First half results from Access Intelligence, the provider of SaaS solutions for corporate governance, risk and compliance, showed a positive EBITDA of £203,000 and an absence of exceptional re-organisation costs. Revenue was up by 6% to £4.2m in the six months, with faster growth, of 25%, to £5.5m of contracted revenue not yet invoiced. Gross margins improved by 6 percentage points. Spending on R&D and software development more than doubled year on year as the company endeavours to keep ahead in a number of competitive and dynamic segments. This provides the foundation for better growth in the second half.
Public sector business made progress with 13 new customers in the MediaComms business and with the Procurement solution “Due North” maintaining its position across several segments, despite longer lead times. The management is placing additional emphasis on Private sector business, with a targeted procurement solution having been developed, continued progress for AITrackRecord, the compliance product for the Financial Services industry and the AIControlPoint operation, selling incident management software into the Finance, oil and gas and aerospace industries.
Most notably in the results, however, is the absence of any further costs and problems from their training business, AITalent, created from the ill-starred acquisition of Cobent. (See: Expected Losses Confirmed).
After significant strife, the management can now focus on maintaining a competitive position (albeit in a broad range of markets) and delivering growth, particularly in the private sector and through its capability in SaaS. The company is entering a crucial stage of its development, and we believe that management is doing many of the right things to drive better performance. Over the next six months we shall see if they can execute.