gretel
13 Nov 2017
Giles Hargreave doubles his holding Great to see Giles Hargreave more than doubling his holding in IMO:[link] AA-rated small cap supremo Giles Hargreave has more than doubled his holding in cloud communication and software provider IMImobile (IMOI) as it drifts lower from last month’s record high. Hargreave upped his stake in the business from 2.4% to 5.7% of the shares worth £7 million at a price of 200p, down from an all-time high of 221p in early October. The shares are primarily held by clients of his eponymous broker and fund manager Hargreave Hale which was this summer purchase by Canadian banking group Canaccord. Leading UK hedge fund manager Toscafund’s small cap mandates have recently banked some profits on the tightly-held stock, reducing their stake from above 18% to 13.4%. Investec reiterated its buy guidance last week, on a 250p price target. That followed a trading update saying full year profit was likely to beat earlier expectation, despite upping its investment in sales and distribution."
gretel
02 Nov 2017
Good news from South Africa Positive stuff:[link] / 31st October 2017A message from Ross Venter, CEO of IMImobile South Africa, on the rename of Archer Digital SA.After the successful IMImobile acquisition of South African based Archer Digital in October of 2015, the team in South Africa have been laying the groundwork for supplementing the solutions they offer to blue-chip clients with the IMImobile product suite. Negotiations with two of South Africa’s premier banking institutions began in 2016 around installing elements of the IMIconnect digital customer engagement platform into those banks. A combined effort, utilising multiple IMImobile resources from around the world, has resulted in the first full installation of IMIconnect into the fastest growing and most innovative bank in Africa. As this first of many successes nears completion, and the interest shown in the IMImobile software and solution suite grows, it is an opportune time to present a more unified corporate image to the South African and African markets by changing the name of Archer Digital to IMImobile South Africa. With effect from 1 November 2017 our South African operation now bears the IMImobile name. The reaction from clients has been extremely positive and supportive and will enable our South African business to grow with customers knowing that the world-class digital communications technology solutions available to them are tried and tested on an international stage, and yet customized for the African market with a local IMImobile company on hand to provide ongoing support and relationship management."
gretel
01 Nov 2017
Re: Trading well, and an acquisition The respected Techmarketview like today's news - "an excellent move":[link] 01 November 2017IMIMobile adds US messaging platform to extend reachThe chances are that if you’ve had an SMS or Whatsapp message from your bank, utility or mobile service provider, AIM-listed IMIMobile will have been at the centre of it. IMIMobile’s platform, applications and AI capability joins up customer experiences across multiple channels and interacts with legacy enterprise systems to transform customer journeys and enables large organisations to react more quickly as customer preferences change and communications channels proliferate.IMIMobile has built an Enterprise cloud communication platform, IMIconnect, which supports a wide range of capabilities to enable enterprises to access chat systems, automate customer queries, use social media channels, drive marketing campaigns channels over multiple channels and communicate effectively with end customers over multiple channels. These systems are also key to many fraud management and online authentication systems.The business is very UK-centric, driving 60-65% of its revenue here, but today’s move, to acquire Sumotext, an established US-based communications platform provider for US$4.5-6m, should enable IMIMobile to address the US market and migrate its capabilities into the huge US market.Surprisingly perhaps, the US market appears to be behind the UK in terms of managing customer interactions (look at the progress of Eckoh there) and the omni-channel capabilities of IMIMobile should find a ready market. Sumotext’s portfolio is reportedly complementary to IMIMobile’s product set and IMIMobile expects to invest significantly in sales and marketing to drive cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. The acquisition is forecast to be earnings enhancing in the year to March 2019. The Sumotext CEO will join the IMIMobile senior management team.IMIMobile management also reports that trading for the half year was in line with expectations but cautions that additional £0.5m marketing spend in the US will push H2 EBITDA below current expectations.Looks like an excellent move."
gretel
01 Nov 2017
Trading well, and an acquisition Excellent news this morning:[link] - this acquisition provides a pathway for launch into the USA - it's "complementary to IMImobile's product set, providing mobile solutions that enable businesses to manage digital interactions with their customers" - earnings-enhancing in the year to March'19 - current year revenue and gross profit expected to be above market expectationsThe small caveat is that the acquisition requires £0.5m of additional marketing costs this year which will reduce EBITDA, but this is necessary for the additional return next year and should be welcomed.Very good news.
gretel
26 Oct 2017
Results due 21st November RNS out, with interims to be released on Tuesday 21st November and analyst meetings and presentations to follow.Given the bullish outlook in the 28th June prelims, and with no problems mentioned in today's RNS - plus a Tuesday release augurs well - I'd expect the numbers to be nicely in line at the least:"OutlookThe 2018 financial year has started well with trading in line with expectations. We have good earnings visibility thanks to our long-standing client relationships, pipeline of new deployments and high mix of recurring, repeating and transactional revenues. We believe that, as managing mobile and digital touchpoints become critical for all organisations, we can continue to grow our client base across all regions and increase the size of each relationship. We intend to accelerate growth through our partnership strategy, including seeking out international partners, and are increasingly confident after the early wins we have had this year."
