Mirriad Advertising warns on FY revenues, looks to wind down Chinese operations

22nd Jul 2022 08:01

(Sharecast News) - In-content advertising company Mirriad warned on Friday that full-year revenues were now expected to be flat year-on-year at approximately £2.0m, primarily due to "significantly weaker than expected" market conditions in China.

Mirriad said revenues had slumped from £1.31m to £557,000 in the six months ended 30 June, due to the seasonal nature of its key advertising markets and sales pipeline. However, it said higher revenues were expected in the second half of the year.

The AIM-listed group highlighted that revenues from its Chinese operations had tumbled 85% to £123,000, while US revenues grew 57% to £418,000 and now accounted for 72% of total revenues for the company.

Mirriad also said it had decided to make an "orderly wind down" of its Chinese operations by the end of its contract with Tencent in March 2023, delivering annualised cost savings of approximately £1.0m.

"Revenue is not currently where we would like it to be, but Company plans always assumed a significantly backloaded revenue profile and, factoring the elements outlined above, we anticipate H2 will show substantially higher revenues than H1," said Mirriad.

Closing cash at the end of June 2022 was £17.7m, down from £29.8m at the same time a year earlier, while year-end cash was projected to beat current market expectations due to cost savings and lower than budgeted bonus provisions.

As of 1025 BST, Mirriad shares had sunk 38.03% to 9.14p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com