Shearwater keeps head above water for the year
AIM-listed cyber security services firm Shearwater Group has issued a trading statement ahead of its full-year financial results that illustrates a second-half recovery.
For the year ending 31 March 2021, the firm says there was a “robust second half of trading”, and expects to report FY21 underlying EBITDA “in excess of ￡3.6m” (FY20: ￡3.4m) - “ahead of market expectations”.
After a very poor first half to the year, revenue of ￡31.8m “was delivered in the full year” (FY20: ￡33m). This reflects a “substantial increase in sales activity converted across the second half” and “strong margin improvement”, the company said.
H2 FY21 saw revenues up by 24% on the same period the previous year. Revenue was driven by new client wins and “several” high value contract renewals.
Cash collection also “exceeded expectations”, resulting in unaudited net cash balances of ￡7.3m as at 31 March 2021 (31 March 2020: ￡1.4m net debt), of which ￡1.3m will be applied towards the settlement of deferred government VAT payments relating to FY21 revenues.
The group says it “remains committed to making acquisitions in line with its 'buy, focus, grow strategy', and has an active pipeline of M&A opportunities".
Phil Higgins, Shearwater Group chief executive officer, said: “We have navigated Covid-19 challenges and continued to both renew contracts with existing customers and to secure new business to deliver underlying EBITDA ahead of market expectations.”
He added: “The majority of our businesses are reporting a solid increase in enquiries, quotations and consulting utilisation for Q1 of the new financial year, in comparison to the same period last year.”
The full audited results for the past year will be posted in July 2021.