D4t4 Solutions PLC (AIM:D4T4, OTC:DFORF) saw its shares drop by nearly 17% to 172.50p in early trade on Monday after warning that its full-year results are expected to be lower than management expectations due to project delays.
In a trading update for the year to 31 March 2023, the AIM-listed data solutions provider said the delays in signing of a project with an existing banking customer, which included a high proportion of low-margin hardware, and a Celebrus multi-year contract with a new customer, means full-year revenues are expected to be in the region of approximately £21.5mln (FY22: £24.5mln), with adjusted profit before tax of approximately £3.5mln (FY22: profit £3.3mln).
The company added that revenue for its core business (ie. excluding third-party hardware sales) will be approximately £19.4mln (FY22: £17.5 mln) which represents growth of 11% compared with the prior year, and both delayed projects are expected to sign in the first half of the new financial year. D4t4 Solutions said it had a cash balance of £17.7mln as of 31 March 2023 (FY22: £11.4mln), with no debt.
In the trading update, Bill Bruno, CEO of D4t4 Solutions, commented: "Although the customer delays in closing the expected deals before our year end are frustrating, we are happy with the progress that we have made in growing our core business, focused on selling our Celebrus software in our key markets.
"We continue to build momentum with the new sales and marketing approach that has been put in place over the past year and look forward to a successful upcoming financial year for Celebrus."
The group will publish its full-year results on 11 July 2023.