29 September 2021

Mobile Tornado Group plc

("Mobile Tornado", the "Company" or the "Group")

Half Yearly Report

Mobile Tornado (AIM: MBT), the leading provider of instant communication mobile applications to the enterprise market, announces its unaudited results for the six-month period to 30 June 2021.

Financial highlights

·              Total revenue decreased by 2% to £1.27m (H1 2020: £1.29m)

o  Recurring revenues increased by 5% to £1.07m (H1 2020: £1.01m)

o  Non-recurring revenues* decreased by 28% to £0.20m (H1 2020: £0.28m)

·              Operating expenses decreased by 11% to £1.22m (H1 2020: £1.37m)

·              Adjusted EBITDA** of £0.01m (H1 2020 £0.21m loss)

·              Group operating loss for the year decreased to £0.08m (H1 2020: £0.53m)

·              Loss before tax of £0.38m (H1 2020: £0.84m)

·              Basic loss per share of 0.09p (H1 2020: 0.22p)

·            Net cash inflow from operating activities of £0.11m (H1 2020: £0.31m)                  

·              Net debt at 30 June 2021 of £9.09m (H1 2020: £8.16m)

·              Cash and cash equivalents of £0.16m (H1 2020: £0.45m)

*Non-recurring revenues comprising installation fees, hardware, professional services and capex license fees

**Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, exceptional items and excluding exchange differences

Operating Highlights

·              Continued resilience of our recurring revenue base in the face of a challenging global trading environment

·              Significant deal closed in Columbia with a global security company

·              Further platform operating efficiencies have reduced total operating expenses and enabled us to deliver a positive EBITDA result for the period

·              Development of a more comprehensive resource management solution, combining our PTT services with specific workforce management functionality and device management capabilities.

Jeremy Fenn, Chairman of Mobile Tornado, said: "The biggest challenge we have faced during the last 18 months has been customer engagement and new customer acquisition due to the enforced travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19. This problem has been particularly acute in two of our primary markets, South America and Africa. The strength of our customer base, technical platform and recurring revenue streams has allowed us to trade through the period without incurring material losses or requiring further cash injections. Given the relative size of our business, this has been a notable achievement.

"Notwithstanding the difficulties it has caused us, the COVID-19 pandemic has positively impacted the workforce management market, driving digitisation and automation across business sectors globally. In the wake of the disruption that has been caused, many businesses have identified the need to improve employee time, attendance and scheduling processes, thereby driving the efficiency of their workforces.

"We have identified this wider opportunity and believe that the addition of WFM and MDM functionality to our real time communication platform, will offer something unique and compelling to the market. We look forward to updating shareholders in November when we expect to formally launch this new platform to the market.

"In the meantime, we are continuing to support our existing partners across the many geographies within which we operate. We have reached a position where the cost base is broadly covered by core recurring revenues, and we are now seeing increasing levels of activity. I am hopeful that we may see some revenue growth in the second half as we continue to be engaged with some significant prospects across all key markets."

Enquiries:

Financial results

Total turnover in the six-month period to 30 June 2021 decreased by 2% to £1.27m (H1 2020: £1.29m). Recurring revenues increased by 5% to £1.07m (H1 2020: £1.01m). Non-recurring revenues, comprising installation fees, hardware, professional services and capex license fees decreased by 28% to £0.20m (H1 2020: £0.28m). Gross profit increased by 5% to £1.23m (H1 2020: £1.17m), a result of the increase in higher margin recurring revenues.

Operating expenses before depreciation, amortisation, exceptional items and exchange differences in the period continued on a downward trajectory, decreasing by 11% to £1.22m (H1 2020: £1.37m) and reflecting the continued positive impact those previous investments in the development and operating efficiencies of our enhanced technical platform have delivered.

Due to the annual revaluation of certain financial liabilities on the balance sheet, the Group reported a currency translational gain of £0.08m (H1 2020: £0.16m loss) arising from the appreciation of Sterling comparative to the start of the period. As a result of the above, the loss after tax for the period decreased by 57% to £0.36m (H1 2020: Loss £0.84m).

