26th Aug 2020 10:00
(Alliance News) - Pebble Beach Systems Group PLC on Wednesday said Covid-19 hit its order intake in the first six months of 2020, with customers a bit more cautious about pursuing large projects.
Shares in the Weybridge-based software firm were 17% lower at 10.95 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. Pebble Beach specialises in playout software. This allows radio or television channels to be converted or edited for external use during broadcasting.
In the period to June 30, Pebble Beach's revenue fell 20% year-on-year to GBP4.5 million from GBP5.6 million. Pretax profit, however, rose 3.4% to GBP739,000 from GBP715,000.
Sales and marketing expenses were trimmed by 14% to GBP901,000, research and development expenses by 16% to GBP605,000, and administrative costs by 15% to GBP878,000.
"Given the circumstances created by Covid-19, it is not a surprise that order intake in the period was lower than we had originally anticipated principally as a result of customer orders being delayed. Given the impact of Covid-19, customers have been understandably cautious about commitments to implement larger scale projects," Non-Executive Chair John Varney said.
Orders received were 26% lower during the half at GBP3.9 million from GBP5.2 million a year earlier.
Varney added: "As a board we believe that this is merely delaying planned large scale projects rather than these potential contracts being lost. We are not seeing evidence of the business being impacted by the widely reported delays to content creation in the broadcast market, and our technology is in the content delivery chain rather than that of content creation. These factors, combined with the continued growth in our pipeline, means that the board remains confident on the company's market positioning and long-term opportunities."
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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