11^th June 2024

Oxford Metrics plc

 

("Oxford Metrics", the "Company" or the "Group")

 

Interim Results for the six months ended 31 March 2024

 

On track first half revenues, driven by strong execution

Vicon secures seven markerless cornerstone customers to redefine future of motion capture

Industrial Vision Systems, performing well, opening up smart manufacturing opportunities

>90% full year revenue visibility, a growing pipeline and resources for targeted M&A

Oxford Metrics plc (LSE: OMG), the smart sensing and software company, servicing life sciences, entertainment and engineering markets, announces unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2024.

 

Commenting on the results Imogen Moorhouse, Chief Executive, said: "Now over halfway into delivering our five-year plan, our teams are in full execution mode. I'm pleased to announce that we are making clear progress both operationally and financially towards our goals, as we report on track first half revenues, demonstrating strong Vicon execution.

 

Our recent acquisition of Industrial Vision Systems has been a successful move, it's performing well and we are excited about the opportunity to drive yet more applications into the smart manufacturing space. We have the financial resources to do so and are working on a number of interesting M&A opportunities to build out our presence in this growing vertical.

 

As Vicon works towards commercialising markerless, which enables 3D motion capture without the need to wear motion capture suits or markers, we are working with seven cornerstone customers to make the product the gold standard.

 

Looking ahead, Oxford Metrics enters the second half with >90% visibility of full year revenues and with a growing pipeline, the Board believes the Group is well placed to deliver results in line with current market expectations."

 

Continuing Operations	H1 FY24	H1 FY23	%
Revenue	£23.5m	£21.3m	+10.5%
Adjusted Profit before Tax*	£4.0m	£4.5m	-9.4%
Adjusted* Basic Earnings per Share	2.63p	2.94p	-10.5%
Statutory Profit/(Loss) before Tax	£2.8m	£3.4m	-17.0%
Statutory Basic Earnings per Share	2.13p	2.59p	-17.8%
Dividend paid	£3.6m	£3.2m	+9.0%
Net Cash	£54.8m	£63.6m	-13.9%

 

 

	H1 FY24	FY23	H1 FY23
Order Book**	£3.0m	£11.3m	£21.9m

 

 

* Profit/(loss) Before Tax from continuing operations before Group recharges adjusted for share-based payments, amortisation of intangibles arising on acquisition and exceptional costs

** FY23 comparative restated at $1.25/£ exchange rate

 

Financial Highlights

●	Headline Group revenue of £23.5m, up 10.5% (H1 FY23: £21.3m).
●	Group adjusted profit before tax of £4.0m (H1 FY23: £4.5m), reflecting planned investment in the five-year plan to develop and commercialise markerless.
●	Order book of £3.0m (FY23: £11.3m / H1 FY23**: £21.9m), reflecting normalisation of customer buying behaviour post supply chain challenges.
	○	Strong sales pipeline with >90% visibility on full year revenue.
●	Adjusted earnings per share 2.63p (H1 FY23: 2.94p).
●	Strong balance sheet with net cash position of £54.8m as at 31 March 2024 (H1 FY23: £63.6m), providing considerable resources to continue pursuing targeted M&A.
●	Cash generated by operations of £2.2m (H1 FY23: £0.4m) with cash deployed for working capital purposes to augment inventory and underpin second half performance.

 

Operational Highlights

 

