1Spatial, the self-styled ‘business technology and profit improvement specialist’ rather failed to take its own medicine, turning last year’s first-half £843k net profit into a £1.1m net loss (six months to 31st July).
You really need to read the background to savour the flavour of this disparately configured buy-and-build vehicle (start with 1Spatial not yet in orbit and work back), which has at its heart the eponymous spatial data management division – to my mind, the only bit that could actually be worth real money.
Today’s results release is replete with statements to astonish and astound. We rejoiced at learning that ‘the common focus for all companies within the Group is to provide end users of data with assurance over its quality and insight into its significance’ and I am sure you will too. We discovered new meaning for the word ‘exceptional’ in so far as ‘the cash flow from operations was an outflow for the period as a result of the exceptional one-off costs in the period mainly in respect of redundancies. There are further redundancy costs to be charged in the second half of the year.’ And we learned a quick way of reducing head office costs, which ‘should decrease in the second half as a result of the departure of former director Nicholas Snape in June 2012.’ There’s more but it would be a shame to deprive you of the pleasure of reading it first-hand.
Notwithstanding all of this, as I say, I do believe there’s an interesting business in there desperately trying to get out. Everything else is a distraction.