gretel
10 Oct 2017
New contract win Looks large and certainly prestigious, if evidently not quite RNSS-able:[link] wins contract with CarillionAmey to deliver digital contact centre optimisation10th October 2017IMImobile is selected to help improve the contact centre experience through digital channels, for CarillionAmey customersLondon, 10 October 2017 – IMImobile, a cloud communications software and solutions provider, has been chosen by CarillionAmey to improve their contact centre experience through digital channels, for customers using their services across the defence estate in the UK.CarillionAmey, which works on behalf of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, has chosen to use IMIchat, a cloud application built specifically for contact centres, to enable customer service agents to have live two-way conversations with Armed Forces personnel across SMS, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Webchat, alongside their existing voice channels. CarillionAmey repairs and maintains more than 49,000 homes for Service families, and looks after the infrastructure of 280 RAF stations, army garrisons, naval bases and defence sites across the UK. IMIchat will support the Ministry of Defence’s digital transformation strategy, through their supply chain, and help improve time critical communication for all military families and estate end users when they experience problems in and around their property or estate buildings.IMImobile was chosen by CarillionAmey because of its robust enterprise-grade technology as well as being an established leader in digital customer interaction.Stuart Jones, Customer Services and Communications Director for CarillionAmey, said: “We are absolutely committed to delivering smarter and more efficient solutions to our Armed Forces and their families. Continuing to improve our customer service is imperative to our ongoing development as a business.“IMImobile was a natural fit because of its vast experience and expertise in providing cloud communications software to public sector companies, enabling us to embrace new digital technologies to communicate and engage with our customers across the defence estate.”Jay Patel, Chief Executive Officer of IMImobile, commented: “We are pleased to be part of CarillionAmey’s digital transformation strategy and to support the Ministry of Defence. IMIchat will allow customer service agents to enhance interactions with the service families and personnel across all digital and mobile channels, therefore allowing better communication whilst driving contact centre efficiency. “We are also excited about the opportunities to help optimise the customer service experience through the integration of intelligent and innovative solutions such as chatbots in the near future.”
gretel
09 Oct 2017
Tipped - and up almost 20% today Apparently IMO have been tipped in this weekend's Penny Share Letter. Good to see IMO at last getting some press attention.I gather from elsewhere that the headline is:"The company’s name is IMImobile (AIM: IMO). It’s a great little business – steady growth, big margins, generating lots of cash. And best of all, it’s nice and cheap."
gretel
18 Aug 2017
RNS : new major shareholder Good to see IMO attracting a new major shareholder, and international attention at that.Pie Funds Management from New Zealand have bought over 3.5%, with 2.16m shares. I note that Pie are also investors in KWS - which bodes well! Looks like Gresham House and Toscafund have both been top-slicing large holdings, so it's good to see healthy institutional trading:[link] Taylor founded Pie Funds with the simple philosophy of outperforming the markets by investing in growth companies. He believed most fund managers were serial underperformers, and saw an opportunity to launch a specialist boutique investment firm."
gretel
21 Jul 2017
New presentation, possible buybacks Good to see last night's RNS setting the date of the GM to cancel the share premium account for 16th August - the train for dividends and/or share buybacks is now leaving the station.And here's the company's results presentation : background info on Telenor is good, and it looks as though the partnership includes micropayments:[link]
gretel
06 Jul 2017
Whitman Howard raise target to 260p Whitman Howard have increased their price target to 260p (from 220p) and say Buy. Here's their summary FYI:"IMImobile*Price target upgrade on medium term margin potentialIMImobile has today released its year to March 2017 Full year results. The results are very much in line with the trading statement released on the 27th April. IMImobile has experienced strong trading across all regions and business units. We upgraded our numbers at the EBITDA level by 4.2% at the time of the trading statement. We are not changing any of our forecasts today. We are howeverupgrading PT on the back of medium term margin potential.Profits grew organically in all regions and business units. There were new major blue chip client wins in all regions including multi-territory mobile operator Telenor, and through the relationship with O2, Lloyds and RBS. The renewal rate was 100% including the Group’s largest contract, MTN. The Textlocal and Archer acquisitions are making good progress. In the period there was early successes from investment in partnership programme including a multi-year contract with the Royal Mail Group through BT. The acquisition of Infracast, also gave IMI a market leading position in the UK retail banking sector.IMI’s recent acquisition approach has focused on the ability to upsell to clients. A number of Archer’s banking clients have been identified as lucrative cross selling opportunities. We expect similar success for the recently acquired Infracast. IMI has also begun to extend its partnership strategy.The Company has started the process to effect a capital reorganisation to enable share buybacks and/or dividends in the future.The Current year has started well with trading in line with expectations. IMImobile offers a compelling combination of growth, recurring revenues, strong margins and cash conversion. We believe that post a period of investment in the business EBIT margins should start to scale towards the mid-teens from the reported clean 10.8%.This drives an upgrade to our fair value and we upgrade our price target from 220p to 260p and retain a BUY rating."
