Accesso Technology Group PLC (AIM:ACSO, OTC:LOQPF) posted growth in revenue and profitability well ahead of pre-pandemic levels in the first half as visitors returned to theme parks and other attractions.
The technology provider said it expects the full-year 2022 to be in line with board expectations at the start of the year, excluding costs associated with a US$0.75mln acquisition of technology assets in the food & retail space.
Giving more details on this previously unannounced acquisition, the company said it snapped up the “significant intellectual property” that offers “extensive functional capabilities across food and retail sales operations”, of which some elements are used by top-tier venue operators including Disney, Universal, Sea World and Six Flags.
Accesso said the technology offers it a unique ability to provide venue operators with transactional support for both food & retail within the same system and it is working on a new food & retail product that “is anticipated to offer transactional and repeatable revenue potential beyond our historical customer target base as well as further product penetration within our existing customer base”.
Before that, the group had kept up the momentum from its record year in 2021, with revenue of US$63.7mln reported for the first six months of 2022, up 25.8%.
There was a 240% leap in statutory pre-tax profit to US$2.9mln and an 8.4% increase in cash EBITDA, the company’s favoured metric, which is a measure of operating profit that excludes amortisation, depreciation, acquisition costs, deferred and contingent consideration linked to continued employment, and costs related to share-based payments less capitalised development costs paid in cash.
Net cash ended the half at US$58.7mln, up 77% on a year ago.
“We are pleased to see visitor demand broadly back to pre-pandemic levels,” said chief executive Steve Brown.
“We are capturing this demand effectively because of our realigned strategy and operational structure, and we continue to deliver growth in revenue and profitability well ahead of pre-pandemic levels. I'm particularly pleased that our strong revenue performance is continuing to deliver good levels of profitability, with cash EBITDA for the period of US$10.6m compared to US$1.0m in 2019.”
He added that the board is particularly optimistic about the recent food & retail acquisition, which he said “will increase product penetration within the leisure sector as well as open up new opportunities across the broader hospitality sector in the mid-to-long term”.