The Group reported a net cash inflow from operating activities during the period of £0.11m (H1 2020: £0.31m) reflecting the continued strong focus on cash management. At 30 June 2021, the Group had £0.16m cash at bank (30 June 2020: £0.45m) and net debt of £9.09m (30 June 2020: £8.16m).

Review of operations

The continued resilience of our recurring revenue base has been the key highlight of our first half trading performance. We have seen a 5% overall increase, with positive uplifts in South America offsetting some churn from our customer in Canada.

Our partner in Colombia closed out a significant deal with a global security company, which provides further validation that our communication platform is attractive to major corporate enterprises with large remote workforces.

The COVID-19 related restrictions that have continued in our primary markets of South America and South Africa have made it difficult to engage and deploy trials with prospective customers, which has made winning new business challenging. As a result, our non-recurring revenues are slightly down on the prior period. There are, however, clear signs that enterprises and government agencies are engaging again with our partners in these territories and I am optimistic that we will see activity levels increasing as we finish the year.

To counter the challenging trading environment, we have kept tight control of our cost base, and the platform efficiencies we have driven through the business has allowed us to deliver a saving on operating expenses, which has enabled us to announce a positive EBITDA outcome for the period. We have also continued to report a net cash inflow from operating activities which, given the challenges we have faced during the last 18 months, is a further testament to the strength of our business model and the quality of the customers deploying our platform.

Research and development

Given the lull in activity levels during the last 12 months, and the reduction in demands on our technical team, we have taken the opportunity to continue the development of our proposition, with a view to expanding our addressable market.

We have been developing a comprehensive resource management solution, which combines the current Push to Talk ('PTT') application with workforce management functionality ('WFM') and mobile device management ('MDM'). Many of our customers are currently using our PTT service alongside separate WFM and MDM applications. We believe this new approach will offer customers a more efficient and cost-effective way to optimise the management of remote workforces and streamline back-office operations.

Our target market will be businesses with remote workforces, but initially we will focus on the security, hospitality and public utility verticals. We will continue to distribute the new proposition through resellers and mobile network operators, but in the future, we may look to sell direct through the internet.

We have commenced beta trials with several companies and expect to formally launch the new service in November of this year, when more detail around the features and functionality of the new platform will be released.

Funding

We announced on 24 September 2021 a 12-month extension of our £0.3m revolving loan facility with principal shareholder, Intechnology plc. This facility now has a term ending on 26 September 2022 and as at today's date, the balance drawn down is £nil.

Whilst we recognise the continued uncertainty COVID-19 brings to our projections, we remain confident that our available cash resources together with our long-established recurring revenue customer base and anticipated future contracts will provide us with adequate financial resources for the foreseeable future.

Outlook

The biggest challenge we have faced during the last 18 months has been customer engagement and new customer acquisition due to the enforced travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19. This problem has been particularly acute in two of our primary markets, South America and Africa. The strength of our customer base, technical platform and recurring revenue streams has allowed us to trade through the period without incurring material losses or requiring further cash injections. Given the relative size of our business, this has been a notable achievement.

Notwithstanding the difficulties it has caused us, the COVID-19 pandemic has positively impacted the workforce management market, driving digitisation and automation across business sectors globally. In the wake of the disruption that has been caused, many businesses have identified the need to improve employee time, attendance and scheduling processes, thereby driving the efficiency of their workforces.

We have identified this wider opportunity and believe that the addition of WFM and MDM functionality to our real time communication platform, will offer something unique and compelling to the market. We look forward to updating shareholders in November when we expect to formally launch this new platform to the market.

In the meantime, we are continuing to support our existing partners across the many geographies within which we operate. We have reached a position where the cost base is broadly covered by core recurring revenues, and we are now seeing increasing levels of activity. I am hopeful that we may see some revenue growth in the second half as we continue to be engaged with some significant prospects across all key markets.

Jeremy Fenn

Chairman

29 September 2021