Sopheon PLC (LON:SPE) shares fell on Wednesday as the tech firm said it has seen a number of contract opportunities pushed back from the fourth quarter into 2020.
Although December has historically been a busy month where the enterprise software specialist would expect to close a material number of deals, it said “we would caution that our ability to execute on this is dependent on customers signing orders consistent with their plans as communicated to us, without unexpected internal delays”, which seems reliant on the result of this week’s UK general election.
The group has visibility over US$28mln of revenue for the calendar year and said there was a further US$9.9mln of further “opportunities” that had been targeted before the end of the month, of which around a quarter represents license fees that could contribute to revenue in the current financial year.
Of the US$10mln opportunities that have shifted into next year, some customers have already selected Sopheon as a preferred vendor and are expected to sign in the first half of next year.
“We have not seen a reduction in the overall size of our pipeline, rather a shift in the timing of conversion,” the company said in a trading update, with the total forward pipeline “around 60% higher than at the end of 2018” with a third of it software-as-a-service (SaaS) related.
Chairman Barry Mence said that “as a disciplined business, we have continued to tune costs in line with revenue wherever possible, while mindful of maintaining drive behind our strategic priorities.”
Sopheon shares dropped 12% to 610p in early trade on Wednesday.