This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 as retained as part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended. Upon the publication of this Announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
24 January 2024
ZOO DIGITAL GROUP PLC
("ZOO", the "Group" or the "Company")
Trading Update
ZOO Digital Group plc (AIM: ZOO), a leading provider of end-to-end cloud-based localisation and media services to the global entertainment industry, today provides an update on trading.
Calendar 2023 marked a period of significant and unforeseen disruption for the entertainment industry following strategic reviews by major studios and Hollywood strikes that brought productions to a halt for six months. Following resolution in November, production companies have resumed projects with the expectation that the first of these would complete in January, accelerating into February and beyond.
ZOO has now been notified by its largest customer of orders giving a pipeline and confidence of work for the next two quarters which is expected to deliver a strong recovery of revenues, and indicates demand for services and languages that are aligned with ZOO's investment strategy. However, it is now clear that the completion of entertainment products is taking longer than expected. This will result in Q4 revenue being significantly lower than anticipated leading to a greater loss than previously expected for the full year. The pipeline is consistent with current market expectations for FY25 and a return to profitability.
On 31 December 2023, the Group had net cash of $8.9 million and expects to maintain a positive balance with unused debt facilities available at the March year-end and an improving cash balance in the first half of FY25 due to the recommencement of orders.
The Board expects further clarity on the timing of projects and therefore revenue for the rest of the year in the coming weeks and will update the market further as necessary in due course.
The persons responsible for arranging for the release of this Announcement on behalf of ZOO are Stuart Green, Chief Executive Officer and Phillip Blundell, Chief Financial Officer of ZOO.
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About ZOO Digital Group plc:
ZOO Digital supports major Hollywood studios and streaming services to globalise their content and reach audiences everywhere, by providing leading, technology-enabled localisation and media services.
Founded in 2001, ZOO Digital operates from hubs in Los Angeles, London, Dubai, Turkey, South Korea, India, Denmark and Spain with a development and production centre in Sheffield, UK.
The Group provides media services through its platforms that include: ZOOsubs, ZOOdubs and ZOOstudio. Its full-service proposition delivers the end-to-end services required to prepare both original and catalogue content for digital distribution; these services include dubbing, subtitling & captioning, metadata creation & localisation, mastering, artwork localisation and media processing. Alongside this offering, ZOO also provides its customers with management platforms and strategic solutions to support their own internal globalisation operations.
ZOO is a go-to service partner for media businesses looking to globalise their content across different territories, languages and distribution platforms. Using its innovative technology-enabled approach, ZOO helps its customers to reduce time to market, lower costs and deliver high quality products to their global audiences. The business has frameworks in place with all major Hollywood studios and streaming services. Its customers include Disney, NBCUniversal, HBO and Paramount Global.
ZOO's competitive advantage arises from three interlinking factors - the leading role it has played in the digital transformation of its sector; the world class proprietary platforms that it develops to enable this transformation; and the global supply chain of thousands of freelancers, working collaboratively in ZOO's platforms, which delivers services that scale easily to meet demand. These factors combine to make ZOO uniquely placed to capitalise on new market opportunities in a fast-paced and constantly evolving industry.
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