Sopheon shares struggle on mixed results

AIM-listed enterprise software developer Sopheon (LON:SPE) has seen its shares drop by 2.72% to 895p (as of 15:45 BST) as revenues for the six months ended 30th June grew despite tough market conditions. Visible revenues for the current year are broadly flat with those for 2019, but client retention levels have fallen slightly and there was a small decline in H1 adjusted EBITDA.

Chairman Barry Mence commented: “Several of Sopheon’s vertical markets – food, beverage and consumables; chemicals; defense – continue to show resilience to the crisis. However, our customer base is not immune to the difficulties faced by the general markets. Like many others, we withdrew market guidance in May, and in view of the traditional fourth quarter weighting in our business, we believe this remains a prudent approach. Nevertheless, our solutions remain highly attractive to new and existing customers. This is evidenced by revenues slightly ahead of last year, and by continuing sales traction with a doubling of new customer booking value, including major commitments like our recently announced win at Mondelēz International. This also underlines that our SaaS transition is well underway. Visibility for full year 2020 is $25.5m, underpinned by ARR at $16.5m, net cash at $21.9m and a substantial, active sales pipeline – even in the toughest environment in decades, these positive metrics give us a solid platform from which to proceed with our strategy“.