14th Feb 2025 12:28
(Alliance News) - Pinewood Technologies Group PLC on Friday said it has won a five-year contract with Global Auto Holdings PLC, and that it expects profit for its latest financial year to come in ahead of the current market consensus.
The Birmingham-based provider of software to the automotive retailing sector said the Global Auto contract will see the implementation of Pinewood's Automotive Intelligence platform into all of Global Auto's dealerships in the UK, North America and Scandinavia.
Pinewood expects the deal to deliver "significant earnings" across its lifetime, and anticipates its roll-out and revenue to begin in the UK by 2026.
As part of the contract, Pinewood has issued warrants to an affiliate of Global Auto, in respect of a maximum of 6.1 million shares, up to an equivalent of 7% of Pinewood's share capital. The warrants will be exercisable at a strike price of 330.0 pence each.
"We look forward to working together and we believe that our innovative Pinewood Intelligence Platform will help Global Auto Holdings drive growth and unlock revenue throughout their entire dealership network," said Pinewood Chief Executive Officer Bill Berman.
"We've now achieved our target to sign up two of the top 20 auto retail groups in the UK and Ireland ahead of schedule, while laying the groundwork to expand our footprint across our core markets.
"This contract follows a highly successful first period for Pinewood as a standalone business, and this is reflected in our FY24 performance being delivered ahead of consensus forecasts. ... We are optimistic about the year ahead and expect to continue to make further strategic and operational progress."
Pinewood expects underlying pretax profit for the 11 months that ended December 31 to be around GBP8.3 million, ahead of a company-compiled market consensus of GBP7.8 million.
This compares to the GBP9.9 million in pretax profit for continuing operations reported for the 13 months that ended January 31, 2024. Including discontinued operations, total pretax profit for the 13-month period had been GBP91.8 million.
Earnings from the Global Auto contract will be weighted more towards 2026 than 2025, Pinewood added, to "align with customer requirements".
Shares in Pinewood were up 4.1% at 340.50 pence in London on Friday.
By Emily Parsons, Alliance News reporter
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