Sopheon PLC AGM Notice and Update (9819M)
15 Maggio 2020 - 8:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMSPE
RNS Number : 9819M
Sopheon PLC
15 May 2020
SOPHEON PLC
("Sopheon" or the "Company")
AGM Notice and Update
Sopheon, the international provider of software, expertise, and
best practices for enterprise innovation management solutions , has
published its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") notice which is now
available on the Company's website, and will be posted to
registered Shareholders today. The AGM will be held at 11 am on 11
June 2020, at the Company's registered office. Given the
Coronavirus situation, Shareholders are not expected to attend the
meeting in person, and are encouraged to submit a proxy vote in
accordance with the instructions in the notice. Arrangements have
been made to ensure a quorum at the meeting. The Board takes this
opportunity to give shareholders the following update and review of
the business.
2019 in review
2019 benefited from the strong operational discipline in our
business that enabled us to deliver a profitable and cash
generative year, and despite a pause in revenue growth, we reported
closing net asset and cash positions at historic highs. Consistent
with our expectations, after a slow first half, momentum rebounded
sharply in the final quarter of last year, which was one of the
strongest on record for deal flow. Furthermore, we ended 2019 with
a substantially larger sales pipeline, up 50% year on year. While
we saw some signs of customer hesitation due to economic factors,
we did not attribute this as a key issue prior to the incidence of
the recent pandemic. Indeed, behind the headline financials, we
signed the same number of new customers (18) in 2019 as in the year
before. Today, our pipeline remains at a similar level to the year
end, and the proportion of software as a service ("SaaS")
opportunities in the pipeline also remains high, especially from
potential new customers. We first referred to this shift to SaaS in
our 2018 annual report, and since then transformation to a cloud
business has become a key internal driver of change. We have
revised our standard pricing models, service delivery models and
commission plans, and a longer-term migration of the software
platform is underway. Experience tells us that the full conversion
to SaaS will take several years.
COVID -19
The COVID-19 pandemic means that every organization is facing
new and immediate challenges and opportunities that require urgent,
strategic and effective responses. In terms of our own operations,
we took early action to ensure the health and safety of staff,
introducing an immediate work from home policy supported by
well-defined virtual working practices, and we also assured
continuity of business operations and cloud services through our
co-location and Azure based infrastructure. This has all gone
smoothly. For many of our customers, our Accolade solution offers
visibility and speed to decisions in such times of crisis. Further
to this point, during April we developed and launched an Accolade
software configuration, the Disruption Response Toolkit, to enable
our customers to rapidly develop their COVID-19 responses through
quick assessment, analysis and reprioritization of strategic
initiatives, and to implement changes to their supply chain or
revisit their product portfolio strategy. In addition, a
Microsoft(R) Teams Connector was announced which allows Accolade
users to initiate a Teams call, chat or group discussion, all from
within the Accolade platform. These offerings are being made
available to existing customers at limited charge. They are
designed to add value to their Accolade investment in a time of
crisis, and to raise the profile of our solution to extended use
cases to drive user growth.
Outlook
Clearly the market environment is tough, and though we are busy
with several deals and we are signing business, sales cycles are
extending. Projecting the impact that COVID-19 will have on
customer conversion makes forecasting the future challenging, and
we are therefore being prudent by withdrawing our market guidance
for FY 2020 and beyond. However, several vertical markets where
Sopheon operates - food, beverage and consumables; chemicals;
defense - are showing resilience to the crisis at present. In
addition, so far this year retention levels for ARR have remained
good, and as noted we are seeing orders restart from our existing
customers, as their own operations settle down. Visibility for the
full year 2020 now stands at $23.2m, which is above last year at
this time, underpinned by ARR at $15.9m. Net cash at the end of
April was $21.8m . A moderate rise in cash is normal at this time
of year, given our billing seasonality, but this clearly
demonstrates the robustness of the Company's balance sheet. We are
nevertheless taking some measures to limit expenditure, including
putting a temporary hold on the majority of our hiring plans for
the second quarter. All these factors give us the confidence to
proceed with our strategy under a range of disruption scenarios,
which we have stress tested in detail. In this respect we have also
concluded that we have sufficient strength and optimism to proceed
with our declared dividend of 3.25p per share, and this is proposed
to shareholders in the notice issued today, in line with the
timetable set out in the final results.
For further information contact:
Barry Mence, Chairman + 44 (0) 1276
Arif Karimjee, CFO Sopheon plc 919 560
Carl Holmes/Giles Rolls (corporate
finance)
Alice Lane / Sunila de Silva + 44 (0) 20 7220
(ECM) finnCap 0500
The information communicated in this announcement is inside
information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation
596/2014.
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 250 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 .
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END
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