Nektan reports strong B2B revenue growth for second half of 2019
Gibraltar-based firm returns to AIM after shares suspended for failing to publish annual accounts
Technology supplier Nektan has reported B2B revenue of £787,000 for the six months to 31 December – more than double the £311,000 generated for the same period a year earlier.
In a trading update issued this morning, the company also revealed it achieved B2B revenue of £225,000 for December 2019 alone, which was a 102.7% jump over the £111,000 racked up in the previous month.
Netktan put this growth down to the number of sites either entering beta phase or going live. At the end of 2019, the business had 28 sites live, which was a significant gain over the five live a year earlier.
A further six sites were launched in January 2020 that were in beta in December, while another 21 are slated to be up and running in the coming months.
The trading update follows a turbulent period of late Nektan, most notably AIM temporarily suspending the company’s shares earlier this month after the business failed to publish its annual accounts for 2019.
Shortly after, Nektan refocused on its higher-margin B2B arm by offloading its loss-making B2C business to Grace Media, which is part of Active Win Group, in a £200,000 all-cash deal.
Nektan anticipates that the sale of the B2C business to Grace Media, which became a B2B partner, will provide additional uplift to B2B revenues from January 2020 onwards.
Gary Shaw, interim CEO of Nektan following the departure of Lucy Buckley last August, said the restructuring represents “an important milestone” for the business and that these initial results support the decision to “focus solely on B2B opportunities”.
He added: “Trading for the six months to 31 December 2019 saw the group achieving more than double the revenues for the same period last year. The last few months have seen an intense period of activity culminating in now having 34 sites live.
“With the majority of these going live at the back-end of the calendar year, combined with a three-to-four-month ramp up period, we expect to report further significant revenue growth during the current quarter (Q3 2020) – early signs in January underpin this.”
As a result, Nektan anticipates monthly EBITDA break-even by the conclusion of this financial year.
The business also expects to be live in Latin America some time in Q3 2020 to support its presence in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Nektan’s shares jumped 42% in morning trading.