First half revenue driven by strong execution

●	Vicon's revenue grew 2.2%, at a headline level, to £21.8m (H1 FY23: £21.3m), (on a constant currency basis underlying growth was 3.3%), driven by Vicon's strong execution.
●	Order book returns to more normal levels:
	○	Vicon customer buying behaviour normalising - a trend we expect to continue.
	○	Total Order in-take in H1 of £15.0m (H1 FY23: £19.8m).
	○	Total Orders-in-hand as at 31 March 2024 of £3.0m (FY23: £11.3m / H1 FY23: £21.9m).
●	Engineering revenues of £4.8m, up 56.6%.
	○	Contracts secured for automotive, aerospace and metrology sectors.
	○	Satellite Applications Catapult is using Vicon to track robots and simulate orbital environments.
●	Life Sciences revenues of £8.0m, up 38.3%.
	○	Valkyrie accreditation with UK Conformity Assessment (UKCA) medical device mark, enabling systems to be delivered to hospitals around the world including:
		▪	New customers: Hong Kong Children's Hospital, Yamagata University Hospital (Japan), Vinmec International Hospital (Vietnam);
		▪	Long-standing customers: Guy's & St Thomas' (UK), Shriners Children's Hospital (USA); and
		▪	The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford, one of Vicon's first-ever customers.
	○	New Valkyrie customer, University of Sydney
		▪	Using system for research into head injuries with Rugby League and Rugby Union.
		▪	Aim to reduce players concussions in the sport.
●	Entertainment revenues of £8.5m, down 22.8%, following a very strong FY23 APAC performance that is now seeing delayed effects from the global games industry contraction.
	○	Valkyrie delivered, through partner Lux Machina, to London College of Fashion and MyWorld, a new global centre of creative technology.
	○	Paper Games, in China, added an additional large Valkyrie system to add realism to their female-focused games and their VTuber, Nikki.
●	Location-based Entertainment (LBE) revenues of £0.4m, down 73.7%, due to delayed partner rollouts that we expect to deliver in H2 FY24.
	○	Sandbox VR, now operating in over 46 locations in multiple countries.
	○	New partnership with Apparel Group:
		▪	Plan to open 25 new locations by 2028;
		▪	Across the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
	○	Immersive Gamebox trialling experiences across Merlin Entertainment sites following multi-million pound and multi-territory agreement.
●	Markerless becoming a reality and presents a significant opportunity
	○	Vicon has now partnered with seven cornerstone customers.
	○	Together we are further developing and testing the technology for commercialisation.
	○	Cutting-edge advancements will redefine motion capture and content production.
●	With our focus firmly on markerless - where we see the largest growth opportunity - we have taken a strategic decision to discontinue IMeasureU (IMU) New Zealand operations.
	○	Actively engaged in planned discussions to sell the IP.

 

Smart manufacturing 

 

●	Acquisition of Industrial Vision Systems ("IVS") completed and is performing well.
●	Delivered revenues of £1.8m in the first half and an orderbook of £1.0m.
●	Brings new niche market strength in smart manufacturing.
●	High precision, automated quality control used across numerous industries.
●	Multiple new contracts secured as demand continues for automated inspection and quality control.
●	IVS goes into the second half with a healthy sales pipeline and clear growth opportunities as part of Oxford Metrics.

 

Outlook

 

●	>90% visibility of full year revenues and a growing sales pipeline ahead of this time last year.
●	Deploying resources to actively pursue M&A to build out smart manufacturing and IVS.
●	Encouraged by feedback of markerless advancements as our teams and partners work hard to commercialise the offering, optimising the future of motion capture.
●	Going forward we do not expect to maintain a significant order book with the return to customer trading patterns consistent with those seen pre-pandemic.
●	New CFO designate, Zoe Fox to be appointed Group CFO effective 1 July 2024.
●	The Board believes Oxford Metrics is well placed to deliver full year results in line with current market expectations.

 

 

For further information please contact:

 

Oxford Metrics	+44 (0)1865 261860
Imogen Moorhouse, CEO
David Deacon, CFO
Deutsche Numis	+44 (0)20 7260 1000
Simon Willis / Hugo Rubinstein / Tejas Padalkar
FTI Consulting	+44 (0)20 3727 1000
Matt Dixon / Emma Hall / Jamille Smith / Jemima Gurney

About Oxford Metrics

 

Oxford Metrics is a smart sensing and software company that enables the interface between the real world and its virtual twin. Our smart sensing technology helps over 10,000 customers in more than 70 countries, including all of the world's top 10 games companies and all of the top 20 universities worldwide. Founded in 1984, we started our journey in healthcare, expanded into entertainment, winning an OSCAR® and an Emmy®, moved into defence, engineering and smart manufacturing. We have a strong track record of creating value by incubating, growing and then augmenting through acquisition, unique technology businesses.

