Pureprofile posts $0.7m loss as it explores what to do with its debt
Online survey and consumer profiling business Pureprofile has posted a loss of $700,000 in its unaudited results for the 2019 financial year.
In a note accompanying the results on the ASX, the company said its total debt is now $16.5m, after it increased its debt facility by $3m throughout the year, and took out an additional bridging loan of $2.6m as it attempts to lock in a new finance provider.
The company said to address these high levels of debt, it is “exploring capital restructuring initiatives and other strategic options”.
Throughout the financial year, the unaudited results show Pureprofile’s data and insights business generated revenue of $18.4m, up from $16.1m for the previous financial year.
The media arm of the business also climbed slightly, with revenue at $6.1m, compared to $5.9m for the 2018 financial year.
Revenue for the performance arm of the business, however, fell from $3.4m last financial year to $2.2m.
Thanks to “other revenues” of $600,000 – largely resulting from the sale of underperforming business units – total revenue for Pureprofile’s continuing business units was $27.3m, up 7% from $25.4m.
Gross profit was said to be $16.1m, up from $15m last financial year, with costs down slightly from $17.5m to $16.8m.
For Pureprofile’s continuing businesses, this left it with a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $0.7m, an improvement on last financial year when it was $2.5m in the red.
With the discontinuing businesses factored in, however, performance last financial year looked better. Revenue for these business units was down from $27m to $11.1m, with profit tumbling from $9.2m to $3.1m. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for these units in the 2018 financial year was $0.7m, but this financial year it clocked up a $0.6m loss.
The discontinued business units include the media trading business, Sparc, which was sold in October 2018, and the performance ANZ business, Cohort, which was sold in March.
The company’s CEO Nic Jones – who 18 months ago conceded it needed to do better at communicating what it actually does – said, once again, it had been a challenging period.
“This has been a challenging year, but we are happy with the performance and growth of our core business units,” he said in a note to the ASX. “Having sold the non-performing business, Pureprofile is a much stronger company.
“We are confident in the continuing success of our turnaround, and look forward to the year ahead.”
It does need to do do better.
User ID not verified.
I aim to please.
Thanks for flagging (and for reading all the way to paragraph 12!)
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Keeping it running on finance in the faint hope they get bailed out by a buyer. In the meantime having to pay off these hefty loan each month must suck at such high interest rates.
User ID not verified.
This reads like a business in a world of trouble.
User ID not verified.
The Board and its chairman needs to take some ownerships for those poor acquisition decisions!
User ID not verified.
They can count themselves very lucky to be collecting a nice pay packet each month while the company is running on the debt treadmill. One big client loss and they would be unable to pay their monthly bills.
They might be able to get out of the debt cycle (takes time) but once they have cleared those debts, they what? They don’t seem to offer anything innovative once you strip away the glossy branding.
I suspect they will continue to operate at a lower top line and perhaps be content with that. Delisting from the ASX seems inevitable.
User ID not verified.