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(Sharecast News) - Celebrus Technologies said in an update on Thursday that it expects to report broadly flat revenue and a swing to a small loss for the 2026 financial year, as changes to its commercial model weighed on reported figures despite continued growth in recurring revenue.
The AIM-traded data solutions provider said revenue for the year ended 31 March was expected to be about $23.3m, compared with $38.7m in 2025, broadly in line with market expectations.
It said it anticipated an adjusted pre-tax loss of around $0.2m, versus a profit of $8.7m the previous year, although that was slightly ahead of consensus forecasts due to cost control measures in the second half.
Celebrus said the decline in reported revenue reflected changes to its contractual arrangements introduced from April last year, including revised definitions of cost of sales, segmentation of revenue and a move to straight-line recognition of licence revenues, rather than any deterioration in underlying activity.
Software revenue totalled $20.0m, down from $30.3m, with Celebrus Software contributing $9.4m compared with $13.3m a year earlier.
Annual recurring revenue increased 10.3% to $15.0m from $13.6m, supported by a net revenue retention rate of 97.6% as the group secured renewals and some upsell activity.
However, two banking clients reduced their footprint following divestitures, lowering software fees, while new business underperformed expectations after several deals at the contractual stage in the fourth quarter were either lost or delayed.
The group said it ended the year with cash of $32m, up slightly from $31.5m, and remained debt free.
Looking ahead, Celebrus said it was focused on improving consistency in new business generation while maintaining strong customer retention.
The company highlighted a solid pipeline and an increase in new leads at the start of 2027, supported by changes to its go-to-market approach and investment in customer success.
"2026 was a year comprised of a mix of both success and failure as a business," said chief executive Bill Bruno.
"We continued to prove our ability to retain and grow our existing customers, and thus the stickiness of our software, but struggled with building consistency in securing new logos to add to the mix.
"The start of 2026 had some key wins, but the end of the year saw several prospective deals that were fully negotiated, being lost or suffering delays for various reasons.
"We have made adjustments to the business based upon our learnings from 2026.
"The team is focused on winning and is hungry to deliver better ARR growth in 2027."
At 1517 BST, shares in Celebrus Technologies were down 10.47% at 84.61p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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