25 January 2017

StatPro Group plc                

Year End trading update

StatPro Group plc, (AIM:SOG, "StatPro", "the Group"), the AIM listed provider of cloud-based portfolio analysis and asset pricing services for the global asset management industry, announces a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2016.

·      Group Annualised Recurring Revenue ("ARR") increased by 18% to £39.3 million (2015: £33.3 million*)

·      Forward order book of contracted revenue up 9% to £46.0 million (2015: £42.1 million*)

·      StatPro Revolution, the cloud-based portfolio analysis service, ARR increased by 68% to £15.0 million (2015: £8.9 million*)

·      StatPro Seven maintained resilience with a 2% net underlying cancellation rate (2015: 3%*)

·      Net debt was £10.1 million at 31 December 2016 (2015: net cash £1.3  million)

·      Non-cash impairment charge expected of approximately £10 million against goodwill associated with Canadian business, FRI, acquired in October 2006

* at constant currency 

Justin Wheatley, Group CEO, StatPro, commented: 

"We have had a good year with the Group's revenue and profitability remaining in line with our expectations. Notable highlights include two acquisitions, the launch of Revolution Performance in September 2016 and our best year yet for sales of StatPro Revolution.

"This success is undoubtedly due to our early investment in cloud technology, over eight years ago. The complexity and scale of the technology we have developed will be difficult to imitate. We are now firmly established as a leading innovator in the rapidly digitising asset management industry.   

"Looking ahead we have a strong forward order book of contracted revenue which is up 9% to £46.0 million."

Group

Trading is in line with the Board's expectations, with Group ARR increasing to £39.3 million.

The Group generated positive operating cash flow. At the year-end, net debt was £10.1 million (2015: net cash £1.3 million) after investment in acquisitions and a share buy-back in 2016. 

The businesses that were acquired in 2016 (Investor Analytics and 51% stake in Infovest) performed well and achieved incremental profits in line with expectations.

The forward order book of contracted revenue was up 9% at 31 December 2016 to £46.0 million (2015: £42.1 million*). 

StatPro Revolution

ARR for StatPro Revolution increased by 68% to £15.0 million (2015: £8.9 million*). The forward order book of contracted revenue for StatPro Revolution was up 28% at 31 December 2016 to £21.4 million (2015: £16.7 million*). 

StatPro Seven and Data

StatPro Seven's ARR was resilient with a 2% net cancellation rate at constant currency, excluding the impact of acquired revenue and conversions to StatPro Revolution (2015: 3%).

Data revenue performed well with a net increase in ARR during 2016 of 6% (2015: 1%*).

Update on other matters

Goodwill impairment review

As part of the annual goodwill impairment review process, StatPro has identified an exceptional impairment charge of approximately £10 million; this is subject to review and confirmation by the year-end audit process. Whilst goodwill is assessed against the business cash flows as one cash generating unit, this impairment charge relates to goodwill associated with the Group's acquisition of FRI, a Canadian business, acquired in October 2006.

This expected impairment charge reflects the strength of the Canadian dollar and also the Group's strategy of converting legacy revenue to cloud revenue. There will be no cash or tax impact of this charge.

Infovest

In February 2016, the Group acquired a 51% stake in InfoVest. The positive trading results for Infovest have resulted in an increase in the valuation of the business and as a result, there has been an increase in the value of the non-controlling interests' put option to approximately ZAR 42 million.

Combined with a stronger South African Rand v. GBP, this resulted in an increase in the provision by approximately £0.6 million (since June 2016) to £2.5 million. It is anticipated that this charge will be added back in determining the adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS figures in the Group's accounts for 2016. The valuation will be reviewed at the end of each trading period going forward.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (MAR).

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About StatPro

StatPro is a global provider of award winning portfolio analytics solutions for the investment community. The Group's cloud-based platform provides vital analysis of portfolio performance, attribution, risk and compliance. This multi-asset class analytics platform helps StatPro's clients increase assets under management, improve client service, meet tough regulations and reduce costs.

The Group's integrated and global data coverage includes over 3.2 million securities such as equities, bonds, mutual funds, FX rates, futures, options, OTCs, sector classifications and much else besides. StatPro also covers most families of benchmarks including MSCI, FTSE, Russell, NASDAQ and the open source Freedom Index.

StatPro has grown its Annualized Recurring Revenue from less than £1 million in 1999 to around £39 million at the end of December 2016. The Group has operations in Europe, North America, South Africa, Asia and Australia, with hundreds of clients in 38 countries around the world. Approximately 80% of recurring revenues are generated outside the UK. StatPro Group plc shares are listed on AIM.