is likely to continue upwards so they could start to get some real sales momentum as the year goes on.

The nature of the business and sales is that Jan and Feb are loss making and then they are cash flow positive for the remainder of the year. At the interims I believe they said the low point for cash would be £4m.

At current price the valuation is undemanding considering connected audio could be a blockbuster.

[juleshoddy] 12/1/2017 23:31

here here. go get'em tiger. I maybe delusional, but i'm hoping for some decent progress in the January trading update....if they indeed give one this year? last year we had an update on 21st Jan. Shedding the beast that was sensium and focusing on connected audio should, in theory, reduce expenditure and be generating reasonable revenues by now? What worries me is the lack of RNS's regarding our inclusion into the latest chromecast models. They used google as an excuse and spent a lot of time and R&D cash in the process of adding functionality specifically for them. where's the results, and why no RNS relaying this info? Additionally, where's all the "new design wins in the coming months" too? there's been no positive RNS news for ages, sept being the last one regarding Harman. Just what have they done, and are going to do, to justify their considerable salaries?

[juleshoddy] 12/1/2017 23:31

here here. go get'em tiger. I maybe delusional, but i'm hoping for some decent progress in the January trading update....if they indeed give one this year? last year we had an update on 21st Jan. Shedding the beast that was sensium and focusing on connected audio should, in theory, reduce expenditure and be generating reasonable revenues by now? What worries me is the lack of RNS's regarding our inclusion into the latest chromecast models. They used google as an excuse and spent a lot of time and R&D cash in the process of adding functionality specifically for them. where's the results, and why no RNS relaying this info? Additionally, where's all the "new design wins in the coming months" too? there's been no positive RNS news for ages, sept being the last one regarding Harman. Just what have they done, and are going to do, to justify their considerable salaries?

[mirandaj] 10/1/2017 17:56

"President of WorldDAB Patrick Hannon explained that Norway's DSO is part of a larger international digital radio story, with a digital wave moving across Europe and beyond - some markets also with a DSO schedule, and new countries launching. The full story on what is happening with DAB around the world can be found on www.worlddab.org. "