Sopheon PLC Trading Update (0751B)

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RNS Number : 0751B

Sopheon PLC

28 January 2020

SOPHEON PLC

("Sopheon", the "Company" or the "Group")

TRADING UPDATE

Sopheon plc, the international provider of software, expertise, and best practices for Enterprise Innovation Management, is pleased to provide a further update on the Group's performance for the year ended 31 December 2019.

Following on from our trading update of 11 December 2019, the Board now expects to deliver reported revenues for the year ended 31 December 2019 of approximately $30m (2018: $34m) which is in line with market expectations(1) . EBITDA and pre-tax profits are also expected to be in line with market expectations(1) for the year. The year-end net cash position is expected to be $19.2m (2018: $16.7m) underlining the continued cash generative nature of the business.

The final quarter was one of the strongest on record, with revenues over $9m and with 23 license transactions signed, of which 11 were new customers. A number of these new orders were for SaaS (Software as a Service) licenses. Of the total 47 license transactions concluded in all of 2019, 18 were for new customers, matching 2018's strong performance in a key metric that shows underlying momentum and commercial traction. This activity gives us an opening order book of approximately $3m in services for 2020. In addition, we enter 2020 with a base of $15.9m in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) compared to $14.8m on entry to 2019. As we have noted in recent communications, our strategic direction is to increase the proportion of recurring revenue and this is reflected in a growing sales pipeline that shows rising levels of SaaS opportunities. An example of a SaaS opportunity closed at the end of 2019 is an initial order from Hain Celestial, a leading global organic and natural products company.

The Board is also delighted that Sopheon has won the best performing company slot in the enterprise software category of Megabuyte's Quoted25 awards, announced last week.

Financial expectations noted above are subject to the completion of year-end financial close and audit processes.

Sopheon intends to issue its results for the year ended 31 December 2019, on 19 March 2020.

For further information contact:

 
 Barry Mence (Chairman)                                 + 44 (0) 1276 919 
  Arif Karimjee (CFO)                    Sopheon plc     560 
 Carl Holmes / Giles Rolls (Corporate 
  Finance) 
  Alice Lane / Sunila de Silva                          + 44 (0) 20 7220 
  (ECM)                                  finnCap Ltd     0500 
 

About Sopheon. Sopheon (LSE: SPE) partners with customers to provide complete enterprise innovation management solutions including software, expertise, and best practices, that enable them to achieve exceptional long-term revenue growth and profitability. Sopheon's Accolade solution provides unique, fully-integrated coverage for the entire innovation management and new product development lifecycle, including strategic innovation planning, roadmapping, idea and concept development, process and project management, portfolio management and resource planning. Sopheon's solutions have been implemented by over 200 customers with over 60,000 users in over 50 countries. Sopheon is listed on AIM, operated by the London Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.sopheon.com.

(1) Market expectations mean the current forecasts from analysts that cover Sopheon, being at this time finnCap and Progressive. Links to these forecasts are available in the investor section of www.sopheon.com.

The information communicated in this announcement is inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.

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January 28, 2020 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)