Access Intelligence, known for its buy and build strategy around SaaS-based governance, risk and compliance, had a mixed first half ( see here) and proceeded to close the year (to November 30 2011) on a down note.
It has been a turbulent period, notable for the poor performance of its Cobent and MS2M acquisitions – the performance of both worsened compared to the previous year. So poor was Cobent (see Access Intelligence cuts loose Cobent vendors), that Access Intelligence launched a claim against it in September 2011 on the grounds that it breached the profitability terms of the purchase agreement. That resulted in the return to the group of almost 30m shares (worth £1.78m) that were issued as part of the original £1.8m purchase price. The refund does not make Cobent a good deal however. Management said the subsequent replacement of the team and re-focusing of the strategy cost the group £333k in exceptional re-organisation costs during the year on top of trading losses before tax of £311k. Given that background it is not surprising that group revenues for the year were flat at £7.2m, and loss after tax from continuing activities was £91k.
The group still needs to make the Cobent acquisition pay (in terms of delivering profits) but with a new management team in place the prospects must be better and it can focus on strategy and execution during 2012 with fewer distractions.