Trading Update

RNS Number : 0973M

Corero Network Security PLC

19 January 2021

 

19 January 2021

Corero Network Security plc

("Corero" or the "Company")

Trading Update

Revenue ahead of market expectations

driven by record order intake

Corero Network Security plc (AIM: CNS), a leading provider of real-time, high-performance, automatic Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) cyber defense solutions , provides the following trading update for the year ended 31 December 2020.

The Company has continued to build on its record H1 2020 performance with increased momentum in order intake and revenue growth in H2 2020. As a result, management now expects the Company to report FY 2020 revenue ahead of market expectations, with order intake also reaching record levels. This strong performance has been driven by the continued success of Corero's differentiated, real-time, high-performance, automatic SmartWall DDoS defense solutions.

Order intake for the year ended 31 December 2020 is expected to be c.$20.9¹ million (2019: $13.0 million), an increase of c.61%. H2 2020 order intake was at record levels at c.$13.0 million (H2 2019: $8.0 million), up c.63%. Revenues associated with order intake are recognisable over the lifetime of each of the contracts.

Revenue for the year ended 31 December 2020 is expected to have increased by c.73% to c.$16.8 million (2019: $9.7 million). H2 2020 revenue was also a record high, at approximately $10.6 million (H2 2019: $5.5 million), up c.93%.

Annualised Recurring Revenues² ("ARR") increased in the year with ARR of $9.8 million as at 1 January 2021, driven by growth in DDoS Protection-as-a-Service ("DDPaaS") and software subscription orders (ARR at 1 January 2020: $7.2 million).

Corero added 42 new customers in 2020 (2019: 18 new customers), of which, 17 were acquired through Corero's strategic partnership with Juniper Networks (2019: 6 new Juniper customers).

Gross cash at bank as at 31 December 2020 was $10.1 million (H1 2020: $6.2m; 2019: $8.3 million) and borrowings were $2.5 million, including $0.6 million of a US Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP") loan (H1 2020: $2.9 million including PPP loan; 2019: $2.9 million of borrowings). Net cash as at 31 December 2020 was c.$7.6 million (H1 2020: $3.3 million; 2019: $5.4 million).

It is anticipated that EBITDA for the year ended 31 December 2020 will be in line with existing market expectations³.

An announcement regarding the date of publication of the Company's audited full year results will be made in due course. 

Lionel Chmilewsky, Corero's CEO, said:

"I am extremely pleased with our 2020 trading performance, having broken a number of Company records and exceeded revenue market guidance, all of which has been achieved against the ongoing unprecedented and uncertain economic backdrop. We continued to make excellent strategic progress in 2020:  we have expanded in many new countries in 2020 and now have our solutions deployed in 40 countries, won contracts with many more tier one and major customers and continued to successfully leverage our strategic and business partnerships such as those with Juniper and GTT."

"I would like to thank every individual across the business for their hard work in 2020 and the team's dedication to serving our customers and partners. I look forward to executing on Corero's exciting growth opportunities in 2021 and beyond."

¹   All numbers for the year ended 31 December 2020 disclosed within this announcement are unaudited.

² ARR is defined as the normalised annualised recurring revenues and includes recurring revenues from contract values of annual support, software subscription and from DDoS Protection-as-a-Service (DDPaaS) contracts. 

³ Market FY20 EBITDA expectation of -$1.5m.

Enquiries:

Corero Network Security plc
Lionel Chmilewsky, Chief Executive Officer Neil Pritchard, Group Finance Director		Tel: [phone]
Cenkos Securities plc		Tel: [phone]
Ben Jeynes - Corporate Finance Alex Pollen - Sales
Vigo Communications		Tel: [phone]
Jeremy Garcia / Antonia Pollock [e-mail]

About Corero Network Security

Corero Network Security plc, is a global leader in real-time, high-performance, automatic DDoS cyber defense solutions. Both Service and Hosting providers, alongside digital enterprises across the globe rely on Corero's award winning cybersecurity technology to eliminate the threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) to their digital environment through automatic attack detection and mitigation, coupled with network visibility, analytics and reporting. Corero's industry leading SmartWall and SecureWatch technology provides scalable protection capabilities against external DDoS attackers and internal DDoS botnets in the most complex edge and subscriber environments, while enabling a more cost-effective economic model than previously available. Corero's key operational centers located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA and Edinburgh, UK, with the Company's headquarters in Amersham, UK. The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market under the ticker CNS.  For more information, visit   www.corero.com

The information contained within this announcement was deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 prior to release of this announcement. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

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