If I didn’t know better I would say that today’s year-end trading update from online business services exchange blur Group was a veiled profit warning – though perhaps that’s a bit of an oxymoron for a company that has yet to make a profit.
Once you’ve got past the ‘onwards and upwards’ project metrics (and see Growth so fast it's all a blur) you get to the bit where CFO James Davis alludes to “sizeable projects in progress … (which) … have more complex delivery, timing and revenue recognition parameters.” Nonetheless, blur expects 2013 revenues to be ‘broadly in line’ with market expectations.
I do not question the business proposition of an online services exchange – what’s not to like? I do question, though, how much margin it could make (see blur and the “20% question”).