AGM Statement

RNS Number : 4846J

Vianet Group PLC

29 June 2017

 

Press Release

29 June 2017

Vianet Group plc

("Vianet" or the "Group")

AGM Statement

Vianet Group plc (AIM: VNET), the international provider of actionable data and business insight through devices connected to its Internet of Things ("IoT") platform, will be holding its Annual General Meeting today at 11.00 am at the offices of Grant Thornton UK LLP, No 1 Whitehall Riverside, Leeds, LS1 4BN.

James Dickson, Chairman, will provide the following trading update at today's meeting:

"The Group's trading in the first two months of the current financial year is in line with expectations and our business areas are progressing well.  The Smart Machines division, in particular with its coffee vending connectivity and contactless payment solution, continues to deliver growth. 

Whilst the economic uncertainty around Brexit is generally unhelpful, the impact on the Group's underlying performance should be limited as our products and services are focussed on improving customer profitability regardless of the economic backdrop.

As businesses increasingly seek and rely on actionable data, business intelligence and insights, Vianet's proven IoT capability means it is well placed to grow its position in this rapidly evolving market. Additionally, the Group's high quality recurring income combined with a strong balance sheet and cash flow gives scope for investment in broadening our reach into new areas and markets and for selective acquisitions.  

Whilst our Smart Zones division customers in the pub sector continue to face well publicised headwinds, the Board remains confident of the Group's prospects and that the long term strategy is the right one.  This is reflected in the Board's decision to recommend maintaining the final dividend at 4p per share."

- Ends -

Enquiries:

Vianet Group plc
James Dickson, Chairman	Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]	www.vianetplc.com

Cenkos Securities plc
Stephen Keys / Camilla Hume	Tel: [phone]
	www.cenkos.com

Media enquiries:

Yellow Jersey PR
Sarah Hollins [e-mail]	Tel: [phone] www.yellowjerseypr.com

About Vianet

Vianet Group is a leading provider of actionable management information and business insight created through combining data from our smart Internet of Things ('IOT') solutions and external information sources.

Since Admission to AIM in 2006, the Group has grown from its core beer monitoring business both organically and through strategic acquisitions to widen its offering and also develop new businesses, especially in vending telemetry and contactless payment solutions particularly for the premium coffee sector.

Servicing over 300 customers across the world and rendering live data to our IOT platform from over 250,000 connected machines daily, Vianet is one of the largest business to business (b2b) connected solutions providers in Europe with established long term relationships with blue chip customers and growing recurring revenues which are over 85% of our total revenues.

In our Smart Machines Division we connect a single data gathering device with its own on-board communication capability to a customer's asset or system.  The device then sends data back via our IOT platform to cloud based servers.  The technology was originally developed for automated retailing machines, however the flexibility and functionality of the device means the technology can be applied to practically any machine which has the capability to output data.  The device is also used to connect our contactless payment solution and communicate payment terms to our cloud based payment services providers where that application is also required.

The Smart Zones Division is where we connect multiple data gathering devices into one or more systems or assets with the data from those devices being communicated back to our IOT platform and cloud based servers via a single 3G communications hub.  The technology was originally developed for flow monitoring devices, temperature sensors, and asset management in drinks retailing but practically any data gathering device with a digital output could be connected to the communications hub where required such as gaming machines, utilities management and EPOS.

For further information, please visit www.vianetplc.com

 

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