Preliminary Results

2 December 2021

Oxford Metrics plc

 ("Oxford Metrics", the "Company" or the "Group")

Preliminary Results for the financial year ended 30 September 2021

- Strong full year performance and recovery following pandemic impacted trading -

- Updated 5-year plan to deliver further shareholder value -

- Positive outlook with both divisions experiencing a strong start in the new financial year -

Oxford Metrics plc (LSE: OMG), the smart sensing software company servicing, life sciences, entertainment and engineering markets, announces preliminary results for the financial year ended 30 September 2021.

* Profit Before Tax before Group recharges adjusted for share-based payments, amortisation and impairment of intangibles arising on acquisition, impairment of Pimloc investment and exceptional costs.

** Restated

Commenting on the results Nick Bolton, Chief Executive said:

"Oxford Metrics is pleased to report a return to form with a strong full year performance and recovery following last year's pandemic impacted trading, with all the Group's key financial metrics having improved.

The pandemic demonstrated the Group's resilience but has also accelerated market drivers in both Vicon and Yotta. Vicon's growth has been restored driven by the buoyant video games sector and the demand for Virtual Production. Yotta continues to benefit from the ongoing need to digitally transform assets, reporting its highest level of ARR.

During the second half of the year, we gradually saw Location-based Entertainment partners restart their facilities and, in some cases, their rollouts.

As we move into the next financial year both divisions have experienced a strong start with key demand metrics pointing to a positive outlook. Vicon's current revenue pipeline for the first half is at least 20% ahead of this time last year and has an unprecedented level of orders in hand but, like many industries, continues to experience some short-term supply chain challenges. Yotta has a strong ARR sale pipeline for the full year with ARR growth anticipated. The Board is looking forward to an exciting year and the first step in our new five-year plan."

For further information please contact:

Oxford Metrics                                                                                             +44 (0) 1865 261860

Nick Bolton, CEO

David Deacon, CFO

Numis Securities Limited                                                                           +44 (0)20 7260 1000

Simon Willis / Hugo Rubinstein

FTI Consulting                                                                                             +44 (0) 20 3727 1000

Matt Dixon / Jamille Smith / Greg Hynes

About Oxford Metrics

Oxford Metrics develops software that enables the interface between the real world and its virtual twin. Our smart sensing software helps over 10,000 customers in more than 70 countries, including all of the world's top 10 games companies and all of the top 20 universities worldwide. Founded in 1984, we started our journey in healthcare, expanded into entertainment, winning an OSCAR® and an Emmy®, then moved into defence and engineering. We have a track record of creating value by incubating, growing and then augmenting through acquisition, unique technology businesses.

The Group trades through two market-leading divisions: Vicon and Yotta. Vicon is a world leader in motion measurement analysis to thousands of customers worldwide, including Guy's Hospital, Industrial Light & Magic, MIT and NASA. Yotta's cloud-based infrastructure asset management software enables central and local government agencies and other infrastructure owners to digitally manage their assets. Yotta has a large number of high-profile clients including VicRoads in Australia , Auckland Motorway System in New Zealand, and, in the UK, National Highways and over 160 local authorities.

The Group is headquartered in Oxford with offices in Leamington Spa, Gloucester, California, Colorado, and Auckland. Since 2001, Oxford Metrics (LSE: OMG), has been a quoted company listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange.

For more information about Oxford Metrics, visit www.oxfordmetrics.com . 

Chairman's Statement

We are pleased to report a strong full year performance in 2020/21 and a return to form following last year's pandemic-impacted trading. The business has demonstrated its resilience during the period and signs of accelerating market trends commented on last year are now being realised. Furthermore, we have emerged from the challenges over the past 18 months with an even stronger financial platform to fund organic growth and expedite potential acquisition opportunities.

Without exception, the key financial metrics of the business have improved for the 12 months to 30 September 2021 with the Group reporting revenue of £35.6m (FY20: £30.3m), a statutory PBT of £3.2m (FY20: £1.6m), an Adjusted PBT* of £4.8m (FY20: £2.6m), cash generated from operating activities £14.5m (FY20: £7.0m - Restated) and a cash position of £23.0m (FY20: £14.9m). We also continued to enhance the quality of our earnings by increasing our Annual Recurring Revenue ('ARR') to £7.4m (FY20: £6.8m).

