Interim results for the period ended 30 June 2021

RNS Number : 4330N

LoopUp Group PLC

29 September 2021

 

29 September 2021

LOOPUP GROUP PLC
("LoopUp" or the "Group")

Interim results for the period ended 30 June 2021

Strong commercial traction in strategic transition

LoopUp Group plc (AIM: LOOP), the cloud platform for premium specialist communications, announces its unaudited interim results for the period ended 30 June 2021.

Highlights:

·		Financial performance versus H1 2020 impacted by: the major H1 2020 spike in business demand at onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; and a shift in the competitive market environment away from remote meetings solutions to more holistic Unified Communications (UC) platforms:
	-		Revenue of £11.5 million (H1 2020: £31.9 million) at a gross margin of 67% (H1 2020: 71%)
	-		Adjusted EBITDA1 of £1.2 million (H1 2020: £12.2 million) and adjusted operating loss2 of £2.4 million (H1 2020: £9.2 million profit)
	-		Gross cash of £5.0 million and net debt of £6.9 million at 30 June 2021 (30 June 2020: £8.3 million and £5.3 million), prior to the receipt of a net R&D/VAT tax credit of £1.0 million in July 2021
·		Continued execution on the Group's strategy to transition from its traditional base of remote meetings services into a broader cloud platform for specialist communications
·		Material increase in Cloud Telephony customer wins from a standing start commercially in Q3 2020
	-		3 wins in Q1 2021 and 12 wins in Q2 2021
	-		Collective Total Contract Value of £1.7 million (minimum for initially committed deployment phases) to c.£5.1 million (expected potential of intended rollouts)
·		Pipeline of new Cloud Telephony opportunities at the end of H1 2021: Annual Contract Value (ACV) of £58 million, with 17% of pipeline value at a relatively advanced stage (versus 7% at the end of March 2021)
·		Growing number of negotiations with major potential strategic alliance partners for indirect distribution of the Group's Cloud Telephony solution, certain of which have reached advanced stages
Post period highlights:
·		Today, the Group announces:
	-		the acquisition of SyncRTC Inc., a hybrid collaboration software-as-a-service technology company for US$4.50 million (£3.26 million)
	-		its intention to carry out a capital raising of at least £7 million by way of an accelerated bookbuild placing together with a retail subscription offer to be conducted by PrimaryBid
·		Awarded Microsoft's 'Calling for Microsoft Teams Advanced Specialization', the top step in partner competency above and beyond gold level

1.	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, excluding share-based payments charges
2.	Adjusted to exclude amortisation of acquired intangibles and share-based payment charges

Steve Flavell and Michael Hughes, co-CEOs of LoopUp, commented:

"The first half of the year has confirmed the strategic sense and value potential of the Group's transition to a broader, more valuable cloud platform of specialist communications capabilities. Our commercial traction in Cloud Telephony - both direct and indirect - demonstrates that our internationally-differentiated implementation of Microsoft Teams Calling is resonating with customers and partners.

We are also excited to announce the acquisition of SyncRTC today and believe that their premium hybrid communications technology is primed for material commercial growth in the post-pandemic world. SyncRTC brings meaningful differentiation to LoopUp's Collaboration and Managed Events lines of business by taking both into hybrid as well as purely virtual implementations.

We warmly welcome the SyncRTC team into the Group and thank our existing team for their tremendous work this half as we continue to execute on our strategic transition."

Market abuse regulation:

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR").

LoopUp Group plc	via FTI
Steve Flavell, co-CEO
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited	[phone]
Dominic Morley / Alina Vaskina (Corporate Finance)
Erik Anderson (Corporate Broking)
FTI Consulting, LLP	[phone]
Matt Dixon / Jamille Smith / Tom Blundell

About LoopUp Group plc:

LoopUp (LSE AIM: LOOP) is a cloud platform for premium specialist communications. Our platform comprises three strategic rings: Cloud Telephony, Collaboration, and Managed Events, focusing on specialist capabilities that complement foundational unified communications platforms, such as Microsoft Teams. The Group's flagship Microsoft Teams Calling solution enables customers to eliminate disparate on-premises phone systems and multiple telecommunications service providers, and consolidate their global telecommunications into a single cloud implementation. LoopUp's global IP backbone interconnects with 18 carefully selected regional carrier partners and the Group has market-leading coverage as a licensed telecommunications service provider. The Group is headquartered in London, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Milton Keynes, Madrid, Berlin, Malmo, Hong Kong, Barbados and Australia, and is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (LOOP). For further information, please visit: www.loopup.com.

