11th Sep 2013 09:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - Location-solutions company Ubisense Group PLC Wednesday reported an increase in losses for the first half, despite winning a number of new contracts.
Location solutions help companies to track people and assets.
Ubisense posted a pretax loss of GBP1.5 million for the period ended 30 June, compared with a GBP844,000 loss a year earlier. The firm said finance costs increased, while finance income declined.
However, revenue increased slightly to GBP12.4 million, from GBP12.0 million in 2012, as its two divisions, Solutions and Services performed well.
Solutions revenue grew to GBP5.8 million, from GBP5.6 million, while Services revenue grew to GBP6.6 million, from GBP6.3 million in 2012, as Ubisense won a major utility contract in the US.
Ubisense said the gross margin reduced to 28.7% from 34.7% due to a number of factors including a small drop in the proportion of Solutions revenues out of the total revenues, which generally carry higher margins than Services.
There was also a higher proportion of lower-margin installation and commissioning revenues compared to higher-margin hardware and software deliveries within Solutions, while the number of contractors used to deliver Services' revenue increased.
The company is currently recruiting to meet the increase in capacity requirements.
Ubisense also said it had signed a deal with a large unnamed European automaker for its Smart Factory System. The company has chosen the solution for its Eastern European assembly plant.
Ubisense said its Smart Factory System brings many benefits to manufacturers by eliminating inefficient processes such as manual barcode scanning or searching, and by error-proofing work processes which deliver significant quality and productivity improvements.
Last month Ubisense signed a GBP5 million loan facility with HSBC Bank PLC to replace its existing GBP2 million loan facility which it drew down in April.
Despite an increase in losses for the period the company remained optimistic.
"I am confident that investments made during the period in getting to production roll-out in global manufacturing companies will be realised with accelerated future orders from this sector," Chief Executive Richard Green said in a statement."
"Meeting the emerging needs of our telecoms and utility customers and our strategic efforts in emerging markets and partnerships further contributes to our growth opportunities."
Ubisense shares were trading flat at 226.00 pence Wednesday morning.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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