In the light of the financial performance and confidence in the ongoing resilience of the business, the Board proposes increasing our final dividend to 2.00p per share (FY20 Final Dividend: 1.80p) this year. Our dividend policy remains to make the pay-out progressive with the aim of maintaining an average dividend cover of approximately two-times Adjusted* Earnings per Share.

Having successfully navigated a challenging period, our focus is now firmly on the future. We are embarking on our growth plan for the next five years designed to augment our capabilities to sense, analyse and apply our technology and increase our addressable markets with the goal of creating a substantially larger business and shareholder value.

Board

On October 1 2021, we appointed Paul Taylor to replace Adrian Carey as Chair of the Audit Committee. Paul brings over 20 years of boardroom experience as an Executive and Non-Executive Director, and throughout his career has been involved with growth-oriented technology businesses. Paul spent a large part of his executive career with AVEVA Group plc, where as CFO he was part of the team that delivered consistently high levels of growth in revenue and profitability both organically and through acquisition. Paul has also served on the Board of a number of technology businesses in a Non-Executive capacity supporting Executive teams in delivering strong stakeholder returns. I welcome Paul to our Board and look forward to working with him and the rest of Board as we further grow the business.

Furthermore, following Paul Taylor assuming Audit Committee Chair responsibilities, Adrian Carey will stand down as a Non-Executive Director and Senior Independent Director at the company's next AGM, expected to be held in February 2022. During Adrian's near 10 years of continuous service to the group, he has been instrumental in guiding the business as we grew into the strong position we stand today. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Board to thank Adrian for his insight and valuable contributions, and wish him well in his future endeavours.

Lastly, I want to thank the stakeholders in our business for all their contributions over the past year - our outstanding team in our offices worldwide, our shareholders, our partners and most importantly our customers.

Roger Parry

Chair

* Profit Before Tax before Group recharges adjusted for share-based payments, amortisation and impairment of intangibles arising on acquisition, impairment of Pimloc investment and exceptional costs.

CEO STATEMENT

To use a meteorological metaphor, we have seen all types of weather over this past 12 months. We started the year with the winter of on-going, multiple lockdowns and we finished it in the sunshine of greater than pre-pandemic levels of demand, albeit with a squeezed supply chain. As you can see from the headline results, it was a year of clear trading progress and we now stand on our strongest ever platform. We have over 10,000 customers worldwide in over 70 different countries, including all 10 of the world's top 10 games companies and all of the top 20 universities worldwide. We even have around half the UK street lighting assets managed using our software. It was also a year where the macro changes we have been tracking for several years started to accelerate and it is this acceleration that indicates the path we must take to drive further future growth through our new five-year plan.

STRATEGIC REVIEW - OUR NEW FIVE-YEAR PLAN

Ever since 1984, Oxford Metrics has been enabling the interface between the real world and its virtual twin. It was in that year we introduced our first motion capture system and we have been providing a bridge between the physical and digital world ever since.

We started our journey in healthcare, we expanded into entertainment, winning an OSCAR® and an Emmy®, then we moved into defence and engineering. We have a track record of creating value by incubating, growing and then augmenting through acquisition, unique technology businesses.

Accelerated Augmentation

As we emerge from the pandemic, something fundamental is changing in our markets and in our opportunity. We are seeing an acceleration of the Augmented Age - an era where machines and humans partner to achieve what neither can do alone. We were already seeing this in many of the markets we serve, including robotics, healthcare, sports and entertainment - but now it's been brought forward by the pandemic. Look at the faster adoption of tele-medicine, remote management, and virtual production.

For this augmented partnership between human and machine to work, we need technologies which have the ability to perceive us and our surroundings. They must be able to capture and understand every dimension of our world in real-time - humans, objects, movements, environments. This requires smart sensing systems, where cameras and other sensors are deeply coupled with powerful software to enable machines to transparently enhance our lives.

