Access Intelligence shrugs off Cobent hit

7th Mar 2011 12:11

Compliance software firm Access Intelligence (AI) has done pretty much what it promised in December's trading update and, despite losing money in 2010, is "cautiously optimistic" about this year.A £520,000 pre-tax profit in 2009 turned to a £1.55m loss in the year ended 30 November, as a poor performance from Cobent, bought last year for £5.2m, resulted in a £2.6m goodwill impairment charge. Admin costs were up by £1.8m.Profit adjusted for goodwill impairment, acquisition costs, share based payments and compensation for loss of office jumped to £1.48m from £584,000. Revenue rose 38% to £7.97m.Procurement unit Due North opened 25 new accounts, despite a general slowdown in public sector decision making after the election. Sales set a new record as recurring revenues hit £105,000 a month.AI Media & Communications, a provider of software for in-house media relations departments, increased recurring revenues from £100,000 to £145,000 a month.Both divisions have experienced some price erosion and things are taking longer to get through due to government cost-cutting, executive chairman Michael Jackson told ShareCast, but they're providing more services - more "bang for the buck" - to keep business."Early indications suggest that the renewal rates for public sector licenses within AIMediaComms and Due North are promising," says AI. "These will run in parallel with a continuing push into the private sector for software sales and a gradual move to the provision of 'cloud' computing services for the group's support business."There were problems with training and compliance business Cobent, which chipped in a smaller than expected operating profit of £183,153. But Jackson isn't downcast. "I think it's still in a good space within a tightly regulated sector with strong barriers to entry," he said.Personnel changes are ongoing and the benefits should begin to feed through within the next three to six months, he said. An interesting little project is running at the incident and reputation management unit AIControlPoint, attracting the interest of airlines like easyJet and Thomas Cook, banks such as ING and Societe General, and oil and gas giant Petrofac."It's difficult to shout from the rooftops when the unit has recurring revenues of just £20,000," Jackson said. "But it's getting lost of referrals and is a pretty good solution."Analysts at Northland Capital Partners have trimmed revenue forecasts for 2011 by 10% to £9m and pre-tax profit by £0.5m to £1.3m, mostly due to Cobent.