Location Sciences cuts losses, looks forward to product launch on Bloomberg platform

Location Sciences Group PLC (LON:LSAI) said it expects to deliver much reduced full-year losses as it looks forward to launching a new product on the Bloomberg Enterprise Access point.

Chief executive Mark Slade said in a statement the board was “encouraged” by the durability of the data and insight business, which will soon make its debut in the financial services industry.

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The new product will provide financial analysts with access to footfall data and insights for UK supermarkets to assist them to better measure store performance.

The segment is also supplying data to support NHS England and members of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on modelling in their analysis of how the movement of individuals is impacting the reproduction number (R) and growth rate of COVID-19 in the UK.

The location data insight and verification company said the contract wins data and insights business allowed it to grow “modestly” and mitigate the loss of Verify revenues.

In fact, the Verify segment was hit by the pandemic and the anticipated uplift in the fourth quarter did not materialise, with no improvement in the first part of 2021.

It has been a challenging time for location-based advertising within sectors that rely on people’s movement, such as retail and QSR, the AIM-listed firm said.

The outlook for location-based advertising is poor due to the impact of the pandemic on the location-based advertising industry, with mainstream media agencies now focused on media delivery rather than adopting new technologies, especially those which risk-limiting delivery scale such as Verify, it added.

In the year to December 31, Location Sciences expects revenues to drop 12% to £1mln, with Verify down 36% and data and insights up 6%.

However, the cost reduction programme contributed to a 55% cut in underlying losses to £770,000, with cash at year-end of £1mln.

The company also announced that non-executive directors Donald Williams and Niall Hogan are stepping down from the board with immediate effect to save cash.

It added that it is “exploring a number of options” and “further announcements will be made as and when appropriate”.

“Like many businesses, 2020 has been an extremely challenging year for Location Sciences and, disappointingly, has halted the momentum we had gained in our verification business,” said Slade in the update.

“Embracing transparency, which has the side effect of limiting the scale of media delivery, has simply fallen down the priority list for many in the industry.”

“The announcement of a business review is the right thing for us to do for shareholders given the ongoing uncertainty caused by the global pandemic and the board will be evaluating all options open to it.”

Story by ProactiveInvestors