Chief Executive Officers' Business Review

The Group has made strong strategic progress during the first half of 2021, as we have continued to execute on our strategy to transition the business and expand our technology from its traditional base of remote meetings services into a broader cloud platform for specialist communications.

The first half of 2020 is a tough comparator for 2021 financial performance, as the Group benefited from a major spike in business demand at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (March to June 2020). Furthermore, in the period since H1 2020, the remote meetings market has undergone a material shift in competitive landscape, with companies increasingly replacing standalone remote meetings solutions with more holistic Unified Communications (UC) platforms, which include capabilities such as teams-based chat, internal audio and video calls, meetings, file sharing and cloud telephony. Consequently, the Group has seen an increase in customer churn in its legacy remote meetings business, particularly to Microsoft Teams.

However, the Group's remote meetings line of business remains highly cash generative (expected to be c.£5-6 million during FY 2021), and we are leveraging this to invest in our cloud platform for specialist communications, and in particular, our internationally differentiated Cloud Telephony solution.

Cloud Telephony: 15 enterprise wins

In Q3 2020, the Group announced the launch of its internationally-differentiated Cloud Telephony solution, initially as an integration with Microsoft Teams via 'Direct Routing' peering with Microsoft. This capability enables customers to make phone calls to external phone numbers and receive phone calls to their own work phone numbers, all directly from their Microsoft Teams user interfaces.

Commercial traction:

During H1 2021, the Group has:

·	won 15 direct customers - 3 during Q1 2021 and 12 during Q2 2021 - with a collective Total Contract Value ("TCV") ranging from a minimum of £1.7 million for initially committed deployment phases to an expected c.£5.1 million should rollouts proceed as intended; and
·	built a strong direct sales pipeline of new customer opportunities with ACV of c.£58 million, approximately 17% of which are at a relatively late stage (written proposal or later).

The Group has also developed a strong pipeline of indirect sales channels, with a growing number of strategic alliance negotiations in progress with major Microsoft partners, systems integrators and carriers. LoopUp's value proposition is compelling in that it enables these organisations to work with a single platform partner globally to serve their international customer bases, rather than multiple, country-specific or regional carriers.

Negotiations with several of these potential go-to-market partners are now at advanced stages, and the Group believes that such alliances present a highly scalable and valuable additional route to market in Cloud Telephony.

Customer value proposition:

The Directors believe that the Group is achieving these levels of commercial success and traction due to a highly compelling customer proposition on three levels: 1) the growth of the Cloud Telephony market as a whole; 2) the progressive prominence of the Microsoft Teams Calling sector within that market; and 3) the particular differentiation of LoopUp's Microsoft Teams Calling solution over its competition:

·	Growing market - Cloud Telephony:

The Cloud Telephony market is forecast to grow at 13% per annum from $16 billion in 2020 to $26 billion by 2024¹. Cloud Telephony integrated with UC platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, is the fastest growing market sector, forecast to grow to $12 billion by 2024³.

·	Prominent subsector - Microsoft Teams Calling:

Microsoft Teams is a prominent UC platform whose monthly active user count has grown rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic to 250 million². The integration of an enterprise's telephony into Microsoft Teams is a compelling proposition as it: (a) delivers a unified user experience in Teams for all communications; and (b) enables enterprises to eliminate legacy on-premises telephony equipment (e.g. PBXs) and the associated maintenance and administration costs.

There are two integration methods supported by Microsoft: (1) 'Direct Routing', whereby telephony providers (e.g. LoopUp) interconnect with Microsoft via cloud-to-cloud peering using Microsoft-approved SBCs and protocols; and (2) Microsoft's own 'Calling Plans'.

Direct Routing is generally aimed at larger companies as it provides for a greater degree of implementation configurability, geographic service coverage, flexible (lower) pricing, and support. Gartner expects that, by 2022, 90% of the larger company market that moves to Microsoft Teams Calling will do so via Direct Routing rather than via Microsoft Calling plans³. Microsoft currently has approximately 124 customers with more than 100,000 Teams users and 3,000 customers with more than 10,000 Teams users.