No longer will it be sufficient for a company's solution to just stop at the image or sensed data. Integrated smart sensing solutions, such as the ones we offer, look after the full life cycle of the data - sense, analyse, apply. From imagery to insight; from pixel to purpose; from sensing to sense-making, we aim to lead this important and expanding category in those end markets we already understand well.

The expansion of this market opportunity is being driven by two recent and still on-going underlying technology trends. Firstly, improvements in sensing capability - lower cost, higher resolution, better imagers, which can be readily combined with other also rapidly improving sensors (e.g. inertial, LIDAR and environmental sensors). Secondly, improvements in processing capability - both in terms of hardware (GPUs and now Neural Processing Units and other forms of specialised processors) and software (especially in Machine Learning).

Rise of Smart Sensing

These improvements mean smart sensing can be applied to a much wider set of problems and markets, and this represents a significantly expanded opportunity for Oxford Metrics. But one which requires us to both broaden and adapt our own offering to access the significantly larger marketplace than we operate in today.

We cannot serve all these end markets directly because we lack the necessary whole products, channels and other resources to be successful. Where we can generate significant value, however, is in providing both the tools for the R&D departments in these markets and then go on to embed our technology in those firms who do hold the requisite end-market elements and thus gain indirect access to this profit pool.

Three growth levers

To achieve this vision, capture the opportunity and drive growth over the life of this five-year plan, we will focus on three key initiatives:

1. Extend the sensing capabilities our integrated smart sensing systems through R&D, M&A and fostering key supplier partnerships. Currently, our solutions utilise a wide range of sensors from environmental monitors to force plates, from inertial sensors to cameras - some we own and some we just integrate with. These existing sensing mechanisms can be improved, and we can also add other sensing mechanisms to broaden the applicability of our integrated solutions.

2. Enhance the analysis we can undertake to broaden the range of applications to which our systems can be applied. Our most recent acquisition, Contemplas, competed in August 2021, and their experience with tracking and measuring from video, is a great example of this.

3. Embed our Intellectual Property (IP) in other firms' solutions by opening up our technology through R&D, M&A and investing in dedicated embedding sales and support resources. Here we will expand the ability to integrate our sensing and analysis IP to specific application domains with the aim to provide a stream of visible licensing revenues. We already have 13 partners who integrate our technologies as part of their end-market solutions; for example, in Pavement Management Services PTY Ltd at Yotta and in the Location-based Entertainment (LBE) market at Vicon.

Given the importance of M&A to drive growth, it is worth describing the strict criteria we employ to identify ideal targets. We look for IP-rich, hard-to-replicate technology companies with attractive actual or potential cashflow metrics, good-to-high revenue visibility or a dominant position in a niche market, proven market acceptance of their technology, and able management teams who share our cultural values. We do not need all these things at the point of acquisition but, where this is not possible, a pathway to how they can be achieved must be clear.

Our aim is to identify latent value in asset, buy at a fair price and then improve performance through clear strategy, technology transfer and careful investment in R&D. Sometimes we will integrate the firm into one of our existing subsidiaries and sometimes the acquired company will stand as a separate division. We seek acquisitions both in public and private markets. We employ people directly in deal origination, assessment and execution, and we leverage our strong network of advisors.

Aims

Through these growth mechanisms we have two specific financial aims. Firstly, we seek to increase revenues to 2.5 times their 2020/21 levels by the end of the five-year period. Secondly, although some of the organic investment we need to make will reduce Return on Sales ('ROS') in the early years of the plan we expect this investment, amplified through M&A activity, to return the group to our historic 15% adjusted profit before tax by the end of the plan. By the end of this plan, we will be a bigger business both in terms of revenues and profits.

OPERATIONAL REVIEW

2020/21 represented a return to form with both Yotta and Vicon reporting much improved performances despite residual challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Motion Measurement Division - Vicon

Vicon's growth trajectory was restored in FY21 reporting an increase in revenues of 21.1% to £27.6m (FY20: £22.8m). This growth was underpinned by a buoyant Entertainment segment, up 76.5% and Engineering, up 39.2%. The Life Sciences segment declined by 14.9%, so still relatively subdued post pandemic and as expected, Location Based Entertainment ('LBE') also declined by 31.9% due to the pandemic but towards the end of the financial year signs of a recovery had commenced.

