Minimally-invasive leak detection company Water Intelligence (WATR:AIM) reported better than expected revenues (+27%) to $32.4m and pre-tax profits (+33%) to $2.4m for the year ended 31 December 2019. The shares gushed 12.4% higher to 356.7p on the news.
Water Intelligence uses proprietary acoustic and infrared technologies to pinpoint and repair water leaks in every size of pipe.
Corporate revenues were strongly ahead last year, up 44% to $14.5m while the business to business insurance channel grew 41% to $7.1m and royalty income grew 4% to $6.5m.
The estimated implied sales to third parties were $120m.
International revenues were 14% higher at $3.3m as the Sydney operations were further developed and the firm began to market its products in the EU and South Africa.
Franchised re-acquisitions continued in 2019 and reached around $1m, producing a like-for-like adjusted pre-tax profit growth of $3.4m up 36%.
PLATFORM BUSINESS
The longer-term direction of the company is to develop into a distribution platform for technology products and services, providing solutions to a mix of residential, business-to-business and municipalities.
As mentioned at the third quarter results, Water Intelligence made an investment in Entertainment AI (EIA) as well as an acquisition of e-commerce and video search technology to enable the company to offer insurance companies water-monitoring and leak-detection services.
Today the firm said that it had received an exclusive royalty-free technology license from EIA which enables its customers to purchase water-related, smart home products from the web.
Water Intelligence is present across 46 US states serving approximately 200,000 residences and the major insurance companies. Internationally the company serves the main UK utilities while in Australia and Canada it provides a mix of services to municipalities and residential customers.