·	Solution differentiation - LoopUp:

LoopUp's solution is an internationally differentiated Direct Routing implementation, targeted at the upper mid-market and enterprise segments of the market. The solution is differentiated over other telephony providers and carriers for this target market in that LoopUp:

-	expects to be a fully licensed and regulated telecommunications provider in c.60 countries by Q1 2022, including certain challenging jurisdictions such as China and India;
-	has built a premium voice platform over the last 15 years (originally for the purpose of high-quality conference calling for the international professional services market), which comprises a private redundant IP backbone between seven global data centres, which in turn interconnect with 18 carefully-selected tier-1 carrier partners for highest quality routing;
-	brings deep, multilingual Microsoft voice expertise to assist its enterprise customers with solution design, configuration and rollout project management across complex global deployments. The Group has recently been awarded the 'Calling for Microsoft Teams Advanced Specialization' by Microsoft, which represents the top competency tier above and beyond Microsoft's gold level;
-	has developed a global management and administration portal for its enterprise customers, enabling differentiated visibility and management of phone numbers, users and usage/spend analysis on a global level; and
-	has introduced differentiated 'PerfectBundleTM' pricing that enables multinational customers to pool their committed spend across their international billing entities (rather than just within any given billing entity), as well as including international calling within those pooled bundles.

Acquisition of SyncRTC

Today, the Group announces the proposed acquisition of SyncRTC Inc., a hybrid collaboration software-as-a-service technology company, at an enterprise value of US$4.50 million (£3.26 million) , to be satisfied as to US$2.76 million (£2.00 million) in LoopUp equity and US$0.35 million (£0.25 million) in cash. In addition, the Group will assume US$1.39 million (£1.0 million)  in SyncRTC net cash indebtedness, approximately £0.3 million of which the Group intends to clear with cash, and approximately £0.7 million of which the Group intends to retain as debt. Completion of the acquisition is expected on or around 1 October 2021.

The Group has a longstanding relationship with SyncRTC's founder and CEO, Victor Sanchez, since SyncRTC was founded in 2013, and Victor Sanchez will become the Group's Chief Technology Officer. In the 12 months ended 31 December 2020, SyncRTC reported revenue of US$2.06 million (£1.51 million). While marginally loss-making over that period with LBITDA of US$0.49 million (£0.36 million) and loss before tax of US$0.75 million (£0.55 million), the Group expects a material proportion of SyncRTC's cost base to qualify for R&D tax credits, and on this basis SyncRTC would be cashflow positive for the Group.

Founded in 2013, SyncRTC has designed its 'mashme.io' platform and associated 'Room of the Future' solution to create a premium hybrid experience for large-scale education and corporate training implementations. The company currently has 24 staff (mostly technical and currently just one sales person) and has built a customer base of approximately 30 education and corporate training customers, including Said Business School at the University of Oxford, NYU Stern School of Business, Colorado State University, Saudi Aramco and Grupo Santander.

Hybrid working is expected to become highly prevalent in the post pandemic workplace, and the Group believes that the opportunities for SyncRTC's technology will multiply in the post pandemic digital workplace. The Group plans to continue to target new business in higher education and increase investment into targeting new business in both corporate training and hybrid events, leveraging cross-selling opportunities with its existing enterprise customer base.

Proposed Capital Raising

Also today, the Group announces its intention raise a minimum of £7 million by way of an institutional placing and retail offer via PrimaryBid.

Together with the Group's effective gross cash position of £6.0 million at 30 June 2021 (£5.0 million as per the Group's interim results plus a net R&D/VAT tax credit of £1.0 million received in July 2021), the net proceeds of this fundraise are expected to provide the Group total gross cash of at least £12.5 million (after associated fees), which the Group intends to utilise broadly as follows:

·	c.£3.25 million additional investment in Cloud Telephony, above and beyond the existing reinvestment into this line of business out of cash generated from the Group's legacy remote meetings business (expected to be £5-6 million in FY 2021);
·	c.£0.55 million for the cash component of the acquisition of SyncRTC and £1.7 million for the commercial expansion of its solution and technology;
·	c.£3.5 million debt pre-payment to Bank of Ireland (leaving c.£8.4 million gross debt outstanding thereafter with Bank of Ireland); and
·	c.£3.5 million to cover the Group's ongoing working capital requirements (in addition to an undrawn £1.5 million revolving credit facility with Bank of Ireland).