Gross margin on reported revenue was 72.6% (FY20: 73.6%) reflecting a slightly higher prevalence of larger deals during the year, partly driven by the continuing adoption of virtual production. The overall cost base increased in line with activity levels which gave rise to an overall increase in Vicon reported Adjusted PBT* of £6.8m (FY20: £4.8m). The above performance includes recently acquired Contemplas GmbH which contributed revenues of £0.2m in the last two months of the financial year and a small profit.

The Contemplas acquisition, completed in August 2021, brings a number of benefits to Vicon including adding a video-based movement analysis to our offering, bringing a dominant position in the niche market of swimming analysis and strengthening our presence in Europe. Complementing Vicon's strong heritage and leadership position in motion measurement, the acquisition also brings valuable IP which over time, will assist with Vicon's broader product development plans.

Entertainment's particularly strong year was driven by a buoyant video games sector and the adoption of Virtual Production by several large production houses. Virtual Production is a digitally led way of working, merging real and virtual worlds, which incorporates a range of techniques and innovations that have been developed across the past 20 years. This includes motion capture solutions pioneered by Vicon, combined with cutting edge visual effects techniques and game engine technology, utilising tools such as LED screens and high-resolution digital film cameras. The power of this approach is when these techniques are used in concert. Crucially, it blends the filming and post-production stages. Instead of shooting against the classic green screen and then waiting to see their vision come to life, directors can now see digital characters, effects, and environments in real-time, in-camera and on set. To respond to this clear market need, Vicon introduced Shōgun 1.6 during the year with additional features targeted specifically to address the needs of high-end Virtual Production. These include a low latency object tracker, the ability to calibrate specific cameras and exportable lens maps. During the period Vicon also closed a deal with Dimension Studios, a leading virtual production studio, to provide 56 of Vicon's Vantage cameras and Vicon's Shōgun software to enable Dimension Studio's ground-breaking work, including with leading visual effects company DNEG for several high-profile virtual production projects. All-in-all Virtual Production added £1.7m (FY20: £1.3m) in revenues during the year and represents another exciting growth opportunity for the business.

Through the second half of the year, we gradually saw Location-based Entertainment (LBE) partners restart their facilities and, in some cases, their rollouts. We now have 8LBE partners globally, offering a wide array of unique entertainment experiences. We remain confident that once momentum has been restored in this market it will represent a significant revenue growth opportunity going forward.

Asset Management Division - Yotta

Our Asset Management division, Yotta, reported its highest level of ARR of £7.4m on 30 September 2021 (30 September 2020: £6.8m). Yotta achieved gross additions to the ARR base of £1.3m (FY20: £1.0m) during the year so continued to benefit from ongoing Digital Transformation initiatives. Customer retention remained largely unchanged at 90.1% (FY20: 91.7%).

Reported headline revenue increased by 7.0% to £8.1m (FY20: £7.5m) and the division reported an Adjusted PBT* of £0.8m (FY20 Loss: £0.1m) so delivering a full year of profitability which, after a period of investment and losses, represents a major milestone.

The growth in ARR driven by digital transformation led to notable Alloy wins at Derbyshire, English Heritage, SSE Devon, London Borough of Newham, London Borough of Havering, Walsall, Calderdale, Northumberland and Ubico (West Oxfordshire). Revenue recognition was increased by a host of go-lives including National Highways, London Borough of Hackney, Chorley, Bury, North Somerset, Huntingdonshire, Bristol Waste, Glasgow, West Lancashire and Hillingdon. Our customers clearly appreciate Alloy's capability to expand into new areas with one system and play a role in the wider system ecosystem.

We continued to invest in product development. Alloy added finance and accounting, Street Manager compatibility and enhanced reporting functionality and Horizons now includes emissions monitoring functionality. Horizons also benefitted from collaboration with our new partner Vaisala, (a Finnish company that develops, manufactures and markets products and services for environmental and industrial measurement), which allows the user to consume data from Vaisala's mobile phone-based surveying application to analyse asset condition. This ability was instrumental in the selection of Horizons by the aforementioned Northumberland, Calderdale and Brent customers.

