Ahead of an official annual results announcement on 25 August, Melbourne, Australia-based SaaS collaboration technology provider Aconex has today reported its cash flows for its fourth quarter ended 30 June 2015 with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). In a supporting statement from CEO Leigh Jasper, the company also highlighted a record volume of new business, enterprise agreements with global contractors, and positive cash flow of Au$4.7 million.
“We ended FY15 with strong momentum in ANZ and internationally. Top-line performance in Q4 reached a new quarterly high, driven largely by infrastructure development across all regions. We signed enterprise agreements with Bechtel, John Holland, Lendlease, and other major global contractors, underscoring our strategy of increasing market penetration and expanding our global user network. Cash flow was positive and up significantly from Q3, demonstrating the inherent strength of our subscription-based business model. We’re entering FY16 in a very solid position – strategically, operationally and financially.”
The company is in a communications blackout until FY15 results have been made public.
Update (3 August 2015) – Shares in Aconex jumped almost 12% in ASX trading today (reports Motley Fool).
Update (13 August 2015) – Aconex last week announced that it had hired UBS, Macquarie Securities and Paterson Securities to oversee a share sale facility for Australian-based shareholders looking to reduce their stakes later this month. Aconex’s 2015 financial year results on August 25 will see 49m shares, worth about Au$215 million or 30% of the company’s shares on issue, and 1.6m vested options released from escrow, reported the Australian Financial Review. Aconex listed at Au$1.90 in December 2014 and closed at Au$4.40 on 6 August, increasing the company’s market capitalisation to Au$725 million from Au$312 million at listing.
3 comments
You posted the news on 17 June that Aconex increased its forecast revenue for the year from aud$76.5m to aud$79-$81m and was expecting to make a loss for the year.
Now the news a month and a bit later is that they made aud$4.7m positive cash flow for the last quarter.
Something does not seem to quite add up.
Why would a company like Aconex make such a large cash flow profit in only one quarter? At that rate they are making over aud$19m cash flow positive per year on only aud$79-81m revenue which is the usual profile of a very successful and profitable but slow growing business.
Do you think something has changed behind scenes in Aconex’s expansion plans and they are looking more at getting cash flow now than trying for fast expansion? Maybe their investors have been telling them they need to cut costs and get more profitable after all the losses they have made. Maybe this latest cash flow news is a sign Aconex has listened. Maybe the real reason the share price has been going up is that investors knew of the cost cutting and restraint needed to get cash flow positive and could see those dollar signs in the positive cash flow coming.
What is your view about what it all means? Do you think there’s a strategy shift behind this result?
Aconex gets a lot of its sales towards the end of a quarter. Just the way the sales process and the sales incentives work to get business closed by the end of the quarter. Don’t know about this last quarter but my guess is Aconex got a heap of new business over the line in the last 2 weeks which drove up the result. They announced the 3 big ones but there could have been 20 other smaller ones they didn’t announce also closed too in the last 2 weeks of quarter.
Definitely some big things happening at Aconex and am glad I hung on to my employee shares.
holy f___ Aconex has just bought out Incite and got Leightons as an Enterprise client too. You have no idea how big this is really. Incite was thorn in side in Australia and now Aconex will be making clearly higher prices there. Plus all the Leightons business everywhere. We’re jumping up and down at prospects for upside over next years of our unfortunately only small shareholding.