1.	Source: Wainhouse Research (July 2020)
2.	Source: Microsoft (July 2021)
3.	Source: Gartner (Mar 2020)

Outlook

The intended fundraising, combined with the Group's existing gross cash and cash generation from legacy remote meetings, will give the Group the investment power and strong balance sheet it needs to take its primary Cloud Telephony business to the next stage of growth. The Group's solution is materially differentiated in the fastest growing segment of a large, growing market, and we are excited about the future growth prospects.

Steve Flavell  Michael Hughes

co-CEO  co-CEO

Unaudited consolidated statement of comprehensive income for the six months to 30 June 2021

£'000		Six months to 30 June 2021	Six months to  30 June 2020	Year to  31 December 2020
Revenue		11,500	31,897	50,230
Cost of sales		(3,793)	(9,133)	(14,632)
Gross profit		7,707	22,764	35,598
Adjusted operating expenses (1)		(6,515)	(10,587)	(20,270)
Adjusted EBITDA (2)		1,192	12,177	15,328
Depreciation		(845)	(828)	(1,698)
Amortisation of development costs		(2,769)	(2,164)	(4,581)
Adjusted operating profit / (loss)(3)		(2,422)	9,185	9,049
Exceptional reorganisation costs		(407)	-	-
Amortisation of acquired intangibles		(1,105)	(1,105)	(2,210)
Share-based payment charges		(300)	(298)	(575)
Total administrative expenses		(11,941)	(15,252)	(29,334)
Operating profit / (loss)		(4,234)	7,782	6,264
Finance costs		(204)	(299)	(568)
Profit / (loss) before income tax		(4,438)	7,483	5,696
Income tax		(83)	(490)	826
Profit / (loss) for the period		(4,521)	6,993	6,522
Other comprehensive income and loss
Currency translation gain / (loss)		(190)	70	(140)
Total comprehensive income / (loss) for the period attributable to the equity holders of the parent		(4,711)	7,063	6,382
Earnings / (loss) per share (pence) - Note 4
-  Basic adjusted (4)		(4.9)	15.1	16.8
-  Basic		(8.2)	12.7	11.8
-  Diluted adjusted (4)		(4.9)	13.9	15.4
-  Diluted		(8.2)	11.6	10.8

1.	Total administrative expenses excluding depreciation, amortisation of development costs and acquired intangibles, exceptional reorganisation costs and share-based payment charges.
2.	Adjusted EBITDA is operating profit stated before depreciation, amortisation of development costs and acquired intangibles, exceptional reorganisation costs and share-based payment charges.
3.	Adjusted operating profit is operating profit stated before amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional reorganisation costs and share-based payment charges.
4.	Basic adjusted and diluted adjusted earnings per share are calculated using profit before tax adjusted for exceptional reorganisation costs.

Unaudited consolidated statement of financial position at 30 June 2021

£'000		30 June 2021	30 June 2020	31 December 2020
Assets
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment		2,504	2,748	2,663
Right of use assets		1,849	2,785	2,347
Intangible assets:
-  Development costs		11,577	10,164	11,389
-  Other intangible assets		26,341	28,544	27,446
-  Goodwill		31,511	30,951	31,511
Total non-current assets		73,782	75,192	75,356
Current assets
Trade and other receivables		4,200	15,239	6,744
Cash and cash equivalents		5,019	8,281	12,086
Current tax		1,567	1,486	1,647
Total current assets		10,786	25,006	20,477
Total assets		84,568	100,198	95,833
Liabilities
Trade and other payables		(2,645)	(7,671)	(6,364)
Accruals and deferred income		(1,818)	(4,897)	(3,605)
Lease liabilities		(724)	(862)	(747)
Borrowings		(1,700)	(1,700)	(1,700)
Total current liabilities		(6,887)	(15,130)	(12,416)
Net current assets		3,899	9,876	8,061
Non-current liabilities
Borrowings		(10,200)	(11,900)	(11,050)
Lease liabilities		(1,125)	(1,923)	(1,600)
Deferred tax liability		(5,581)	(5,709)	(5,581)
Total non-current liabilities		(16,906)	(19,532)	(18,231)
Total liabilities		(23,793)	(34,662)	(30,647)
Net assets		60,775	65,536	65,186
Equity
Share capital		277	277	277
Share premium		60,677	60,623	60,677
Other reserve		12,691	12,691	12,691
Foreign currency translation reserve		(2,662)	(2,262)	(2,472)
Share based payment reserve		1,654	1,077	1,354
Retained loss		(11,862)	(6,870)	(7,341)
Shareholders' funds attributable to equity owners of parent		60,775	65,536	65,186