CURRENT TRADING AND OUTLOOK

Both divisions have experienced a strong start to the new fiscal year with key demand metrics pointing to a positive outlook.

Turning first to Vicon, they start the new financial year with a revenue pipeline for the first half which is at least 20% ahead of this time last year and includes unprecedented level of orders in hand of £5.9m. However, as in many industries, Vicon continues to experience some short-term supply chain challenges arising from the well-publicised global semiconductor shortage. Whilst there has been some improvement in recent months the Board believe revenues in the first half may be affected. We remain well prepared to meet and manage this industry-wide challenge and anticipate that any impact will result in revenue being delayed into the second half of the year rather than being lost. Overall, the fundamentals at Vicon remain positive and they remain well placed to capitalise on the substantial market opportunity in the year ahead. As part of the new five-year strategic plan, Vicon will also be increasing investment in the year ahead, to augment our capabilities to sense, analyse and apply our technology, by £2.3m on an annualised basis going forward.

Yotta has a strong ARR sales pipeline for the full year, consistent with adding at least another £1.2m gross additions to ARR during the financial year. With this anticipated growth in ARR and a stable cost base, Yotta can look forward to another full year of profitability.

The Group starts the year in good financial health and in a strong position to invest in its future and expedite acquisition opportunities that will accelerate our strategy. The board look forward to an exciting year ahead that will be the first step in our new five-year plan delivering further shareholder value.

Nick Bolton

CEO

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Income Statement

The Group reported revenue of £35.6m (FY20: £30.3m) representing a headline increase of 17.6%, and on a constant FX basis the increase was 19.9%. From a geographical perspective, Vicon USA, which had suffered the most during the pandemic, recorded a headline year-on-year improvement of 11.7%, on a constant FX basis the improvement was 19.3%.

Gross Profit margin improved to 70.7% (FY20: 69.0%), reflecting a slight change in the mix of revenue. In real terms Gross Profit improved year on year by £4.3m to £25.2m.

Reviewing the cost base within the Income Statement:

Adjusted PBT* of £4.8m (FY20: £2.6m) has been determined after adding back to the Statutory PBT £3.2m (FY20: £1.6m) non-cash items such as amortisation and impairment of acquired intangibles, share option charge, impairment of investment in Pimloc and non-recurring exceptional items which this year included M&A costs of £0.1m. A full reconciliation is available in note 7.

Acquisition of Contemplas GmbH

The acquisition contributed revenues of £0.2m in the final month of the financial year and a small profit.

In accordance with IFRS 3 any future earn out payments will be recognised in the Income Statement as deemed remuneration given certain conditions associated with the acquisition. The amount recognised as consideration in excess of the fair value of net assets acquired has been attributed to software IP.

Statement of Financial Position

Goodwill and intangibles

The increase this year includes the acquisition of Contemplas GmbH Acquired Intangibles of £1.9m. The remainder of the increase represents the net effect of capitalised R&D of £2.8m (FY20: £2.5m), amortisation and impairment of development costs £2.2m (FY20: £1.8m) and the amortisation and impairment of acquired intangibles of £1.5m (FY20: £0.6m) including the partial impairment of the IMeasureU acquired intangible.

Property, plant and equipment

A small decline is reported to £1.8m (FY20: £1.9m). Additions, including Contemplas, were £0.3m (FY20: £0.3m) during the year and the depreciation charge was £0.5m (FY20: £0.6m).

Right of use assets (IFRS16)

Additions of £0.3m and an amortisation of £0.5m resulted in a net decline to £2.0m (FY20: £2.2m).

Investments

The investment of £0.2m relates to minority interest in Trensl Inc. which provides training VR solutions for the military and healthcare (rehabilitation). The investment comes back-to-back with an exclusive Supply Agreement to provide all systems. The year-on-year change relates to Contemplas which is now a 100% owned subsidiary.

Inventories

The inventory position at the end of the financial year was £2.5m (FY20: £3.4m). Overall, inventory levels have reduced due to a combination of high demand during the year and slower replenishment due to current supply chain challenges.