The Group trades through its market-leading division Vicon and, recently acquired, Industrial Vision Systems, adding niche market strength in smart manufacturing. Vicon is a world leader in motion measurement analysis to thousands of customers worldwide, including Red Bull, Imperial College London, Dreamscape Immersive, Industrial Light & Magic, and NASA. Industrial Vision Systems is a specialist in machine vision software and technology for high precision, automated quality control systems trusted by blue-chip, smart manufacturing companies across the globe including BD, DePuy, Jaguar Land Rover, Johnson & Johnson, Zytronic and Alkegen.

The Group is headquartered in Oxford with offices in California, Colorado, Auckland, and Kempten. Since 2001, Oxford Metrics (LSE: OMG), has been a quoted company listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange. For more information about Oxford Metrics, visit www.oxfordmetrics.com 

Chief Executive's Statement

Now in year three and just over halfway into delivering our five-year plan, the team is in full execution mode, and we are making clear progress towards our goals. Today, we report an on track first half revenue performance, driven by strong Vicon execution.

 

During the half, we welcomed Industrial Vision Systems into the Group. An earnings enhancing acquisition taking us into a new market - smart manufacturing. We are excited about the opportunities this move brings to extend into yet more applications.

 

Our team at Vicon has been making good progress commercialising markerless. Markerless will be a key part of the future of our industry, enabling 3D motion capture without the need to wear motion capture suits or markers, using the latest machine learning and AI techniques to process video imagery to create 3D visualisations. As part of our Pioneer Programme to further develop and test the markerless technology, Vicon has now partnered with seven cornerstone customers to get the delivery and commercialisation right and set the gold standard.

 

In March, after 15 years as our CFO, David Deacon announced his desire to move away from a full-time executive role with these Interims being his last. I would like to take the opportunity to thank David for his years of service. David will remain with the business for a period of time to ensure a smooth handover to our CFO designate, Zoe Fox, who will be appointed as the Group's CFO from 1 July 2024.

 

As expected, the Vicon business has returned to pre-pandemic trading patterns. Our order book has returned to more normal levels as customer demand and buying behaviours have normalised post the pandemic disruption and the well-documented global supply chain challenges throughout that time. This continues the trend we saw in the second half of FY23 which saw us close the year with orders-in-hand of £11.3m.

 

As our teams focus their attention and innovation efforts on commercialising markerless - where we see clear growth opportunities - we have taken a strategic decision to discontinue IMeasureU (IMU), our New Zealand operation and are actively engaged in discussions to sell the IP.  

 

On target first half trading

 

KPI	Revenue		PBT		Adjusted PBT*
	H1 FY24	H1 FY23	H1 FY24	H1 FY23	H1 FY24	H1 FY23
Vicon	£21.7m	£21.3m	£1.9m	£3.4m	£4.3m	£5.4m
IVS	£1.8m	-	£0.3m	-	£0.5m	-
Group	-	-	£1.2m	£0.6m	(£0.8m)	(£0.9m)
Continuing	£23.5m	£21.3m	£3.4m	£4.0m	£4.0m	£4.5m
Discontinued	£0.0m	£0.0m	(£1.4m)	(£0.1m)	(£0.5m)	(£0.4m)
Group	£23.5m	£21.3m	£2.0m	£3.9m	£3.5m	£4.1m

 

The Group reports revenues of £23.5m (H1 FY23: £21.3m), up 10.5% at a headline level. The Group also reports an Adjusted PBT* of £4.0m (H1 FY23: £4.5m), which largely reflects the net effect of increased revenues less planned investment in the five-year plan to develop markerless technology, additional Vicon Sales & Marketing investment, increased property related costs and some inflationary related increases.

 

Vicon successfully stepped-up volume again, delivering most of the opening order book whilst at the same time booking new orders in the first half of £14.0m. The current Vicon orderbook stands at £2.0m and we expect this to be delivered in the second half.

 

Our acquisition of IVS was completed and is performing well, reporting revenues of £1.8m and an Adjusted profit of £0.5m in the first half; further, the business has an orderbook of £1.0m and a healthy sales pipeline.

 

Vertical market segments performance was as follows:

 

Engineering

 

Engineering reported revenues of £4.9m (H1 FY23: £3.1m) representing growth of 56.6%.

