Loopup Share Discussion Threads

[maddox] 24/11/2020 15:10

To address your 'negative' question - will LOOP + MS user shift to Teams plus LOOP - that has already occurred and is responsible for the drop in revenue and share price in July 2019. A lot of LOOP users were using it for internal business meetings but then switched to MS Teams for internal meetings and kept LOOP for external conferencing. MS Teams is the natural choice for MS365 Users for internal meetings - but LOOP is ideal where you have external guests. There is a lot of stress on broadband bandwidth and the over-the-top OTT providers such as ZOOM, Webex can suffer on audio quality. This is particularly important with clients abroad that are speaking English as a second language. You want to be sure they can hear clearly and that you don't have to ask them to repeat themselves. Hence LOOP's focus on the Professional Services Sector - this is their sweet spot in the market. As Users experience the limitations of the OTT providers they will look and find LOOP to meet their needs. I don't expect this transition all occurred in Q2 as a result of Covid - it's probably continued at a steady pace all through the summer too. One other pricing negative is that it's likely that Users will switch onto contract and cheaper pricing thus there will be some loss of revenue from this to factor in.

[nesquikme] 24/11/2020 14:30

Sell and get Easyjet. Dont ask me

[apad] 24/11/2020 14:24

LOOP? Teams launched 2017. LOOP trading update 16 July 2020 Revenue up 43% LOOP cloud voice added to Teams 29 July 2020 Loop announcement Sept 2020 - Major new contract win with one of the world's top-5 law firms - Expanded partnership to FY2022 with C&W Communications The LOOP system was complete - unlimited video, calling, dial out and international dial in, and so on. There are three plans: Free, Business and Enterprise with increasing functionality. Teams has a Msft PBX (phone system). LOOP says the Msft PBX is not as complete internationally as their Teams add-on, which is also a great improvement in quality and cheaper for intensive users. Teams profile has exploded because of covid and all of LOOP add-on description is about how it makes Teams easier for big organisations and automatically improves quality. So, there are two questions: Will Teams+LOOP gain a large customer base with big multi-nationals, which is the positive question. Will LOOP's traditional customers migrate to Teams+LOOP, which is the negative question. apad

[pratt2] 24/11/2020 10:39

Agreed. My point was more around, this isn't a Covid one off. Granted Q2 was exceptionally high but otherwise, we are likely to see still higher uptake going fwd + Teams integration. So overall, this should really be at a much higher multiple imo as based on current sp, it's sub 10.

[donald pond] 24/11/2020 10:29

I think the point about volumes is important but not vital. It really doesn't matter if a partner at a law firm works from home 5 days a week or once a fortnight. He or she wants a secure, high quality, easy to use video conferencing facility. And if you want it occasionally, that is enough.

[pratt2] 24/11/2020 10:11

This is a reasonable board, please don't spam it.

[nesquikme] 24/11/2020 09:32

Travellers arriving into the UK will soon be able to reduce quarantine from two weeks to five days, if they test negative for coronavirus with a single rapid test. Sell Loop Buy airlines

[pratt2] 24/11/2020 09:29

So maybe this will help discussions. Having spoken to a friend of mine who works for a Telco, he mentioned how a very similar company to LoopUp who uses his company as a supplier (carrier) and their associated volumes.He mentioned volumes shot up on average by 70% from Q1 into April through to June, and now have settled on around 40% runrate higher than pre Covid on a number of minutes (volume) basis.Now if we translated that across to Loop, what figures could we get to? Don't forget, the Teams integration is an additional revenue stream, so likely to add to the 140% new baseline as above.Thoughts?

[nesquikme] 24/11/2020 06:29

Travellers arriving into the UK will soon be able to reduce quarantine from two weeks to five days, if they test negative for coronavirus with a single rapid test. Sell Loop Buy airlines

[apad] 23/11/2020 22:46

Hi Maddox, I understood from reading about the Free Plan, Business Plan and Enterprise plan pre the Teams add-on that there were different forms of dial-in on physical PBX in addition to the internet systems. I had thought the same functionality was present in the Teams add-on. I think that's what you are describing above, Maddox. My recent reading of the Teams publicity (like the White Paper) seems to wholly emphasise cloud based voice efficiency, whereas I was expecting that they would make a big point about integration of physical PBX. Maybe Tier 1 Telecoms carrier, or BT as I know it, is sufficient to carry that message. 😊 "LoopUp offer cheaper monthly calling plans for local or international calls than the firms current contract and does away with PBX maintenance and internal phone network. So if your a MS Teams User it thus makes sense to integrate your business telephony." This doesn't seem to be emphasised in the LOOP literature. It is amusing to me because that is exactly why the LOOP system was chucked out of a local wealth management company back in the day - it was more expensive in them days! Maybe they just want this to happen - it'd make the system very sticky 😊 I think I am out of my depth and have stumbled across open source free software linked to Teams! apad

[maddox] 23/11/2020 21:53

Hi Apad, Basically, it gives the MS Teams business user the functionality to 'dial-out' to talk to Aunty Vera on her ISDN telephone or on her mobile for that matter. It does this by linking MS Teams via a virtual PBX to LoopUp's VPN which drops the call into OpenReach's network. If that business user wants to talk to a supplier in Singapore LoopUp's existing VPN will take the call to Singapore and drop the call into a selected Tier 1 Telecoms carrier for the final local leg. Most Teams Users (firms) don't have that integration; they will typically have a desk phone connected to a stand alone telecoms system connected via a physical PBX. LoopUp offer cheaper monthly calling plans for local or international calls than the firms current contract and does away with PBX maintenance and internal phone network. So if your a MS Teams User it thus makes sense to integrate your business telephony. Regards, Maddox Please flag-up if I've not got this correct - I know we have better qualified telecoms expertise on this BB.

