Bango results show strong growth

Bango (AIM: BGO), the mobile payments company, today announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2016.

 

1h2016  Financial highlights
·           End User Spend (EUS) increased 150% YoY to £46.17m (1h2015: £18.45m)
o     Annualized EUS in June 2016 was £159m, 250% more than June 2015
(143% excluding BilltoMobile)
·           Gross profit on EUS increased to £0.85m (1h2015: £0.61m), up 39% YoY
·           EUS margin of 1.67% (1h2015: 2.06%), in line with forecasts
·           Improved Adjusted LBITDA* -£1.64m (1h2015: -£1.82m)
·           Opex stable at £2.49m (1h2015: £2.43m)
o     Over 5x EUS growth confirms platform scalability
·           Cash balance of £7.24m at 30 June 2016 (30 June 2015: £4.04m; 31 Dec 2015: £12.14m), sufficient to fund the group through to profitability
 
* Adjusted LBITDA is Operating Loss before depreciation, amortization and share based payments.
 
1h2016 Operational highlights
·           Acquired US carrier billing business BilltoMobile for £2.15m ($3m) in cash and £0.35m ($0.5m) in Bango shares. Brings initial £55m annualized EUS along with new customers to the Bango Payment Platform, including significant additional Google Play EUS, within existing operational cost base. (May 2016)
·           Launched Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) for Google Play with Idea Cellular, the first Google Play DCB launch in the Indian subcontinent. (Mar 2016)
·           Strengthened Asia presence with senior hire and Tokyo office to support growth across the region. (Feb 2016)
·           Expanded agreement and integration with Microsoft to deliver DCB across all Windows 10 devices. (Jan 2016)
·           New app store billing routes launched in India, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia, including a migration to Bango from another provider
 
Post period highlights
·           Successful completion of first phase of BilltoMobile service transition. Operations and finance now managed from Bango UK with support from Bango US
·           Pokémon GO launch in July 2016 drove significant increase in EUS, most of which is from users purchasing for the first time using DCB
·           Established strategic partnership with Danal Co., Ltd (064260.KQ) to expand reach of the Bango Payment Platform into Korea and China through innovative new payment systems, and to enable stores in Korea and China to leverage the Bango Payment Platform globally
·           Expanded the availability of carrier billing with Microsoft Windows Store in September 2016. For the first time, users in Finland, Norway and Hungary can make purchases from any Windows 10 device, including their Xbox One consoles, using their mobile phone account
 
Ray Anderson, Chief Executive Officer at Bango, commented:  “Today’s results show End User Spend (EUS) growth ahead of expectations. EUS is up by a factor of six since the beginning of last year, and is flowing through into gross profit growth. This demonstrates the ability of the Bango business to handle this rapid pace of growth and add new customers to the platform on a stable cost base.
 
"This EUS growth is fueled by four driving forces – wider smartphone usage, an increasing range of content and services becoming available to users, the activation of additional routes to collect payments from more users and technology developed by Bango to improve the customer experience and increase sales.
 
"With these four growth factors driving Bango’s high revenue growth on a stable cost base, we remain confidently on track to become profitable and cash flow positive using Bango’s current resources.”
 
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Manisha Chowdhury
Team Assistant, Strategic Communications
FTI Consulting
020 3727 1399 T | +44 7970 661492M
Manisha.chowdhury@fticonsulting.com
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