Interim Results for the Six Months ended 31 December 2020 & details of Investor Presentation

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

PCI-PAL PLC (AIM: PCIP), the global cloud provider of secure payment solutions for business communications, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months to 31 December 2020.

Financial highlights for the period

• Revenue increased 56% year on year to £3.19 million (2019: £2.04 million)
• Gross margin improved to 73% (2019: 67%)
• Recurring revenues represent 86% of total revenue (2019: 85%)
• New contract annual recurring licence sales in the period (“ACV”) up 44% at £1.68 million (2019: £1.17 million)
• TACV¹ as of 31 December 2020 was £8.28 million (2019: £5.21 million) reflecting a 59% increase year on year
• Loss from operating activities in line with expectations at £2.15 million (2019: £2.28 million)
• Cash at period end of £4.23 million (30 June 2020: £4.30 million) with net cash being £2.11 million (30 June 2020: net cash £3.03 million)
• Deferred revenue of £6.36 million (2019: £4.00 million) at period end

¹ TACV is the total annual recurring revenue of all signed contracts, whether invoiced and included in deferred revenue or still to be deployed and/or not yet invoiced.

Operating highlights in the period

• Signed 93 new customer contracts, an 82% increase YoY (2019: 51)
• 74% of new contracts generated from channel partners (2019: 82%)
• 67 additional new customers live with services, a 123% increase YoY (2019: 30)
• Time to go live of new contracts from the date of signature to go live (“TTGL”) improved by 16% to 3.7 months for customers signed in the preceding 12 months (June 2020: 4.4 months)
• Net Promoter Score significantly ahead of global benchmarks at 163%
• New technology partnerships announced with Oracle and Calabrio
• New reseller partnership with major IT Services provider to US federal, state, and local government completed, resulting in first customer contract signed with a US state
• Signed and deployed a major new customer, a well-known international fashion retailer headquartered in North America. with more than 1,500 agents
• Announced formation of the PCI Pal Advisory Committee (“PAC”) and appointed first member, Neira Jones, a respected payments industry executive
• Won Data Security Solution Provider of the Year at the US-held Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards

Current trading

Highlights since 31 December 2020 include:

• Sales highlights:
  • New customer contract highlights in the US include a well-known global manufacturer of home fixtures and furnishings, as well as a contract to supply our Agent Assist solution through an integrated partner to a division of one of the largest insurance brokers in the world.
  • In EMEA, highlight sales include a number of new contracts with local authorities in England, including a large County Council, and a new reseller partnership with a major telecommunications company in Spain.
• Second largest customer in company’s history, contracted in the UK in H2 FY2020, now live with PCI Pal services across all contact centre locations.
• Successfully hosted our first virtual conference, “Payments: The future of security and CX” in February.  Keynote presentations and breakout sessions were given by Verizon, NICE inContact, 8x8, Oracle, Capita Pay 360, Civica, Calabrio & Talkdesk.
• As at the end of February 2021, cash has improved to £4.62 million and net cash, less the outstanding Group’s loan facility, was £2.69 million

Commenting on the results for the period, James Barham, Chief Executive Officer said:

“I am delighted with the continued progress and positive momentum being shown by the Group as we report on another strong period of growth and development.  The business has taken another substantial step forward with the increased number of contracts signed, expansion of our partner ecosystem, and positive outcomes across all of our key performance metrics.

“Our early adoption of cloud-only services, available globally, as well as our channel partner sales model have seen us benefit from the IT transformation occurring in the business communications market today, with more and more companies moving from on-premise technology to cloud services.

“This continued execution against our plans gives me confidence in the outlook for the Company as we remain on track to achieve our market forecasts for this current financial year. We are well positioned to continue the momentum we are building as we look to capitalise on the undoubted market opportunity for our technology.”

Analyst Briefing: 9.30 am today, Monday 8 March 2021

An online briefing for analysts will be hosted by James Barham, Chief Executive, and William Good, Chief Financial Officer, at 9.30 am today, Monday 8 March 2021, to review the results and prospects of the Company. Analysts wishing to attend should contact Walbrook PR on [email protected] or 020 7933 8780.

Investor Presentation: 10.00 am on Thursday 11 March 2021

The Directors will hold an investor presentation to cover the results and prospects at 10.00 am on Thursday 11 March 2021.

The presentation will be hosted through the digital platform Investor Meet Company. Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company and add to meet PCI-PAL PLC via the following link https://www.investormeetcompany.com/pci-pal-plc/register-investor. For those investors who have already registered and added to meet the Company, they will automatically be invited. 

Questions can be submitted pre-event to [email protected] or in real time during the presentation via the "Ask a Question" function. 

For further information, please contact:

About PCI Pal: 

PCI Pal is a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) solutions that empower companies to take payments from their customers securely, adhere to strict industry governance, and remove their business from the significant risks posed by non-compliance and data loss.  Our products secure payments and data in any business communications environment including voice, chat, social, email, and contact centre.  We are integrated to, and resold by, some of the worlds’ leading business communications vendors, as well as major payment service providers. 

The entirety of our product-base is available from our global cloud platform hosted in Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), with regional instances across EMEA, North America, and ANZ.  PCI Pal products can be used by any size organisation globally, and we are proud to work with some of the largest and most respected brands in the world.