Aconex 2006 results

Having looked at the financial results of most of the major UK construction collaboration (extranet) vendors over the past few months (for example, Business Collaborator yesterday, StoreData earlier in the month), I realised that I hadn’t really examined Aconex in any detail.

Although active in the UK and a member of the NCCTP, Aconex is an Australia-based company and so submits its statutory accounts to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. One can therefore obtain reports via ASIC information broker partners. The latest set of accounts relates to the year ending 30 June 2006 and were submitted in November 2006; more recent figures will presumably become available later this year.

In 2005-2006, Aconex and the entities it controls had gross operating revenues of AU$11.7m (£4.875m) up a massive 205% from AU$3.8m (£1.6m) in the previous year. The revenues figure puts Aconex slightly ahead of UK-based BIW Technologies, who generated revenues of £4.66m in the year to 30 September 2006, but – in line with most other UK-based vendors (see UK vendor trends) – enjoyed much more sedate growth (Aconex said its increase in sales was achieved “through a heavy investment in foreign markets”).

Aconex’s pre-tax profit (EBITDA) was AU$1.32m (£0.55m), down from AU$2.1m (£0.9m) in 2005, while the order book at 30 June 2006 stood at AU$20.7m (£8.6m), which will be received over the next 2-5 years.

I looked for information about Aconex’s UK operation, and the company’s report helpfully gives a breakdown between its two primary geographical segments: Australia and UK. This shows UK revenues in 2005-2006 of AU$0.775m (£0.323m), but the segment is loss-making, losing AU$0.816m (£0.340m) during the year. In 2004-2005, UK revenues were AU$0.478m (£0.2m), losses were AU$0.736m (£0.307m); growth in the UK in 2006, therefore, was around 60%.