30th Apr 2020 12:21
(Alliance News) - Network International Holdings PLC on Thursday said first-quarter revenue was broadly flat year-on-year as the Covid-19 pandemic impacted consumer spending patterns.
"This represented good performance across the majority of the period; a slowdown in tourism-related spending from mid-February; and a significant impact to trading in the last few weeks of March, linked to the social distancing and lockdown measures implemented across nearly all of the markets in which we operate and the closure of Dubai International Airport to commercial flights," the FTSE 250-listed company explained.
The Middle East and Africa focused payment services company said it has seen a 60% year-on-year drop in Merchant Solutions revenue and a 10% to 15% drop in Issuer Solutions revenue since the lockdown measures were implemented in the final weeks of March.
Chief Executive Officer Simon Haslam said: "Whilst our business is seeing a significant impact from the downturn in consumer spending, some positive trends have emerged. In particular, e-commerce and supermarket retail have flourished and in line with World Health Organization recommendations to go cash free, we are already seeing an increase in contactless payments and a rising demand for digital and online transaction acceptance amongst many stakeholders".
Network International has implemented several measures to cut costs and conserve cash including a hiring freeze and reductions in discretionary spend. In addition, CEO Haslam has decided to forgo his annual pay increase on base salary, long-term incentive plan awards and bonuses.
The company's board of directors have also agreed to reduce their fees by 25% for the remainder of 2020.
At the end of the first quarter, the company had a cash balance of USD40 million and total available headroom on our revolver and new syndicated debt facility of USD270 million.
Shares in the company were down 4.2% at 431.80 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.
By Tapan Panchal; [email protected]
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