Locations solutions company Ubisense was the first 'real' UK SITS IPO for over a year (see Ubisense gets off to fine start on AIM) but not the first to report its maiden interim results. That honour went to Smart Metering Systems which launched on AIM a few weeks after and reported yesterday (see Smart maiden interims for Smart Metering Systems). There are similarities between the two newbies in that both have a strong suit in asset management solutions; Ubisense with asset tracking in factories and the like, and SMS for gas meters in commercial and domestic premises.
But there was no similarity in profitability between the two players. While SMS nearly doubled (IFRS) operating margins to over 25%, Ubisense saw its adjusted operating margins lose two points to 3.7%, even excluding the £324k AIM admission costs (one of the very few ‘exceptional’ charges we recognise as truly one-off). Ubisense saw headline revenues increase by 41% yoy to £11.3m, but recorded a net £254k loss including IPO costs.
The ‘problem’ seems to be in the RTLS (Real-Time Location Systems) division, which generates 35% of Ubisense’s revenues but spends almost half of that on SG&A, leaving a small net loss even before IPO costs. The Geospatial division (the other 65% of revenues) enjoys an 18% adjusted operating margin, albeit down from 22% in H1 2010.
To be fair, we don’t understand the ‘innards’ of this company as yet so we’re only going by what the numbers tells us. Let’s hope they tell us something more encouraging at the end of the year. Mind you, investors seem happy. Ubisense’s shares closed yesterday at 201p, 12% up on its 180p placing price, though had reached as high as 238p shortly after the IPO.