| Highlights |
Revenue of $17.62 million in Q4-09; $73.24 million for FY-09
Net income of $0.49 million in Q4-09; $2.31 million for FY-09
Gross margin of 54% in Q4-09; 56% for FY-09
Cash generated from operating activities was $1.18 million in Q4-09; cash used for operating
activities was $0.09 million for FY-09
Board of directors declares quarterly dividend of $0.03 per common share
|
Edmonton, Alberta - November 9, 2009
Matrikon Inc. (TSX:MTK), a leading provider of solutions for industrial intelligence, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended August 31, 2009. Matrikon’s president & CEO Nizar J. Somji commented, "Our fiscal year 2009 results are reflective of a delayed reaction to the global economic downturn, which affected us particularly in Q3-09. The economic slowdown caused our sales cycle to lengthen as many of our clients required additional time and due diligence to obtain approval for contracts. After a disappointing third quarter, sales activity started to pick up late in the fourth quarter, particularly in oil & gas and mining.
"Late in the fourth quarter, we had a record project win for cyber security in the power and utilities industry. We anticipate even more opportunities in this industry given the timeline for compliance and Matrikon’s expertise in this area.
"Following Q3-09, we made investments in R&D and staffing levels and made the adjustments needed to bring cost structures into alignment with revenue levels. With this realignment and the positive indications that more of the opportunities in our pipeline will proceed in the near term, we are well positioned as the economy recovers. Given the business closed in Q4-09 as well as the strong pipeline, we anticipate to continue to improve from our fourth quarter performance fiscal year 2010."
Based on projects underway and expected improvements to Q1-10 results, Matrikon’s board of directors also declared a dividend of $0.03 per common share for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009. This dividend is payable December 21, 2009 to all shareholders of record on November 19, 2009. The dividend is an eligible dividend for Canadian tax purposes.
For FY-09, Matrikon posted revenue of $73.24 million, a decrease of 8% from FY-08. Net income decreased to $2.31 million from $9.10 million in FY-08. Earnings per share for FY-09 were $0.07, decreasing from $0.30 per share in FY-08.
Fourth quarter revenue was $17.62 million, down from $20.16 million in Q4-08, and net income was $0.49 million, down from $2.58 million in Q4-08. Earnings per share in Q4-09 were $0.02, compared to earnings of $0.09 per share in Q4-08.
Quarter Highlights:
- Revenue improved by 8% compared to Q3-09 as Solutions (consulting and equipment) revenue increased by 9%. The primary contributor to this improvement was an increase of 86% in equipment revenue.
- Software license revenue increased by 12% in Q4-09 compared to Q3-09 as off-the-shelf products sales increased 18% and OPC sales increased 10%.
- Gross margin was up 4 basis points to 54% on higher revenue and flat cost of sales in the quarter compared to Q3-09.
- Total expenses declined by 10% and represented 51% of revenue, compared to 60% in Q3-09. Q3-09 expenses were elevated due to restructuring costs incurred at the end of quarter.
- Net income recovered from a loss of $2.96 million in Q3-09 to income of $0.49 million in Q4-09 as a result of increased gross profit and a reversal in foreign currency translation rates. We realized a foreign currency translation gain of $0.005 million in Q4-09 compared to a loss of $2.13 million in the previous quarter.
- Cash provided by operating activities increased from $0.52 million in Q3-09 to $1.18 million in Q4-09 as we continued to focus on accounts receivable collections.
- MatrikonOPC™ announced a global partnership with Shell for OPC Connectivity.
- Matrikon announced a US$1.94 million contract to provide a power generation company in Illinois with a comprehensive asset management solution.
- Matrikon announced a significant project for a major US power company worth a record value of US$13.5 million towards the end of the quarter. This strategic win capitalizes on Matrikon’s core strength of real-time monitoring and reporting to protect critical assets and processes and achieve compliance under new North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection regulations.
Outlook
We remain committed to our strategy of transitioning to a Solutions oriented company and will continue to build upon it in 2010. Our main objective for FY-2010 is to return to top line growth while improving our profit margin.
A key element of our strategy is to continue development of new industry applications based on our Intuition framework, particularly for the power industry. At the same time, we will continue to grow the market share of our existing applications (such as Well Performance Monitor™ and Mobile Equipment Monitor™) as the sectors that these applications serve begin to recover from the recession.
Annual Results
Complete financial statements, notes to the financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) by November 16, 2009 and will be available to download from the investor relations section of our website at www.matrikon.com/investors as soon as they are filed.
Our information circular and other annual materials will be mailed on or about November 22, 2009.
Conference Call November 18, 2009 at 8:30 am EST
A conference call will be held on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 8:30 am EST (6:30 a.m. MST). To participate live, call 416-644-3421 in the Toronto area and 1-877-974-0446 for all other areas.
A replay will be available until midnight MST on Monday, December 14, 2009. To access the playback service, please dial 416-640-1917 in the Toronto area or 1-877-289-8525 in all other areas, reservation number 4179134 followed by the pound sign.
The conference call will also be webcast and podcast at:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/viewEvent.cgi?eventID=2865280
Annual General Meeting
We invite you to join us at Matrikon's 2009 annual shareholders meeting on January 11, 2010 at 2:00 pm MST (4:00 pm EST). The meeting will be held at our head office in Edmonton, Alberta: Suite 1800, 10405 Jasper Avenue.
About Matrikon
Matrikon (www.matrikon.com) provides industrial software solutions to process control industries, empowering their clients to achieve operational excellence. Matrikon products transform production data into knowledge and action that enable users to maximize performance while managing risk. With offices throughout North America, Australia, Europe and the Middle East and a client base that includes industry leaders in a wide range of process industries, Matrikon's reach is global. Empowering excellence since 1988, Matrikon is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MTK.
For more information, contact:
Nicole Sayler
Corporate Communications Director
780-945-4010
877-628-7456 x 4010
email: nicole.sayler@matrikon.com
Matrikon, Matrikon Well Performance Monitor and Matrikon Mobile Equipment Monitor are trademarks or registered trademarks of Matrikon Inc.