 

Common applications for Vicon solutions in the Engineering market include Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and robot tracking, robotics development and evaluating product designs in manufacturing, ergonomics and research. Contracts were secured from automotive, aerospace and metrology sectors. Of note is the work being carried out at Satellite Applications Catapult. Catapult added cameras to their existing Vicon system which they use to help them track robots and simulate orbital environments to prepare for servicing, refuelling and assembly operations in space.

 

Life Sciences

 

Life Sciences reported revenues of £8.1m (H1 FY23: £5.8m) representing growth of 38.3%. Valkyrie successfully achieved the UK Conformity Assessment (UKCA) medical device mark accreditation, a new and more stringent classification on patient safety and device performance, part of the UK Medical Device Regulations (MDR). This accreditation enabled Valkyrie systems to be delivered to hospitals around the world including:

 

●	New customers, Hong Kong Children's Hospital, Yamagata University Hospital (Japan), Vinmec International Hospital (Vietnam);
●	Long-standing customers Guy's & St Thomas's Hospital (UK), Shriners Children's Hospital (USA); and
●	The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, (UK) one of Vicon's first-ever customers.

 

Our new customer, University of Sydney, invested in a Valkyrie solution for research into head injuries with Rugby League and Rugby Union players with the aim of studying safer tackling techniques that could reduce the risk of concussions in sport.

 

Entertainment

 

Entertainment reported revenues of £8.5m (H1 FY23 £11.0m) representing a decline of 22.8%. This follows a very strong FY23 performance in APAC that is now seeing delayed effects from the global games industry contraction.

 

Through our customer and partner, Lux Machina, Valkyrie solutions were delivered to London College of Fashion and MyWorld, a new global centre of creative technology. Most recently, Paper Games in China added an additional large Valkyrie system to their existing Valkyrie solution to add realism to their female-focused games and their VTuber, Nikki, who live streams weekly.

 

Location-based Entertainment (LBE)

 

LBE reported revenues of £0.4m (H1 FY23: £1.4m) representing a decline of 73.7% due to delayed partner rollouts that we expect to deliver throughout the rest of FY24.

Our partner, Sandbox VR, is now operating in 46 locations in multiple countries and continues to expand. Sandbox VR recently announced it is partnering with Apparel Group and plans on opening 25 new locations across the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman by 2028. Elsewhere, our partner Immersive Gamebox is trialling experiences across Merlin Entertainment sites, following its multi-million pound and multi-territory agreement.

 

Smart manufacturing

 

Encouragingly, multiple new contracts have been secured in the first half as demand continues for automated inspection and quality control. The medical sector saw the largest growth in the first half, including:

 

●	A leading London hospital invested in a semi-automatic inspection system to verify if particulates are present in fluid filled glass containers that would otherwise contaminate the chemical-based product.
●	A new medical client invested in six inspection systems, three units for integration within existing production lines and three high-speed standalone pellet inspection machines.
●	Multiple contracts were secured worldwide for inspection systems for high-speed contact lens production lines including an automated inspection system for a new Spanish-based contact lens manufacturer. A new automotive client invested in an automated battery verification end of line solution and a US owned, UK-based aerospace manufacturer invested in our market leading industry 5.0 smart workbench solution for its assembly line.

 

Overall, Vicon reported a gross margin at 68.7% (H1 FY23: 69.1%) in the first half as anticipated and is attributed to the mix of revenues arising from both the specific geographic spread of revenues and the various margin contributions of each product line. As the residual supply chain costs begin to normalise, together with other initiatives, we expect gross margin to show improvement in the second half.

 

Given the above revenue and gross margin performance coupled with a rise in the underlying cost base, before Group costs, Vicon reported an Adjusted PBT* of £4.3m (H1 FY23: £5.3m) and an unadjusted profit before tax of £1.9m (H1 FY23: £3.4m) and IVS reported an Adjusted Profit of £0.5m.

 

Returning to the Balance Sheet, the cash position, having paid a final dividend of £3.6m and deployed £6.2m on the acquisition of IVS in the first half, finished at £54.8m as at 31 March 2024 (H1 FY23: £63.6m). Cash generated by operations during the first half was £2.2m compared with £0.4m in the first half of last year.

 

Vicon inventory at £9.0m (H1 FY23: £6.4m) is higher than typical due to a planned increase which is largely for operational reasons and is expected to be reduced to around £7.0m by the end of the financial year.

