Financial technology company GBST, which has been the subject of an acquisition bidding battle, has seen pre-tax profits rise by 80 per cent to $14 million for the full year 2019.
In its results for the full year to 30 June, 2019, the fintech firm said net inflows were $26.3 million, up from $11.2 million in the previous year.
Total revenue and other income was $94.3 million, up seven per cent from $88.3m in 2018, while operating EBITDA was $19 million, up 52 per cent from 2018.
When the operating EBITDA was considered before the strategic research and development (R&D) program that the firm was doing, it was line with 2018, which the firm said was the result of increased infrastructure costs. The existing program of R&D work including Catalyst and E-VOLVE was 47 per cent complete and it was also looking at annuities and the ASX Chess upgrade.
Managing director and chief executive, Robert DeDominicis, said: “The cost increase reflects that the transformation of our software incurs a duplication of infrastructure costs during the development phase; one-off costs to expedite and reduce risks of execution in our software transformation; an increase in short-term incentives for staff and the increased use of cloud hosting, replacing capital expenditure.
“The H2 FY19 experienced lower costs through a reduction in the labour force, a focus on utilisation and other measures to reduce our operating cost base.”
No dividend was declared as GBST said the high level of investment required prudent capital management.
Looking at the year ahead, GBST said its future growth was focused on the UK wealth management space, leveraging its Tax Intell product and ‘promising opportunities’ from the ASX Upgrade programme.
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