20th Apr 2016 17:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Television and on-demand content provider SyQic PLC on Wednesday said it was in talks with its Chief Executive Jamal Hassim and MMV Investments (HK) Ltd over a potential offer for the company, as it said an impairment charge could hit its profit for 2015.
SyQic said no offer had yet been made, but as a result of Hassim's interest, an independent committee was in talks with both Hassim and MMV Investments. The independent board is chaired by David Cotterell, Chairman of SyQic.
SyQic added there can be no certainty an offer will be made or the terms on which such an offer will be made.
This came as SyQic said it expects to release its full year results to the end of May, but based on management accounts, said revenue was GBP11.6 million for the year ended December 31, up from GBP10.7 million in 2014. SyQic said its directors believed this would have been higher were it not for the more than 15% depreciation of the Malaysian ringgit against the sterling, the company's reporting currency.
In light of this, operational and administrative costs also came in lower for the year, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was in line with market expectations.
SyQic said, due to depreciation and amortisation being lower than expected, 2015 pretax profit is expected to be materially ahead of market expectations. However, this is before any possible provisions are taken into account.
As at December 31, the company said it had outstanding trade receivables of GBP11.7 million and collections from the company's primary customer had been less than previously anticipated by the board. At February 29, trade debtors totalled GBP14.2 million.
SyQic said as part of its 2015 audit, its directors will discuss whether there should be a provision for impairment against the trade receivables, which it said could negatively affect its pretax profit for the year.
SyQic noted its Yoomob service is registering good growth, and said it has expanded the service beyond South East Asia, to the UK, Spain and Italy.
The directors "expect to be able to report further growth in 2016, as the year has got off to an encouraging start," the company said.
Shares in SyQic were suspended, having last traded at 18.90 pence.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
SYQ.L