 

Sense. Analyse. Apply - Five-year plan progress

 

During the half, we continued to make good progress against our five-year plan, which aims to increase FY21 revenues 2.5x and deliver an adjusted profit before tax margin of 15% by the end of FY26. The plan is all about extending our sensing capabilities, enhancing analysis modes and embedding our IP in other areas. This is being achieved through a measured approach with both organic and inorganic investment.

 

At our recent Capital Markets Day in April 2024 the progress made through our investment efforts were on display. Now past the halfway point of the five-year plan, we have made clear progress, including:

 

●	Showcasing our markerless technology in action used in Dreamscape's 'The Clockwork Forest' VR experience and seeing how IVS is a great new addition - with positive feedback from those who were able to experience the demos first-hand. To see more on this watch our videos of the day here.
●	In November 2023 we acquired IVS, an earnings enhancing acquisition taking us into smart manufacturing, opening up new opportunities for growth and adding even more great names to our strong client roster.
●	In August 2023, we unveiled the new markerless technology to extend our sensing capabilities.
●	In July 2022, Vicon launched the premium Valkyrie camera to drive organic motion capture growth.
●	Successful sale of Yotta to Causeway Technologies for £52m in May 2022 - at a premium valuation that provided a strong cash balance to pursue our growth ambition.

 

Having started the five-year plan in 2021 with continuing revenues of £27.5m, all from our motion capture business Vicon, we are aiming for £70m revenues by the end of FY26.

 

Five-year plan investment

 

Markerless - now a reality

 

Since unveiling our markerless technology at Siggraph 2023, Vicon has partnered with seven cornerstone customers as part of their Pioneer Program to further develop and test the markerless technology. These cornerstone partners include some of the leading brands in game and film industries and have been carefully selected for their groundbreaking innovations in animation and virtual production. Feedback so far has been encouraging as our teams and partners work hard to commercialise the offering, optimising the future of motion capture and setting the gold standard.

 

M&A

 

We continue to actively pursue M&A that aligns with our strict criteria. We are primarily targeting between £3-9m in revenues in smart manufacturing, as we aim to build out from the IVS acquisition. We are actively working on a number of opportunities within the smart manufacturing space that deliver this goal and have discovered a broad and diverse range of opportunities.

 

 

Quadrants of growth

Outlook

 

We enter the second half with a growing sales pipeline well ahead of this time last year and >90% visibility of full year revenues.  

 

We continue to deploy internal and external resources into M&A to deliver on the inorganic component of the five-year strategic plan. Whilst we recognise the Group has considerable cash resources, the Board remain resolute that every acquisition we make will be the right one, for the right reasons and at the right price.

 

Given the first half performance and visibility of the second half, the Board believe Oxford Metrics are well placed to deliver a performance for the full year in line with current market expectations.

 

* Profit/(loss) Before Tax from continuing operations before Group recharges adjusted for share-based payments, amortisation of intangibles arising on acquisition and exceptional costs.

 

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

 

		Six months ended 31 March 2024	Six months ended  31 March 2023	Year ended  30 September 2023
		(unaudited)	(unaudited)	(audited)
	Note	£'000	£'000	£'000
Revenue	2	23,523	21,285	44,240
Cost of sales		(7,806)	(7,132)	(15,497)
Gross profit		15,717	14,153	28,743
Sales, support and marketing costs		(4,531)	(3,609)	(8,169)
Research and development		(2,971)	(3,358)	(6,599)
Administrative expenses		(5,890)	(3,671)	(8,786)
Operating profit		2,325	3,515	5,189
Finance income		1,199	547	1,561
Finance expense		(132)	(48)	(163)
Profit before taxation		3,392	4,014	6,587
Taxation		(598)	(648)	(611)
Profit from continuing operations		2,794	3,366	5,976
Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax		(1,382)	(123)	(320)
Profit for the period attributable to owners of the parent during the period		1,412	3,243	5,656
Earnings per share for profit on continuing operations attributable to owners of the parent during the year
Basic earnings per share (pence)	6	2.13p	2.59p	4.59p
Diluted earnings per share (pence)	6	2.10p	2.55p	4.56p