LoopUp Group PLC (AIM:LOOP, OTC:LUPGF) told investors, in a trading update, that revenue and earnings for 2021 will be broadly in line with market expectations when it reports its full-year results.
Revenue and earnings are anticipated at £19.5mln and £900,000 respectively, and, the company said it ended the year with £5.5mln of cash and £2.5mln of debt.
Operationally, LoopUp’s focus has been on its Cloud Telephony solution which is integrated with Microsoft Teams – it enables users to make phone calls to external phone numbers and receive phone calls to their own work phone numbers – and allows cross border enterprises to consolidate their telephony provisions to one vendor.
In 2021, the new business unit landed 31 new direct contracts all of which were concentrated in the mid-large sized multinational enterprise market, LoopUp said.
"As we continue to manage our strategic transition, we are pleased with the 31 new customer wins achieved during our first full year of business in Cloud Telephony for Microsoft Teams,” LoopUp co-chief executives Steve Flavell and Michael Hughes said in a statement.
“The potential for a consolidated service provision layer above the telecommunications carriers to serve the multinational enterprise market is exciting, and we are well-positioned to build material shareholder value in this endeavour.”
This is testament to our differentiated technology platform and the tremendous hard work and innovation of our team."
Together the Cloud Telephony unit’s baseline minimum total contract value stood at £2.4mln, for initially committed and contracted rollout phases, and may rise to £8.6mln subject to geographic rollouts proceeding as expected.
LoopUp noted, however, that the lag from bookings to revenue is proving to be more pronounced than previously anticipated. It added that initial contractual term durations are typically for three years from the point that minimum contracted revenue starts to apply, and LoopUp expects customers to be very sticky once deployed.
All customer deployments have been successful, and all rollouts are progressing positively, the company highlighted.
The sales pipeline comprised some £72mln of potential annual contract value at the end of 2021, and 19% of that is said to be advanced to the written proposal stage or later.
Looking ahead, LoopUp said it expects its strong performance in Cloud Telephony to improve further, anticipating 50 new contract wins during 2022. It also said that its integration of SyncRTC, acquired in October 2021, is progressing well.
LoopUP said it expects 2022 revenue will be in the £15mln to £16mn range, due to the longer lag from bookings to revenue and, separately, the pressure on its remote meetings business.
The company added that it is managing its operations carefully during this period of strategic transition, in order to preserve cash and maintain EBITDA profitability in 2022, at a higher expected margin than in 2021.