Share price slumps at tech firm
The share price of Birmingham-based LightwaveRF has fallen sharply on the back of the firm issuing profit warning.
Shares fell by over 30% on Monday (4 November) to just 4.2p after the company said that annual revenue growth has been held back by a number of one-off issues in the last quarter of its financial year.
In a trading update for the year ended 30 September 2019, the company said revenue is expected to have increased by approximately 50% over last year’s (2018: £2.80 million) with overall underlying margins having been broadly maintained.
At the time of its trading update released on 15 July 2019 in respect of the first three quarters of the company’s financial year to 30 June 2019, the board anticipated that full year revenue would more than double last year’s, which was based on revenue in the first three quarters of £3.77 million, a 98% increase on the corresponding period last year, the signing of the distribution agreement with Tech Data, joint marketing with Google and on its expectations for the final quarter, which included a significant revenue contribution in September.
The company said: “These events occurred later than expected, on 16 August and 4 September, respectively, but with the former requiring a waiver of Rule 9 of the Takeover Code and publication of a circular to shareholders. These delays impacted cash availability and limited the company’s ability to invest in key areas, including digital marketing, and consequently revenue in Q4.
“As a result of the last quarter’s revenue being so significantly below the board’s expectations, the company anticipates losses for the year ended 30 September 2019 being materially below market expectations and no less than those of last year (2018: loss of £2.54 million).
