Beeks Financial Cloud Group plc (AIM: BKS), a cloud computing and connectivity provider for financial markets, has released its trading update for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2023. The company reported significant growth, particularly in its Private Cloud and Exchange Cloud offerings, and has entered the new fiscal year with strong momentum.

Beeks Forecasts £23.8m Revenue in FY23

The company closed the fiscal year with a growth of 20% in annualized contract monthly recurring revenue (ACMRR), reaching £23.8 million, which is up from £19.3 million seen in the previous year. As of 31 August, this figure has further increased to over £25 million.

According to the company's representatives, Beeks Financial has closed a strong year, particularly in its Private Cloud services. The company also signed a new Exchange Cloud contract with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the largest stock exchange in Africa. This new contract adds to the company's growing portfolio and is expected to contribute to future growth.

Beeks Financial Cloud Group's revenue for FY23 is projected to be over 20% higher than that of FY22. The company additionally expects to report an underlying EBITDA growth of over 35% and an underlying profit before tax growth of around 10% compared to FY22. In the latter half of FY23, Beeks achieved a positive free cash flow, ending the period with an unaudited net cash of £4.41 million.

"FY23 was a year of double-digit growth and one in which we continued to expand the pipeline across each of our offerings," Gordon McArthur, the CEO at Beeks, commented. "With two Exchange Cloud contracts now secured following the addition of the JSE in the year, and many more in discussion, we remain confident in the opportunity ahead, as we capitalize on our unique cloud computing offering for the global financial services industry."

This robust growth and the upcoming JSE Exchange Cloud deployment provide a clear outlook for the company's performance in FY24. Beeks Financial Cloud Group plans to release its audited results for FY23 in early October 2023.

Growing Costs and Deeper Loss in H1

In February, the firm disclosed its preliminary financial figures for the first half of the fiscal year 2023, revealing an annual increase of 35% in revenue, reaching £10.4 million. Despite the revenue growth, the company's pre-tax losses expanded to £0.76 million, which is up from last year's loss of £0.27 million. The firm, which is publicly traded in London, closed the six-month period from July to December 2022 with a negative basic earnings per share of 0.73 pence, which is a decline from 0.42 pence the prior year.

The company's losses deepened due to a surge of 29% in the cost of sales, amounting to £5.94 million. This was mainly attributed to direct expenses and a rise in depreciation. Additionally, administrative costs climbed 35% to £3.67 million due to increased personnel expenses. The firm also reported capitalized development expenditures of £1.43 million, as it continued to invest in its Exchange Cloud platform, introduced in the previous year.

In a more recent development, the company revealed plans to offer a private computing environment for OneChronos' forthcoming Alternative Trading System (ATS).

"After a thorough review of the market, we're thrilled to have successfully outsourced infrastructure to Beeks Group's high-performance, modern compute capabilities," Iris McAtee, the Head of Engineering at OneChronos, said.