Solidifies Growth Platform for Next
Level
VIQ Solutions Inc. ("VIQ" or the "Company") (TSX Venture
Exchange: VQS and OTC Markets: VQSLF) a global provider of secure,
AI-driven, digital voice and video capture technology and
transcription services, today reported financial results for the
third quarter 2020 and outlined plans to accelerate the Company’s
growth. Results are reported in US dollars and are prepared in
accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards
("IFRS").
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201130005975/en/
“This year has been both rewarding and challenging for our team
who has shown resilience and agility during a global pandemic while
accelerating digitization and redefining our addressable growth
markets,” said Sebastien Paré, VIQ Solutions’ President and CEO.
“We significantly increased productivity, added new clients,
expanded existing client volume, and launched new products to
support a remote workforce. All of which contributed to a strong
financial performance, including gross margin expansion. This
success positions us well for 2021 when we expect to generate
significant top-line growth, and positive net income and earnings
per share.”
Key Third Quarter 2020 Highlights:
- Revenue of $8.2 million increased 27% versus the third quarter
2019 revenue of $6.5 million. The increase of $1.7 million included
$2.7 million from acquisitions and was partially offset by $1.0
million downward exposure from temporary COVID-19 shutdowns during
the second and third quarter 2020 on net organic growth;
- Generated 71% of revenue in the United States, 27% in
Australia, and 2% in EMEA and Canada;
- Gross profit of $4.9 million represented 60.4% of revenue
versus $2.9 million or 45.0% of revenue in the third quarter of
2019. Gross profit in 2020 was favorably impacted by $1.4 million
in COVID-19 wage subsidies;
- Adjusted EBITDA of $1.9 million increased 305% compared to the
third quarter 2019 Adjusted EBITDA of $0.5 million. The increase in
Adjusted EBITDA was driven by higher revenues due to acquisitions,
and productivity gains in transcription services as well as
COVID-19 wage subsidies received in 2020, and was partially offset
by higher SG&A expenses as the Company continues to invest in
scalability and innovations.
Key Nine Month 2020 Financial Highlights:
- Revenue of $24.0 million increased 26% compared to $19.0
million in revenue during the same period in the prior year. The
increase in revenue of $5.0 million included $7.3 million related
to acquisitions and was partially offset by a $2.3 million downward
exposure from temporary COVID-19 shutdowns during the second and
third quarter 2020 on net organic growth;
- Generated 72% of revenue in the United States, 26% in
Australia, and 2% in EMEA and Canada;
- Gross profit of $13.2 million represented 55.1% of revenue
versus $8.4 million, or 44.1% of revenue, in the comparable prior
year period. Gross profit in 2020 was favorably impacted by $2.8
million in COVID-19 wage subsidies;
- Adjusted EBITDA of $4.2 million increased 251% versus Adjusted
EBITDA of $1.2 million the prior year. The $3.0 million increase in
Adjusted EBITDA was driven by higher revenues, and productivity
gains in transcription services as well as COVID-19 wage subsidies
received during the second and third quarter 2020 and was partially
offset by higher SG&A expenses.
Earlier COVID-19 restrictions, mainly in courts, law enforcement
and insurance verticals, temporarily caused delays in customer
migrations and new rollouts. Ongoing rollouts have restarted as
COVID-19 restrictions are incrementally lifted particularly in
Australia and the UK. The Company estimates approximately $2.5 to
$3.4 million of previously planned 2020 revenues are delayed to
2021.
Drives Productivity Gains
As the Company completes the first phase of its migrations to
NetScribe, powered by aiAssist, by December 31, the Company has
pivoted to enhancing technologies driving deeper improvements to
industry-specific AI. The learnings from these migrations, combined
with the rich depth of content gained in key sectors, provide the
foundation to accelerate productivity enhancements to our
transcription workflows and improve the end product delivered to
customers where the drive for faster and more accurate draft
content is essential to competitive positioning.
"We have operationalized the integration of our first three
acquisitions and the operational gains will be maximized in Q1,
2021,” said Susan Sumner, Chief Operating Officer. "This successful
migration has proven to our client base that the migration to our
new technologies and our new ownership structure is a positive
change. To that end, we invested in acquisitions that helped to
support the marquis standards we established for VIQ. In 2021 we
will invest further in supporting the awareness of both the brand
and attributes associated with VIQ solutions in our overall
expansion strategy."
Accelerates Growth Plan with Completion of $15 million Bought
Deal Equity Offering
- On November 26, 2020, the Company closed an upsized $15.3
million equity offering on a bought deal basis of 4,705,900 common
shares at a price of CAD$4.25 (USD$3.24) per share;
- Following the offering, and as of November 30, 2020, the
Company has approximately $17 million in cash;
- As noted in the Company’s Prospectus, it intends to use the net
proceeds of the Offering to invest in its sales infrastructure, to
fund potential future acquisitions and to fund development of
product and service offering by advancing research and development
projects.
“Last week, we successfully closed on an equity raise, adding
additional high quality, long-term investors to our shareholder
base, and growing our cash balance to approximately $17 million,”
said Alexie Edwards, Chief Financial Officer.
