Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2024

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, Sept. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bango (AIM: BGO), today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2024.

Financial Overview (unaudited):

Notes:

• Transactional revenue grew 9.4% on a constant currency basis.
• Other Income of $1.4M, which is not included in the revenue figure above, related to recovery of tax costs from the acquisition of DOCOMO Digital. $1.1M will be accounted for as a tax cost, resulting in $0.3M profit.
• Gross profit margin of 80.8% (1H23: 90.0%) reduced from 82.8% in 2H 2023 due to geographic mix. Improvements expected in 2H 2024 as high margin DVM revenue grows.
• Net debt⁶ of $5.1M at 30 June 2024 (net debt of $3.9M at 31 Dec 2023) after R&D investment of $7.6M in the period.

Operational Highlights

• Bango signed 4 new Digital Vending Machine® (DVM) customers in 1H24, including a Bank in Brazil. Post-period there has been a further 3 new customer wins.
• A leading European telco that adopted the DVM in 2020 extended their contract for a further 3 years, with a minimum contract value of $1.5M over the term.
• 13 new subscription content providers were added to the DVM in 1H24, taking the total to 106.
• The eDisti⁷ program now has 20 content providers, including Microsoft and Disney, allowing Bango to provide a ‘pre-stocked’ Digital Vending Machine, reducing time to revenue for both DVM customers and Bango.
• Bango signed a global agreement with Uber to accelerate the take-up of Uber One subscriptions through telco channels, proving the appeal of the Bango DVM beyond digital video, music and gaming services.
• The ‘global technology leader’ (announced in June 2022) launched its first two telcos with Bango in 1H24. Additional launches are underway.
• Chartered Accountant Tony Perkins joined the Bango Board as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee. In Q3, Tony was appointed as Senior Independent Director replacing Eric Peacock who retired from the Board to focus on his recovery from an accident.

Presentation and Webcast

A presentation of the interim results will be made to investors and analysts at 10:00 BST today via the Investor Meet Company Platform. Those wishing to join the call can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free via:
https://www.investormeetcompany.com/bango-plc/register-investor

Full RNS announcement

Read the full Interims Results RNS announcement here: https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/bango_plc/news/rns/story/r7ze9jw

Paul Larbey, Chief Executive Officer of Bango, commented:

“The first six months of 2024 have gone to plan and are in-line with the Trading Update issued in July. The payments business continues to deliver growth, providing cash to fund expansion of the Digital Vending Machine® (DVM), which continues to be adopted as the defacto standard platform for subscription bundling by the world’s largest companies. The addition of Disney+ to the Bango eDisti program is further evidence of this and will help accelerate time-to-revenue from DVM deals. With 4 new DVM wins in the 1H and a further 3 in Q3, the pipeline built over the past years continued to deliver results and provides confidence in meeting market expectations for the full year.

The subscriptions market is vast and growing, and the percentage of subscriptions bundled through channels is increasing. Bango's leadership position in this market is strengthening with the DVM now playing a key role in the customer acquisition and engagement strategies of major content brands. We are excited by the opportunity ahead and remain on track to continue our strong growth trajectory and return to a positive net cash position in FY25.”

¹ Transactional Revenue is revenue derived by charging a percentage of the retail price paid by the consumer and is made up of direct carrier billing, resale and revenue share amounts.
² DVM, Bango Audiences & one-off Revenue includes all DVM license and support fees, revenue from Bango Audiences (discontinued in Q1) and one-off fees including DVM set-up and change requests.
³ Annual Recurring Revenue is the expected annual revenues to be generated in the next 12 months based on contracted revenues recognized as at 30 June 2024.
⁴ Net Revenue Retention is a measure of the retention and expansion of revenue from customers over the previous 12 months and is calculated by dividing the ARR from existing customers at the end of 1H24 to the ARR from those same customers at the end of 1H23.
⁵ Adjusted EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, negative goodwill, exceptional items, share of net loss of associate and share based payment charge 
⁶ Net debt is cash and cash equivalents plus short-term investments less the loan from NHN and borrowings. Barclays continues to provide an overdraft facility which was not used at the end of the period .
⁷ eDisti is a program that allows Bango to resell subscriptions from content providers removing the need for a commercial agreement between the DVM customer and the content provider.

Contact Details:  
investors@bango.com

About Bango

Bango enables content providers to reach more paying customers through global partnerships. Bango revolutionized the monetization of digital content and services, by opening-up online payments to mobile phone users worldwide. Today, the Digital Vending Machine^® is driving the rapid growth of the subscriptions economy, powering choice and control for subscribers.

The world's largest content providers, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft trust Bango technology to reach subscribers everywhere.

Bango, where people subscribe. For more information, visit www.bangoinvestor.com