No recommendation
No news or research item is a personal recommendation to deal. Hargreaves Lansdown may not share ShareCast's (powered by Digital Look) views.
(Sharecast News) - Seeing Machines reported a significant reduction in operating expenses and a strengthened financial position in its half-year results on Thursday, positioning it to reach a cash flow break-even run rate in 2025.
The AIM-traded driver monitoring systems developer said annualised cost savings of around $12m were now in place following a strategic organisational review completed in March.
Revenue for the six months ended 31 December was broadly flat at $25.3m, but the company saw a marked improvement in profitability metrics, with gross profit up 32% year-on-year to $14m.
That, the board said, was driven by a stronger revenue mix and growth in high-margin royalty income from automotive production, which rose 51% to $6.3m.
OEM revenue increased 27% to $14.5m, while aftermarket revenue declined to $10.8m due to production delays in its Guardian Generation 3 product.
The firm said it ended the period with $39.6m in cash, up from $23.4m at the end of June, supported by a 26.2m ($32.8m) strategic investment from Mitsubishi Electric Mobility Corporation (MELMB).
MELMB had become the company's largest shareholder with a 19.9% stake.
Additionally, a referral agreement signed after the period ended with Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America was expected to accelerate sales of Guardian Generation 3 across the Americas.
Operational momentum continued, with 2.88 million cars now on the road using Seeing Machines' technology, nearly doubling from a year earlier.
A strategic collaboration with Valeo led to the acquisition of German software firm Asaphus Vision, bolstering the company's AI capabilities and European footprint.
Despite industry-wide volatility affecting the timing of some automotive royalty revenues, the company reaffirmed its outlook for the full year, expecting performance to align with consensus expectations.
Looking ahead, the board said it anticipated stronger second-half cash flows and revenue growth, supported by increasing regulatory demand for driver monitoring systems in Europe by 2026.
"Our teams continued to make strong operational progress over the period, underpinned by our best in class technology and strong financial position, despite a backdrop of global automotive industry volatility," said chief executive officer Paul McGlone.
"To ensure we are best placed to achieve our objectives in the current environment, we have taken fast and decisive action to reorganise the management structure, lower our cost base and enhance efficiency across our engineering and corporate functions.
"The company's strategy and value proposition remain unchanged, with a global road safety agenda that closely aligns with our technology."
McGlone said the company remained "laser focused" on execution and delivery - getting programmes successfully to production to support acceleration of high margin royalty revenue.
"We will continue to pursue opportunities driven by the compelling structural tailwinds across our key target markets of Asia, Europe, and the US, where we expect our transport customers to increase installations of driver and occupant monitoring system technology, driven by unavoidable road safety regulatory developments."
Separately, Seeing Machines announced that non-executive director Michael Brown had stepped down from the board following a reduction in Lombard Odier's shareholding below 10%.
The board said it did not intend to appoint a replacement, with its remaining non-executive directors now considered independent.
It said Stephane Vedie would join the people, culture and remuneration committee.
At 0947 GMT, shares in Seeing Machines were down 3.06% at 2.22p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.