Outlook – The Company Expects:
- Full year revenue to range between $31-$32 million,
representing growth of approximately 24%-27% versus the prior
year;
- Full year gross margin to be between 50% - 55% (note the
Company does not expect wage subsidies to impact gross margin in
the fourth quarter);
- Full year Adjusted EBITDA to range between $4.4 - $4.5
million;
- To complete phase 1 migration of customers, revenue, and
editors to NetScribe™ aiAssist platform by year end;
- VIQ maintains an active M&A pipeline, which is expected to
result in future acquisitions.
The foregoing expectations regarding full year revenue, gross
margin and Adjusted EBITDA constitute forward-looking information
and readers are cautioned that the Company’s actual results may
vary.
The Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's
Discussion and Analysis for the quarter will be posted on the
Company's website at https://viqsolutions.com/investors and the
SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.
The financial information included in this news release should
be read together with the consolidated financial statements and
Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended
September 30, 2020, including the notes thereto.
Conference Call Details
VIQ will hold a conference call to discuss its third quarter
2020 results on Tuesday, December 1st at 11:00 a.m. ET. The call
will consist of a brief update by VIQ President and CEO, Sebastien
Paré, Alexie Edwards, VIQ's CFO, and Susan Sumner, VIQ's COO,
followed by a question and answer period.
Investors may access a live webcast of the call on the Company's
website at www.viqsolutions.com/investors or by dialing
1-833-378-1030 (North America toll-free) or 1-236-712-2544
(international) to be connected to the call by an operator using
conference ID number 9928549. Participants are asked to dial in 10
minutes prior to the start of the call.
For more information about VIQ, please visit
viqsolutions.com.
About VIQ Solutions Inc.
VIQ Solutions is a global provider of secure, AI-driven, digital
voice and video capture technology and transcription services. VIQ
offers a seamless, comprehensive solution suite that delivers
intelligent automation, enhanced with human review, to drive
transformation in the way content is captured, secured, and
repurposed into actionable information. The cyber-secure, AI
technology and services platform are implemented in the most rigid
security environments including criminal justice, legal, insurance,
media, government, corporate finance, media, and transcription
service provider markets, enabling them to improve the quality and
accessibility of evidence, to easily identify predictive insights
and to achieve digital transformation faster and at a lower
cost.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements included in this news release constitute
forward-looking statements or forward-looking information under
applicable securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements
or information are provided for the purpose of providing
information about management's current expectations and plans
relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such
information may not be appropriate for other purposes.
Forward-looking statements or information typically contain
statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect",
"plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "project" or similar words
suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook.
Forward-looking statements or information in this news release
include, but are not limited to, the Company’s plans the accelerate
growth in future financial periods, the Company’s anticipated
significant increase to top-line growth, net income and earnings
per share, the quantum of the Company’s planned 2020 revenues
delayed to 2021, the Company’s ability to complete the first phase
of migrations to NetScribe aiAssist by December 31, 2020; the
expected effect that migrations to NetScribe aiAssist will have on
the Company’s financial results; the Company’s anticipated
expansion strategy and the elements thereof; the Company’s
intention to continue its acquisition strategy; the expected uses
of the net proceeds of the Company’s bought deal equity offering;
the Company’s expectations regarding its future performance
including expectations with respect to revenue growth, gross
margin, Adjusted EBITDA, the migration of customers to the
NetScribe platform and future acquisitions.
Forward-looking statements or information is based on several
factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such
statements and information, but which may prove to be incorrect.
Although VIQ believes that the expectations reflected in such
forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue
reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because
VIQ can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be
correct. In addition to other factors and assumptions which may be
identified in this news release, assumptions have been made
regarding, among other things, the Company’s ability to execute its
business plan as currently contemplated, the Company’s ability to
migrate its customers to the NetScribe platform in accordance with
projected timelines, the Company’s ability to maintain its existing
customer contracts in good standing, the Company’s ability to
successfully recover revenues delayed to 2021, the Company’s
ability to identify and acquire suitable acquisition and the
Company’s ability to continue to grow its customer base in
accordance with current projections. Readers are cautioned that the
foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions
that have been used.
Forward-looking statements or information is based on current
expectations, estimates and projections that involve several risks
and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ
materially from those anticipated by VIQ, including but not limited
to, the risk that delayed revenues will be unrecoverable, the risk
that Company will be unable to successfully migrate its customers
to its NetScribe platform as anticipated or at all, the risk that
certain of the Company’s customer contracts will be terminated, the
risk that the Company’s projections are not accurate, the risk that
the Company will be unable to integrate future acquisitions into
its existing operations and the risks and uncertainties described
under the heading “Risk Factors” in VIQ’s Annual Information Form
for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the Canadian
securities regulatory authorities under VIQ’s SEDAR profile at
www.sedar.com. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual
results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements or
information. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not
exhaustive of all possible risks and uncertainties. The
forward-looking statements contained in this release are made as of
the date of this release and, except as required by applicable law,
VIQ undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange)
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201130005975/en/
Media Contact: Laura Haggard Chief Marketing Officer VIQ
Solutions Phone: (800) 263-9947 Email: marketing@viqsolutions.com
Investor Relations Contact: Laura Kiernan High Touch
Investor Relations Ph. 1-914-598-7733 Email: viq@htir.net
VIQ Solutions (TSXV:VQS)
Gráfica de Acción Histórica
De Oct 2024 a Nov 2024
VIQ Solutions (TSXV:VQS)
Gráfica de Acción Histórica
De Nov 2023 a Nov 2024
