PCI-PAL PLC

('PCI Pal' or the 'Company')

Trading Update and Contract Awards

PCI Pal, the customer engagement specialist focused on secure payment solutions, announces that it has won a further major reseller contract and two new UK local Government contracts in November 2017, through its partnership with global cloud contact centre telephony provider, 8x8 Inc.  These wins conclude a strong month for the business, with a total of 7 customer contracts (4 of which originated through channel partners) being signed.

The major reseller contract is with a FTSE-250 company with operations across the payments, telephony, contact centre, and outsourcing markets, and was won through competitive tender.  The reseller will be utilising PCI Pal's Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform to deliver a cost effective, operationally efficient, secure payment solution to its customer base across the UK and Europe.

The current financial year has started well with recurring revenues showing a 50% growth year-on-year, with 100% client retention.  Overall revenues are also ahead for the year-to-date, including less non-recurring, one-off revenue, as the revenue model transitions to a complete software as a service (SaaS) license fee focus.  Set up fees and professional service charges will increasingly diminish in materiality as the business grows.  There is also a significant pipeline of contracted projects still to go-live, which will generate further recurring revenue in due course; and new enquiries are continuing to increase as the business scales up its marketing activities.

William Catchpole, Chief Executive of PCI Pal, commented:

"The continued success of the business in winning key channel partners, coupled with the recent announcement of full PCI compliant status for its globally accessible AWS offering, provides PCI Pal with a strong platform from which to continue to grow and access volume customer prospects through key channel partner relationships.  The cloud based AWS offering gives PCI Pal the capability to provide secure payment solutions that complement contact centre environments anywhere in the world.

"I am extremely pleased with how the current financial year has started.   The level of global enquiries we are receiving more than vindicates our strategy of focusing entirely on our PCI compliant contact centre payment solutions.  As with any channel sales route to market, revenue momentum may take time to build, but once established we believe we will have access to a far greater market opportunity than that available from direct sales alone.

"The level of enquiries looks set to accelerate demand for our services faster than anticipated and the Company is evaluating the resourcing levels that may be required to take full advantage of the commercial opportunities in a nascent but fast-growing international market."

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This announcement is released by PCI-PAL PLC and contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 ("MAR"), encompassing information relating to contract awards.  The inside information is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

For the purposes of MAR and Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1055, this announcement is being made on behalf of the Company by William Catchpole, Chief Executive, and William Good, Chief Financial Officer.

About PCI-PAL PLC:

PCI Pal is a Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard Level 1 certified supplier of contact centre payment solutions and services enabling organisations to take customer payments securely, to store customer data safely, in particular credit card data, and to de-risk their business from the threat of data loss and cybercrime. 

PCI Pal solutions are currently used in more than 70 organisations, many of which are global businesses in the retail, services, and utilities sectors, utilising PCI Pal technology to ensure they meet industry rules and regulations governing customer data protection.

In May 2018, the new General Data Protection Regulations come into force across the EU. Material data breaches can now lead to fines of up to 4% of an offending organisation's worldwide turnover.   This, together with the PCI regulations, means that all organisations who take contact centre payments need to carefully monitor and control their PCI and data compliance.

The shares of PCI-PAL PLC and its predecessor have been admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange since September 2000.