Takeover target GBST Holdings Limited (ASX: GBT) will be on watch today after it released its full year results this morning.
For the 12 months ended June 30, the fintech company posted a 7% increase in total revenue and other income to $94.3 million, a 1% lift in Operating EBITDA before Strategic R&D, and a 103% jump in net profit after tax to $12.7 million.
What were the drivers on the result?
The company's managing director and chief executive officer, Robert DeDominicis, explained that the positive top line result was driven by both Licence revenue and Service revenue growth over the 12 months.
He said: "Revenue growth of 7% for the year was very pleasing. Licence Revenue growth was positive, growing 3% for the year (and 8% after adjusting for one-off licence fees). Service revenue was 11% higher than the corresponding period, reflecting the strong pipeline of major projects with clients."
The company's Operating EBITDA before Strategic R&D was up 1% on the prior corresponding period.
Mr DeDominicis advised: "The cost increase reflects that the transformation of our software incurs a duplication of infrastructure costs during the development phase; one-off costs to expedite and reduce risks of execution in our software transformation; an increase in short term incentives for staff; and the increased use of cloud hosting, replacing capital expenditure. The 2HFY19 experienced lower costs through a reduction in the labour force, a focus on utilisation and other measures to reduce our operating cost base."
However, he believes this has been worth it and notes that its Strategic R&D program has made significant progress this financial year.
How did its different segments perform?
The UK Wealth Management segment delivered revenue of $42.3 million and EBITDA of $18.4 million, up 6% and 11%, respectively. A key driver of this was increased product development work with Canada Life.
The Australia Wealth Management segment acted as a drag on its results. Although it posted a 13% lift in revenue to $17.4 million, it reported a 12% decline in EBITDA to $6.6 million. This reflected increased hosting expenditure and support costs for legislation updates such as the ATO Member Account Transaction Services changes.
The Australia Capital Markets segment saw its revenue rise 5% to $22.4 million and its EBITDA increased an impressive 24% to $11.8 million. This was largely due to cost reductions.
Finally, the Rest of the World Capital Markets segment grew revenue by 5% to $12 million but posted an 18% decline in operating EBITDA to $3.2 million. This was caused by higher client support costs.
