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(Sharecast News) - Ingenta said in an update on Friday that it expects to report full-year 2024 revenue of 10.2m, down from 10.8m in the prior year, with EBITDA declining to 1.8m from 2.2m.
The AIM-traded company said it significantly improved its cash flow, however, generating 0.9m compared to 0.3m in 2023, ending the year with 3.6m in cash and no debt.
Its board intended to recommend a final dividend of 2.6p per share, maintaining the full-year dividend at 4.1p.
The firm said its focus during 2024 was on implementing projects using its new software platforms to counteract expected revenue declines from legacy services.
Delays in launching some of the projects meant that Ingenta was unable to fully offset the impact within the year.
In response, Ingenta said it was accelerating new business acquisition to mitigate further declines from legacy platforms and return to revenue and profit growth.
Since the start of 2025, Ingenta has secured four substantial contracts with a total value of 1.9m over two to five years, covering its Edify, IngentaConnect, and commercial platforms.
That, the board said, matched the amount of new business won in the first half of 2024, underpinning its confidence in returning to revenue growth this year.
To sustain growth beyond 2025, Ingenta said it would invest 0.5m in sales and marketing initiatives to build a larger and longer-term business pipeline.
As a result, EBITDA for 2025 was expected to be lower than in 2024 despite anticipated revenue growth.
Subject to trading conditions remaining stable, the company said it was planning to maintain its dividend at 4.1p per share for the year.
"I am pleased to report that we have won substantial new business in 2024, broadly based across all the group's current platform offerings, and it is disappointing that delays in implementing these new services due to customer-induced delays have resulted in this impacting on the overall results for the year," said chief executive officer Scott Winner.
"The rate of new business wins has accelerated since the year end with four new clients, and an aggregate of 1.9m contract values, already in 2025, which provides us with a firm foundation on which to invest further in our sales and marketing resources."
Winner said that, looking ahead to the longer term, the new investment would further reduce the firm's reliance on revenue and profit from legacy platforms, and aim to ensure that the transition of long-standing customers away from higher-value legacy products would be "more than offset" by increasing new business from its current and next generation offerings.
"Although this will impact on profits in 2025, it is an investment in the future which we expect to bear fruit in accelerating growth in future years."
At 0922 GMT, shares in Ingenta were down 7.04% at 66p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.