BMIT Technologies plc - Full-Year Results
On 9 March 2021, BMIT Technologies plc (“BMIT”) published its Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2020.
Performance Overview
During 2020, BMIT registered a 6.9% increase in revenues to a record of just under €24 million (2019: €22.4 million). Despite the challenging operating environment due to COVID-19, the company managed to increase its business reflecting higher demand for cloud services, connectivity, Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) assistance as well as cyber-security. In this respect, BMIT also explained that the lower demand for on-premises support was offset by a range of new services which were rolled out to assist customers adjust to the COVID-19 realities. Furthermore, whilst many businesses delayed major expansion or investment decisions (which negatively impacted new demand for the company’s traditional data centre services), in the online gaming sector, a good number of operators continued to register stable or growing demand with positive ripple-on effects on BMIT.
Operating costs also increased and amounted to €16 million compared to €15.1 million in the 2019 financial year. Most of the additional expenditure reflected the overall growth in business as well as the greater shift towards a more holistic product/service portfolio to customers. Moreover, BMIT incurred a one-time impairment charge of €0.26 million relating to the unrecoverable capitalised costs in relation to the Zejtun data centre. In this respect, BMIT reiterated that all its major investments, including the Zejtun data centre development, are being re-evaluated from a strategic perspective as the company assesses the challenges and growth opportunities which will likely prevail once local and global economies recover post-COVID.
Despite the increase in costs, normalised EBITDA (i.e. excluding the one-time impairment charge) grew by 4.8% to €10.5 million (2019: €10 million) whilst normalised operating profit surged by almost 12% to €8.18 million. Moreover, the normalised operating profit margin improved to 34.1% from 32.6% in the 2019 financial year.
After taking into account a marginal finance cost of €0.29 million, BMIT reported a pre-tax profit of €7.63 million, representing a growth of 6.4% over the previous corresponding figure of €7.18 million. The tax charge for the year amounted to €2.89 million (2019: €2.73 million), thus leading to a net profit figure of €4.74 million (+6.6%) and translating into a return on average equity of just over 41%. The profit for the year is superior to the projected figure of €4.67 million at the time of the Initial Public Offering in late 2018.
The Statement of Financial Position shows a 10.8% increase in total assets to €25.6 million largely reflecting the acquisition of the Handaq data centre as well as the investment in a 15% equity stake in EBO Ltd. Total liabilities climbed by 18.2% to €13.9 million as BMIT took on new bank borrowings amounting to €3.6 million for the acquisition of the Handaq data centre. In aggregate, the company’s equity base expanded by a further 3.1% to €11.7 million compared to €11.3 million as at 31 December 2019.
Dividend
The Board of Directors of BMIT are recommending the payment of a net dividend of €5.95 million, representing a 35.5% increase over the dividend distributed in respect of the 2019 financial year. This translates into a net dividend of €0.02922 per share which, in turn, is almost 22% higher than the projected net dividend of €0.024 per share at the time of the Initial Public Offering. The dividend is payable on 28 May 2021 to all shareholders as at close of trading on 22 April 2021 subject to shareholders’ approval during the upcoming Annual General Meeting which is scheduled to be held remotely on 26 May 2021.
Outlook
In the commentary to the 2020 Annual Report, BMIT explained that despite the adverse operating environment, during 2020 it continued to achieve success as reflected in the overall growth in business as well as strong market leadership. Looking ahead for 2021, the company noted that depending on the extent and timing of the economic recovery, BMIT will continue to actively participate in local and international fora with a view of delivering further sustainable business growth and long-term returns to shareholders. BMIT also reiterated its ambition that market expansion beyond Malta remains a top priority and it is exploring and evaluating a number of options in this respect.