Business
Trading update for the six months to 30 June 2022
Trading update for the six months to 30 June 2022.
About this update from Mirriad Advertising Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Mirriad Advertising plc\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (\"Mirriad\"\n \n or the\n \n \"Company\")\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Trading update for the six months to 30 June 2022\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Mirriad, the leading in-content advertising company, announces the following trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2022 (\"the period\").\n \n \n \n H1 headlines\n \n \n \n ·\n Revenue for the year to December 2022 now expected to be flat year-on-year at approximately £2m due primarily to significantly weaker than expected market conditions in China\n \n \n ·\n Revenues for H1 of £577k (H1 2021 £1,137k). Due to seasonal nature of key advertising markets and the sales pipeline, higher revenues are expected in H2\n \n \n ·\n China revenues down 85% in the period from £820k in H1 2021 to £123k\n \n \n ·\n Decision to make orderly wind down of Chinese operations by the end of the Tencent contract in March 2023, delivering\n annualised cost savings of approximately £1m\n \n \n ·\n US revenues grew by 57% to £418k (30 June 2021 £266k),\n now accounting for 72% of total revenue\n \n \n ·\n Closing cash at the end of June 2022 of £17.7m (June 2021 £29.8m) and year end cash to be better than market expectations due to cost savings and lower than budgeted bonus provisions\n \n \n ·\n Improvements recorded across all KPIs on supply and demand sides\n \n \n ·\n Cost control programme to deliver £2.5m of total annualised savings\n of which the vast majority will be achieved in respect of 2023\n \n \n \n \n \n The completion of the half-year budgetary review process identified significant current weakness in the Chinese market which was not anticipated at the time of the last review, predominately due to stringent Covid-19 lockdowns. Combined with contractual changes which saw us move away from guaranteed income in this market,\n revenue in China decreased from £820k to £123k. The Board no longer considers it prudent to budget for the anticipated strong bounce-back in China.\n \n \n The company has taken decisive action to address this challenge, with an orderly wind down in China agreed for the end of the current Tencent contract to Q1 2023. This will reduce the\n Company's overall cost base by around £1m per annum as an important part of a wider cost control programme, and allo...