Proactive Investors -
CentralNIC has best-ever first quarter
CentralNic Group Plc (LON:CNIC) gross revenues for the first quarter came to US$194.9mln (£157mln) in the first quarter, according to the web services group’s trading update this morning, while adjusted EBITDA came to US$21.3mln
These figures represented 24% and 15% gains, respectively.
Year-on-year organic growth for the trailing twelve months ending March 31, 2023 is estimated at approximately 45% when the audited figures are released on May 15.
Cash increased to US$102.9 by the end of the quarter from US$95mln in the previous quarter, reducing net debt to 49.2mln, taking into account the impact of the company returning US$4.3mln to shareholders via the share buyback scheme.
Directors remain confident that the group will continue to trade at least in line with current market expectations.
In a major highlight in the quarter, the group renewed its partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing to leverage CentralNIC’s existing AI capabilities with ChatGPT.
Chief executive Michael Riedl commented on the results: "I am thrilled to announce that CentralNic has had an outstanding start to the year, achieving our best-ever first quarter. Our continued industry leadership and reputation for excellence have enabled us to secure key partnerships with some of the world's leading technology companies, including Microsoft.”
Shareholders will today vote on the group’s inaugural dividend, marking “a significant milestone in our commitment to enhance shareholder value through a progressive dividend policy and continued share buybacks”, said Riedl.
CentraNIC was trading flat at 122.54 in pre-market trades.
FTSE to open lower
FTSE 100 is expected to open lower this Monday, with pre-market trades pointing to a 0.15% dip on the blue-chip index.
Wall Street closed in a stronger position before closing for the weekend started, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average inching 22 points, or 0.07% higher at 33,808, and the S&P 500 3.7 points, or 0.09% higher at 4,133.
Nasdaq closed 12.9 points, or 0.11% higher at 12,072. However, US markets as a whole finished the weekly session lower.
European markets, meanwhile, eked out an all-time high with the CAC 40 in Paris closing the week at 7,577.
Don’t expect too much action on the UK earnings calendar today. CentralNic Group is providing a trading update while Lok'nStore Group (LON:LOK) has its interim earnings call.
US earnings are more lively. All eyes are on First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC), the San Fransisco regional lender that got particularly badly hit in the Marck mini-crisis. Investors will be expecting news on monetary outflows. Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:ATVI) is also providing results as well as Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO).
Read more on Proactive Investors UK