Proactive Investors - Shares in Windward Ltd (LON:WNWD) rose 17% to a new one-year high as it said continued demand for its artificial intelligence-powered services, which predict and manage maritime risk, mean it now expects results to be "comfortably ahead" of market forecasts.
Annual contract value rose 35% to US$34.5 million and revenue 31% to US$28.3 million, the Tel Aviv-based company said, as multiple new client wins saw its customer count reach 200 for the first time.
Added to clients such as BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa), new contracts in the year included a partnership with London Stock Exchange Group (LON:LSEG), where the AI-powered technology is being used to augment existing shipping analytics on the LSEG Workspace (LON:WKP) platform in real-time, tracking over 117,000 vessels currently at sea globally including oil tankers, dry bulk carriers and container vessels to screen for indicators of potential illicit activity and determine risk profiles.
Underlying losses on an EBITDA basis were reported to have been more than halved to around US$5.1 million from US$12.1 million last time, with a second-half adjusted EBITDA loss of US$1.3 million.
"As the evolving events in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the security situation in the Red Sea demonstrate, the need for visibility and actionable insight across all facets of the maritime industry continues to grow, driving adoption of our maritime AI platform," said co-founder and chief executive Ami Daniel.
He said the company has begun 2024 with "continued good momentum".
The company was floated on AIM in 2021 with former BP boss Lord Philip Browne as chair at a price of 155p but sank to below 40p last spring, before rallying on the back of contract winning and renewal momentum.