Trade and other receivables

At the year-end trade and other receivables decreased to £6.1m (FY20: £9.2m). The overall decrease is largely due to lower Trade receivables of £4.6m (FY20: £7.7m) reflecting a revenue performance this year that was less weighted towards the end of the financial year..

Current liabilities

The year-on-year increase in trade and other payables is accounted for by an increase in trade payables at the year-end to £2.5m (FY20: £2.0m), higher accruals £2.9m (FY20: £1.6m) and an increase in Contract liabilities to £6.6m (FY20: £5.2m) which reflects ARR growth. These increases were offset by the withdrawal of VAT Covid payment relief (FY20: £0.8m) not available in FY21.

The lease liabilities balance reported at £0.6m (FY20: £0.4m) represents the value of lease payments due within one year relating to right of use assets.

Non-current liabilities

The £0.3m increase in Other Liabilities is due to contract liabilities.

The lease liabilities balance reported of £1.6m (FY20: £1.9m) represents the value of lease payments due greater than one year relating to right of use assets.

Statement of cashflows

The Group finished the year with cash of £23.0m (FY20: £14.9m).

Cash generated from operating activities was £14.5m (FY20: £7.0m - Restated) which included a working capital inflow arising from a reduction in inventory of £1.1m (FY20: £0.2m increase), a decrease in accounts receivables of £3.1m (FY20: £2.2m) and an increase in payables of £2.2m (FY20: £0.2m decrease).

The deployment of this cash included continued investment in development giving rise to a purchase of intangibles of £2.8m (FY20: 2.5m), consideration paid for Contemplas of £1.1m and payment of dividends of £2.3m (FY20: £2.3m)

Tax

The Group tax charge this year was £0.3m (FY20: £0.0m). This increase for the most part is due to improved overseas trading. The level of Group R&D activities in the UK where the marginal rate of tax is 19% (FY20: 19%) continues to have a beneficial effect on the level of corporation tax payable in the UK given the reliefs available.

The deferred tax asset increased to £1.9m (FY20: £1.0m) largely due to an increase in unrelieved losses and an increase in the UK tax rate to 25% from 1^st April 2023. The deferred tax liability increased to £3.1m (FY20: £2.0m) largely due to the Contemplas acquisition and the aforementioned increase in UK tax rate.

David Deacon

CFO

* Profit Before Tax before Group recharges adjusted for share-based payments, amortisation and impairment of intangibles arising on acquisition, impairment of Pimloc investment and exceptional costs.

consolidated INCOME statement

for the year ended 30 september 2021

COnsolidated statement of

comprehensive income FOR THE YEAR

ENDED 30 sEPTEMBER 2021

consolidated statement of financial position AS AT 30 september 2021

consolidated STATEMENT of CASHFLOWS

For the year ended 30 september 2021

*In the prior year the principal paid on lease liabilities was previously included within cash generated from operating activities.  The cashflows in the statement above have been restated to correctly include them within cash flows from financing activities.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2021

1.   Basis of preparation of the financial information

The financial information in this preliminary announcement has been prepared in accordance with the recognition and measurement criteria of IFRS.  This announcement does not itself contain sufficient information to comply with IFRS. The Company expects to publish full financial statements that comply with IFRS on 2^rd December 2021.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with IFRS requires the use of certain critical accounting estimates. It also requires management to exercise judgement in the process of applying the Group's accounting policies which affect the reported amount of assets and liabilities at the statement of financial position date and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reported period.  Although the estimates are based on management's best knowledge of the amount, event or actions, actual results may ultimately differ from those estimates.

The financial information set out in this preliminary announcement does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006 for the years ended 30 September 2021 and 30 September 2020 but is derived from those accounts. The statutory accounts for the year ended 30 September 2020 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and those for the year ended 30 September 2021 will be delivered following the Company's annual general meeting. The auditors have reported on those accounts: their report was unqualified, did not contain references to any matters to which the auditors drew attention by way of emphasis and did not contain a statement under Section 498 of the Companies Act 2006 for the year ended 30 September 2021 or 30 September 2020.

2.   Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial information incorporates the results of the Company and all of its subsidiary undertakings drawn up to 30 September 2021.

3.   Revenue from contracts with customers

All revenue is from continuing operations.