[apad] 23/11/2020 21:08

So, it would seem that the LOOP add-on to teams is purely virtual PBX so you can't include your Aunty Vera who only has a real PBX and no internet connection. Also a small company might not have the cloud telephony issues that LoopUp solves. apad

[apad] 23/11/2020 20:14

Maddox, your points are well made. Customer acquisition rates will eventually indicate the length of the sales/implementation lag. PIs are always too impatient 😊 This: LoopUp Whitepaper Preparing your corporate network for Microsoft Teams telephony – a simple guide. is downloadable from the website if you register from a corporate email (probably works from any). I may have been mistaken in seeing the Teams add-on as a facet of their general offerings. I need to sort out the relationship between Teams with Cloud based telephony and their traditional offerings that enable all and sundry's ordinary telephone systems. I have been sceptical about the Teams add-on opening them up to more general conglomerates than their traditional customers. I've put my scepticism on the shelf whilst I read more about their offerings. apad

[maddox] 23/11/2020 19:10

I think we need to be patient - the new Direct Routing proposition is newly launched, they're recruiting like crazy, and they'll still be working out the best way of managing it. The sales cycle is likely to be longer and implementation certainly longer than their core remote conferencing product. So it's probably absorbing a lot of management resource. Better that they focus on getting this set-up. The McLaren 'customer story' is illustrative - 700+ employees, five offices across UK and UAE - 3 week implementation and tailoring to meet client's needs. hTtps://loopup.com/en/resource-center/customer-stories/mclaren-building-better-customer-communication-with-loopup/ It is a fairly resource hungry exercise - high customer engagement. Building and streamlining a deliver capability won't happen overnight. In the meantime, I'll be happy if they equal the 1H numbers - which will put them on a prospective p/e of 6. Ridiculously cheap for a fast growth firm.

[mad foetus] 23/11/2020 11:03

But only 1trading update in H1 2019 compared to 3 this year. If they bag one or two big contracts, maybe they will, or they may wait until the seller is clear

[redartbmud] 23/11/2020 10:48

2019 Interims 17 Sept Trading update 24 Feb '20 Possibly not then.

[mad foetus] 23/11/2020 10:15

There were trading updates in early May, July and September so perhaps we are due another

[11_percent] 23/11/2020 10:10

Yup, its been caught in the vaccine news that has hit the CV-19 bio-tech shares. Bonkers cheap compared with ZOOM.

[mad foetus] 23/11/2020 10:03

Bought in. Bonkers cheap imo. And if you WFH one day a week you need the same infrastructure as if you do it full time

[arcadian] 22/11/2020 19:02

Apparently on Page 8 of The Observer today there is a piece on how the pandemic is changing working habits and that things won`t just go back to where they were. An interview with London`s Mayor worrying about office space etc. Deutsche Bank proposing a tax on home workers seems to expect that they have to pay for infrastructure etc just because they only use it occasionally..

[basem1] 21/11/2020 14:08

Thanks for the MF article cottoner Was it published through or after trading hours ? Hoping for some follow through buying on Monday morning Certainly a very strange week here it was more of a pullback than was healthy and I have seen lots in 20 years of market watching

[pratt2] 21/11/2020 13:52

I ve had lots of positives too. Judging by the number of new roles being advertised, it feels like there is a lot of uptake!

[pratt2] 21/11/2020 13:36

I think the management needs to prove their ability to deliver first before a placing. I d support the growth story, but only after they've proved they can capitalise the opportunity presented. Got a lot of skin in the game here and a good 30%down, so fingers crossed...!

[rimau1] 21/11/2020 12:49

Pratt2 - there are a few reasons why i think H2 will be stronger than H1 despite seasonality impacting H2 (1) H1 included 2 months with minimal covid benefits. (2) H1 saw a significant increase in customer acquisition so full monetisation benefits of these new customers will be seen in H2 (3) recent company updates confirmed Q3 was performing strongly in line with Q2 (4) no evidence to suggest people have started returning to offices pre lockdown 2 (5) January and feb 2020 there was a negative volume impact from service outages that occurred in Q4’19 so actually Q1’20 was only in line with Q4’19. (6) i doubt H2 will suffer the usual seasonality as fewer people are taking holidays at the usual times given lockdown1. Partially offsetting these H2 tailwinds will be the potential impact from more client take-up of lower margin contracts although the benefit being reoccurring long term income, and from a profitability perspective i anticipate Loopup have ramped up recruitment which could see a short-term jump in operating costs. Two material beneficial unknowns are (1) what impact has the MS teams tie in had on Q4 numbers and (2) in normal times Loopup is cyclical driven in a large part by M&A activity (given its customer segments) and i think that M&A has begun to pickup in Q4 vs H1. Based on all of the above i expect a stronger H2 to give £65m revenues maybe profitability drags a little on revenue related costs but suffice to say single digit PE and maybe a small net cash position. I still can’t decide if a placing is being considered to fund growth inorganically (i assume cashflows can support organic) but i would be supportive as it would almost certainly be earnings accretive. Good weekend all.