Unaudited consolidated statement of changes in equity at 30 June 2021

£'000£	Share capital	Share premium	Other reserve	Foreign currency translation reserve	Share based payment reserve	Retained loss	Shareholders' funds / (deficit) attributable to equity owners of parent
£000
Balance at 1 January 2020	276	60,588	12,691	(2,332)	779	(13,863)	58,139
Profit and total comprehensive income / (loss)	-	-	-	70	-	6,993	7,063
Equity share-based payment compensation	-	-	-	-	298	-	298
Proceeds from share issues	1	35	-	-	-	-	36
Balance at 30 June 2020	277	60,623	12,691	(2,262)	1,077	(6,870)	65,536
Profit and total comprehensive income / (loss)	-	-	-	(210)	-	(471)	(681)
Equity share-based payment compensation	-	-	-	-	277	-	277
Proceeds from share issues	-	54	-	-	-	-	54
Balance at 31 December 2020	277	60,677	12,691	(2,472)	1,354	(7,341)	65,186
Profit and total comprehensive income / (loss)	-	-	-	(190)	-	(4,521)	(4,711)
Equity share-based payment compensation	-	-	-	-	300	-	300
Balance at 30 June 2021	277	60,677	12,691	(2,662)	1,654	(11,862)	60,775

Unaudited consolidated statement of cash flows for the six months to 30 June 2021

£'000	Six months to 30 June 2021	Six months to  30 June 2020	Year to  31 December 2020
Operating activities
Profit / (loss) before tax	(4,438)	7,483	5,696
Non-cash adjustments:
Depreciation and amortisation	4,625	4,094	8,490
Share based payment charge	300	298	575
Interest payable	204	299	568
Working capital adjustments:
(Increase) / decrease in trade and other  receivables	2,544	(5,841)	1,997
Increase / (decrease) in trade and other payables	(5,464)	4,177	1,370
Net income tax received / (paid)	(45)	(124)	1,200
Cash generated from operations	(2,274)	10,386	19,896
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of property, plant and equipment	(218)	(397)	(757)
Development expenditure	(2,957)	(3,224)	(6,866)
Net cash used in investing activities	(3,175)	(3,621)	(7,623)
Cash flows from financing activities
Proceeds from share issues	-	35	90
Repayment of loans	(850)	(850)	(1,700)
Payments for leased assets	(374)	(440)	(881)
Interest and finance fees paid	(204)	(299)	(568)
Net cash used in financing activities	(1,428)	(1,554)	(3,059)
Net increase / (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents	(6,877)	5,211	9,214
Cash and cash equivalents brought forward	12,086	3,000	3,000
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes	(190)	70	(128)
Cash and cash equivalents carried forward	5,019	8,281	12,086

Notes to the financial information for the six months ended 30 June 2021

1. General information

LoopUp Group plc (AIM: "LOOP", "LoopUp Group", or the "Group") is a global provider of cloud communication software and services.  It is a public limited company incorporated and domiciled in England and Wales, with company number 09980752.  Its registered office is The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JJ.

2. Basis of preparation and significant accounting policies

These consolidated interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with those IFRS standards and IFRIC interpretations issued and effective or issued and early adopted as at the time of preparing these statements (September 2021). This results announcement does not constitute statutory accounts of the Group within the meaning of sections 434(3) and 435(3) of the Companies Act 2006. The balance sheet at 31 December 2020 has been derived from the full Group accounts published in the Annual Report and Accounts 2020, which has been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and on which the report of the independent auditors was unqualified and did not contain a statement under either section 498(2) or section 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006.

The results have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in the Group's 31 December 2020 statutory accounts, which are based on the recognition and measurement principles of IFRS in issue as adopted by the European Union ("EU").  The Group has changed its policy on segmental reporting as outlined in note 3 below.

These unaudited interim results have been prepared on a going concern basis. At the balance sheet date, the Group had cash of £5m (prior to the receipt of an additional £1.0m related to R&D tax credits in July 2021) and net assets of £60.8m. As announced separately today, the Group has announced its intention to: raise additional capital of at least £7m via institutional placing and retail Primary Bid; and prepay at least £3.5m of debt to Bank of Ireland from the proceeds of the fundraise together with a revised set of covenant arrangements.  Given these factors and based on detailed forecasts prepared by management, the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue operations for the next twelve months, and as such these results have been prepared on a going concern basis.

