Trading update, Contract Wins & Notice of Results

PCI-PAL PLC (AIM: PCIP), the customer engagement specialist that secures and protects payment card data for companies handling payments by phone, is pleased to announce a trading update for the year ending 30 June 2018, an update on contracts and notice of its final results announcement.

Key highlights include:

• A year of significant development: new platform launched; US operation launched and scaled-up; revenues increasing year-on-year; with results expected to be broadly in line with expectations.
• Recurring revenues expected to have increased to over 75% of total turnover (2017: 65% of total turnover).
• More channel partner contracts signed in the period including Capita Pay 360 in Europe and a global agreement with NewVoiceMedia, and a major payment service provider and a leading cloud service provider in North America.
• Across both platforms, 48 contracts signed in the last twelve months with total RAV⁽¹⁾ of £0.624 m  of which 30 came from channel partners.
• 15 new contracts won on the new Amazon Web Services based platform since its launch in the year.
• 70% of new qualified sales opportunity enquiries now received at the year-end have been generated via our channel partners.
• Pipeline of qualified sales opportunities continues to grow across all our targeted regions and at £22.4m has more than doubled since 31 December 2017 (£10.5m).
• Continued investment in future growth as detailed in the interim results.  Global employee base increased from 36 at 31 December 2017 to 41 at the year end.
• Closing cash and cash equivalents balance at 30 June 2018 of £3.76m (30 June 2017: £1.96m)

⁽¹⁾ RAV = Estimated Recurring Annual Value of contract

Product development update:

At the end of October 2017, we announced that our second-generation, PCI-PAL Amazon Web Services based cloud platform ("PPAWS"), had been certified as PCI DSS Level 1 Compliant allowing us to launch the new platform to the market.

Since this date we have made good progress in introducing the service to our major target locations.   As at 30 June 2018 we have live and testing instances of the new platform in London, Virginia and Montreal. Since the launch we have signed 15 new contracts with a combined RAV of £0.29m.  Interest in the new platform continues to build. 

This second-generation platform is technically advanced and our partners and prospective customers have undertaken significant levels of load testing.  This level of testing was more than we originally anticipated and as a result of the additional testing, the first customers are now expected to take approximately six to eight months before their services go live.  It is only at go-live that we start recognising the monthly recurring income and any associated professional services fees. 

Sales and marketing update:

It is PCI Pal's stated objective to deliver its services in partnership with major vendors across the world.  The Board is very pleased with the progress that has been made. At the end of the last financial year PCI Pal was contracted with relatively few channel partners, the majority of whom were focused on the UK market.   During this financial year we have successfully negotiated new agreements with several important partners including Capita Pay 360 in Europe and a global agreement with NewVoiceMedia, and a major payment service provider and a leading cloud service provider in North America.  We will continue to focus on growing our global network into the future.

North America

The regional business was only opened on 1st July 2017 and fully launched in February this year.   Despite this relatively recent launch, we have signed and on-boarded a major payment gateway, which has already bought us two contracted customers.  We have also partnered with a major regional telco, which has verbally confirmed their first sale in Canada, and the business has signed its first customer with a global cloud contact centre provider.

In the financial year ending 30 June 2018, the North America division signed 5 new customers of which 60% were via our channel partners.

EMEA

The EMEA region is a more developed market than the North American market and our PCI Compliant services have been sold in to this region since 2012, to customers primarily located in the UK.

In line with our stated strategy, we continue to focus on developing our channel partnerships in Europe and we expect the numbers to continue to grow in the next financial year.   We are particularly pleased to have received confirmation from a major UK telco provider with operations across the globe that they wish to start selling our services to their clients during the next financial year.  

In the financial year ending 30 June 2018, the EMEA division signed 43 new contracts (2017: 20) of which 63% were via our channel partners.

Of particular note, the Company is pleased to announce two recent contracts wins in Europe.   This includes our first Nordic contract and a contract with a significant UK utility provider, with an aggregate RAV of £97,000 for a minimum three years.  The Nordic contract is with one of the region's railways which transports 47 million passengers annually and has revenues exceeding £660 million per annum.   The leading utilities provider is part of one of the UKs largest electricity groups.

Pipeline:

Our pipeline of qualified sales opportunities continues to grow across all our targeted regions and with the total contract values standing at £22.4m this has more than doubled since 31 December 2017 (£10.5m).  

Of particular interest is that we have reached terms for delivering a very significant contract, via a partner reseller, with a major contact centre in the UK for which we have already received a payment for Phase 1 of this complex and difficult project.   We have also agreed terms with a major European insurance company as well as received verbal confirmation from our first important Spanish customer. 

Commenting on the trading update and contract wins, William Catchpole, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"I am pleased with the progress that the business is making in what has been a very busy year.   

"We have formally opened our US operations and our team there has had a great start to developing our PCI compliant offering in that region, winning some prestigious partners during the period.  Having under-pinned the North American operation with a £3.9m fund raising in January 2018, I am confident that the region will continue to develop substantially for us over the coming years.

"We have formally launched our new platform and the interest in the market this launch has generated has been very pleasing. We are attracting potential partners of the highest calibre from around the world.

"Our stated strategy is to focus on the channel sales route to market, evolving away from our previous mainly direct sale route. I am pleased at how quickly this evolution is happening albeit that we are still learning the timelines of the contracting, testing and go-live process.

"Working with channel partners around the world will inevitably mean that 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. Despite the time taken in on-boarding our PCI compliant solution into our partners service offerings, it should mean we are looking at much shorter go live times and this advantage will bear fruit in due course. Hence, as the new business wins start to go live, we are confident, based on our sizeable and growing pipeline, that we will experience strong growth in revenues.   This gives us great confidence for the future.

"We will continue to invest in the stability and security of our global cloud platform to support multi-national brands. We remain confident in our strategy for the Group and in its delivery against our growth plans over the next few years.  We look forward with much excitement as the business starts to gain momentum and scale. "

Notice of Results:

PCI Pal expects to announce its final results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2018 in early September.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.

For further information, please contact:

About PCI Pal:

PCI Pal is a Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard ("PCI DSS") Level 1 certified supplier of contact centre payment solutions and services, with operations in Europe and North America, enabling organisations to take customer payments securely over the phone, and to de-risk their business from the threat of data loss and cybercrime. 

PCI Pal solutions have been procured by more than 70 organisations, many of which are global businesses in the retail, services, and utilities sectors, thereby ensuring they meet industry rules and regulations governing customer data protection.

To understand our core services better please view our video on https://www.pcipal.com/en/solutions/agent-assist/