Aeeris eyes turn around in fortunes
FY18 is shaping up as a critical year for Chinderah-based disaster warning service Aeeris.
The ASX minnow and owner of The Early Warning Network, Aeeris collects and analyses data to provide digital warnings for events such as severe storms, bushfires, tsunamis, power disruptions and traffic snarls.
It issues alerts via SMS, email, on Facebook, Twitter, the internet and other platforms.
Founded by ex-farmer turned tech entrepreneur, Kerry Plowright, Aeeris listed on the ASX on April 1, 2015 after raising $3.5 million through an initial public offering at 25¢ a share.
However, the price has plunged after the company faced a hike in operating costs.
In the past year shares have traded as low as 3.6¢ and as high as 6.3¢.
In its annual report, released ahead of the company’s annual meeting in Sydney next month, Mr Plowright notes the share price does not reflect the value of the business.
“The responsibility for this lies with the directors and management,” he writes.
“Accepting that, we are committed to demonstrating growth, vision and scalability over FY19.
“This introduces the takeaway for this year’s report, the opportunity to scale the business.”
Scalability is Aeeris’ new catchcry.
Despite revenue surging 27 per cent in the past financial year to $1.395 million, that is from a relatively low base – something noted in the annual report.
“Adding an additional 30 per cent increase over the next year is not the vision held by either the board or management,” the report reads.
“The current growth rate will not realise the company’s ambition, which is a multi-fold increase in share valuation supported by a significant uplift of revenues.
“The objective being to achieve this within three years featuring positive EBITDA.”
Aeeris’ new strategy revolves around delivering its data through so-called mature platforms already servicing industries Aeeris works with including insurance companies, government and community groups, councils and construction and resources firms.
“Up until now we have been unable to effectively exploit our superior and unique data services within the market,” Aeeris said. “We are currently working to deliver our data through extended networks, which are deeply entrenched within our prospective market. To this end we are entering reseller, revenue share, and partnership agreements.”
The company says it is in discussions with an established geographic information system (GIS) provider with a user base largely made up of local government organisations.
The past financial year was a successful one for Aeeris.
It turned around a loss of $2.035 million in FY17 into a small $50,254 profit for the past financial year.
It slashed expenses by half from $3.720 million in FY17 to $1.832 million in FY18.
Aeeris says the huge cost reduction has not compromised its capabilities or capacity to scale the business.
In addition, the company boosted monthly subscription revenue by about 30 per cent.
“Insurance followed by rail, local government and water authorities made up most of these gains.
“We have added four new insurance companies and multiple councils in addition to expanding services for telcos to include flood hydrology while also extending rail services to cover nearly all of Australia.”
Aeeris said its local government business was based entirely on flood monitoring and alerts.
Its alerting services now cover New Zealand, a move announced in March this year.
The company has a contract with a large insurer in New Zealand.