The results for the six months ended 30 June 2021 were approved by the Board on 29 September 2021. A copy of these interim results will be available on the Group's web site www.loopup.com from 30 September 2021.

The principal risks and uncertainties faced by the Group have not changed from those set out in the Annual Report and Accounts 2020.

The Group has also announced today the acquisition of Sync RTC, a hybrid collaboration software-as-a-service technology company, for US$4.50m (£3.26m)in a combination of shares, cash and assumed indebtedness.

There are no other post balance sheet events to report.

3. Revenue and segmental reporting

The Directors have identified the segments by reference to the principal groups of services offered and the geographical organisation of the business as reported to the chief operating decision-maker (CODM).

In July 2020 the Group announced a major extension to the LoopUp proposition to include global Cloud Telephony solution via Direct Routing integration with Microsoft Teams. This capability is being marketed to customers alongside the Group's existing remote meetings and managed events solutions. The Group therefore considers that it has one key operating segment, referred to as LoopUp Platform Capabilities, which comprises revenue from remote meetings, managed events and cloud telephony, and a second operating segment from the resale of third-party services.

Segmental revenues are external and there are no material transactions between segments. The Group's largest customer represented less than 5% of total revenue in both years.

No segmental balance sheet was presented to the CODM.

The Group's revenue disaggregated by primary geographical markets is as follows:

£'000	6 months to 30 June 2021	6 months to 30 June 2020	12 months to 31 December 2020
UK	5,417	16,583	25,591
EU	1,904	4,736	7,790
North America	4,015	9,967	15,909
Rest of world	164	611	940
	11,500	31,897	50,230

The Group's revenue disaggregated by pattern of revenue recognition is as follows:

£'000	6 months to 30 June 2021	6 months to 30 June 2020	12 months to 31 December 2020
Services transferred at a point in time	11,397	27,170	41,373
Services transferred over time	103	4,727	8,857
	11,500	31,897	50,230

The Group's revenue disaggregated by platform capability is as follows:

£'000	6 months to 30 June 2021	6 months to 30 June 2020	12 months to 31 December 2020
Remote meetings	6,649	23,025	35,340
Managed events and webcasts	1,076	3,493	4,985
Cloud telephony	1,200	1,414	2,725
Third party resale services	2,575	3,965	7,180
	11,500	31,897	50,230

The Group's non-current assets disaggregated by primary geographical markets are as follows:

£'000	6 months to 30 June 2021	6 months to 30 June 2020	12 months to 31 December 2020
UK	73,063	74,873	74,230
EU	1	3	24
North America	715	311	1,097
Rest of world	3	5	5
	73,782	75,192	75,356

4. Earnings per share

The basic earnings per share is calculated by dividing the net profit attributable to equity holders of the Group by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year. 

	6 months to 30 June 2021	6 months to 30 June 2020	12 months to 31 December 2020
Profit / (loss) attributable to equity holders (£000)	(4,521)	6,993	6,522
Adjusted profit attributable to equity holders (£000) (1)	(2,709)	8,396	9,307
Weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue (000)	55,441	55,265	55,330
Basic earnings per share (pence):
- Basic adjusted (1)	(4.9)	15.1	16.8
-  Basic	(8.2)	12.7	11.8

The diluted earnings per share has been calculated by dividing the above profit numbers by the weighted average number of shares in issue during the year, adjusted for potentially dilutive shares that are not anti-dilutive.

	6 months to 30 June 2021	6 months to 30 June 2020	12 months to 31 December 2020
Weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue ('000)	55,441	55,265	55,330
Adjustments for share options ('000)	5,340	4,961	5,065
Weighted average number of potential ordinary shares in issue ('000)	60,781	60,226	60,395
Diluted earnings per share (pence):
-  Diluted adjusted (1)	(4.9)	13.9	15.4
-  Diluted	(8.2)	11.6	10.8

1.	Calculated using profit attributed to equity holders adjusted for exceptional reorganisation costs, amortisation of acquired intangibles and share based payment charges.

5. Dividends

The directors did not recommend the payment of a dividend for the years ended 31 December 2020 or 2019.

 

END

 

 

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