31st Jul 2019 12:40
(Alliance News) - Social video company Brave Bison Group PLC said its pretax loss widened in the first half of 2019, following larger administrative expenses, restructuring costs and an impairment charge.
Shares in the company were down 21% at 1.50 pence each in London on Wednesday afternoon.
In the six months to June 30, the company posted a pretax loss of GBP1.2 million, despite a 9% revenue rise to GBP10.1 million. In the same period last year, it made a loss of GBP415,000, on a revenue of GBP9.3 million.
The company attributed the revenue rise to a growth in fees from the Asia and Pacific region but said group advertising revenue was impacted by the de-monitisation of pages on Facebook Inc.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and restructuring costs rose to GBP247,000 from GBP79,000. Gross profit, it said, rose 15% in absolute terms to GBP3.4 million from GBP2.9 million.
Administrative expenses rose year-on-year to GBP3.6 million from GBP3.4 million and its changes to senior management as part of a restructure, cost the company GBP407,000.
During the period, the company replaced its chief executive and said it will also oust its creative chief and revenue officer, both positions will remain vacant.
Brave Bison also paid a GBP575,000 impairment charge relating to its Mutha and Perk multi-platform channels that it launched in August 2018.
The company said Perk, which offered career advice to millennials, will be closed shortly because it did not meet audience number and engagement expectations. Mutha, which offers climate change and sustainability content, "will be scaled back" but remain part of the company's network.
Looking ahead, the company said it expects a "material reduction in revenue" and said its adjusted Ebitda will be below current market expectations for the full year.
During the first half, advertising revenue from platforms besides Facebook rose to 35% year-on-year from 24%. Brave Bison said it is also aiming to continue diversifying its revenue streams.
Chief Executive Kate Burns said: "Brave Bison has demonstrated itself to be a very agile company during the period in refining areas of its business. This is an important trait for a business operating in the social video industry, which is fast-paced and rapidly evolving. We have multiple revenue streams and have made progress towards establishing the right balance between these, which has been a key focus of mine since my appointment in April.
"As a result, although we still expect adjusted Ebitda to be positive for the second half of 2019, the outturn for the full year to December, 31 2019 will show a material reduction in revenue and adjusted Ebitda versus current market expectations. We continue to monitor our Facebook business closely, while also investing in our data proposition which will inform our creative process and improve the quality of content going forward. I believe this will position us to deliver long term growth."
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