cloudBuy revenues decline after strong investment in e-commerce

30th Mar 2015 13:48

E-commerce group cloudBuy saw a decline in full-year revenues due to significant investment in its technology and efforts to expand its international footprint.Revenues fell 29% to £2.12m due to an increase in market share in electronic formations, the group said. Furthermore, its loss before tax jumped to £4.6m from 0.94m, driving loss per share to rise from 1p to 4.1p.The group did not recommend the payment of a dividend as it is committed to build its business.However, it secured an extension to five years of its agreement with Visa. Thanks to the deal, Visa has introduced cloudBuy products to customers in 14 major banks.cloudBuy added it is focused in investing in the Asian Pacific market as it is the "biggest global opportunity" for business to business e-commerce.Executive chairman Ronald Duncan said: "2014 saw significant investment in both our technology and international expansion and we expect these to deliver a step change in our 2015 results as our signed contracts go live and start generating revenues."Entering 2014 our pipeline was, to a large extent, reliant on UK public sector and large procurement opportunities in Australia, which have proved to move slowly."cloudBuy announced last week it was awarded a contract to cover the Ajman free trade zone in the United Arab Emirates.The agreement is initially expected to be worth approximately £600,000 per year, but the company said it expected it to grow as the group seeks to increase its sales in the Middle East.Westhouse analysts gave a 'buy' recommendation as they said cloudBuy "sacrificed sales in 2014, as it invested in the infrastructure required to deliver on the substantial opportunities resulting from the enhanced tie-up with Visa".Shares fell 10.43% to 21.0p on Monday at 13:55.