gretel
30 Jun 2017
Tipped in today's IC [link] rakes in the cashIMImobile (IMO) was left £7m in cash, after paying off debt, at its IPO in 2014 - and that pile remains largely untouched. The majority of the communication software company's growth, including its recent acquisitions of Textlocal, Archer Digital and Infracast, has been funded out of the cash generated from operations. In the year to March 2017, that reached £11.9m, equating to 104 per cent of adjusted cash profit."
gretel
28 Jun 2017
Excellent results ahead of expectations Very good results today slightly ahead of expectations:[link] - 11p EPS (compared to 10.46p forecast) - £9m adjusted PBT compared to £8.6m forecast - £14.7m cash pile against a £130m m/cap - terrific cash generation - extremely positive outlook:"The current financial year has started well, we have strong pipelines in all regions and our product suite remains hugely relevant in large growing addressable markets."Growth is global, all contracts have been retained and blue chip customers are being won. Pleasing stuff all round.Nice also to see them moving to pay dividends and utilise buybacks, though I'd rather they continued to grow the group with more acquisitions.My one small quibble with today's narrative is that we know they have very high recurring income, but they don't quantify this as much as they should to highlight their attraction for investors.
gretel
20 Jun 2017
New partnership with Google.... Exciting stuff.....[link] / 16th June 2017Get involved with RCS early with IMImobile and GooglePosted by Sudarshan DharmapuriThe mobile industry is finally set on revolutionising messaging – and IMImobile will be at the cutting edge together with GoogleThis month, IMImobile joined Google’s RCS Business Messaging Early Access Program as a launch partner further cementing our position as an innovator in the customer interaction management space. This exciting initiative sees global telecoms operators and key messaging providers come together with Google to start testing implementation of the new message standard. So what is RCS – and how is it different from standard messaging?"Conclusion:"For businesses, the advent of RCS marks yet another shift towards messaging-oriented customer interactions, and adds another channel into the evolving messaging ecosystem (alongside SMS, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM, WeChat and so on). As customers increase adoption and usage of these diverse channels, and the number of channels rises, the ability to orchestrate and automate customer interactions and journeys becomes a business imperative. This, of course, is where IMImobile’s customer journey orchestration platform comes into its own.Google at the forefront – and so is IMImobileGoogle is playing a key role in the RCS initiative, which should help accelerate adoption and launch of the new messaging platform. Google’s Android Messages client supports RCS messaging (alongside SMS and MMS) and it is partnering with 27 operators and device manufacturers to upgrade the native messaging experience with RCS.Our participation in the Early Access Program means we can start driving awareness of RCS for A2P usage, test different use cases, and influence the development roadmap. We will also have access to resources on, for example, conversation design, and to the Google network of supported operators alongside our existing relationships with carriers on telecom channels.This is great news for our own clients who want to be early to market with this new messaging channel, as we’re ideally positioned to help enterprises take advantage of the technology."
gretel
27 Apr 2017
Trading ahead of expectations.... Excellent year end trading update - slightly ahead of expectations:[link] cash conversion, with "more than 100% conversion of EBITDA to cash". Good progress generally everywhere, particularly in India. And a very strong outlook: "Jay Patel, Chief Executive of IMImobile PLC, commented:"The Group enters the new financial year in a strong position, underpinning its ability to drive further growth in the period ahead. We have a strong pipeline of opportunities and active deployments which provides solid foundations to build upon."We are confident that our continued investment in our product suite, an active partnership strategy and integration of acquisitions can further amplify the Group's organic growth, whilst being well placed to take advantage of consolidation opportunities across the industry with our continued cash generation and strong balance sheet."
gretel
16 Mar 2017
Great contract news today I bought some of these for the first time this morning after today's news. Telenor are huge.....[link] signs Global Framework Agreement with Telenor GroupLondon, 16 March, 2017 - IMImobile, a cloud communications software and solutions provider, today announces that it has signed a Global Framework Agreement with Telenor Group following a competitive tender process.Under the agreement, IMImobile will supply its cloud Digital Service Delivery Platform, VAS (Value Added Services) Virtualization System and services for Telenor Business Units across the Telenor Group. The platform will be deployed in a secure cloud environment, and will support Telenor's long term vision to virtualise network capabilities and improve the efficiency of its core business.Telenor Group is one of the leading mobile operators, providing tele, data and media services for 214 million subscribers in 13 markets across Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. etc"
