Online marketing marketplace platform CentralNic Group reported a 71% improvement in revenue in its preliminary results on Monday, to $410.5m (£306.3m), with organic revenue growing 39%, compared to 9% in 2020.
The AIM-traded firm said its net revenue, or gross profit, increased 58% in the 12 months ended 31 December to $118.5m.
Adjusted EBITDA improved 57% to $46.3m, resulting in a margin of 11.3% on gross revenue and 39% on net revenue.
CentralNic recorded an operating profit of $12.4m, swinging from an operating loss of $2.1m in 2020, while its profit before tax totalled $1.6m compared with a loss of $11.8m.
Net debt narrowed to $75m, consisting of gross interest-bearing debt of $131.1m and cash of $56.1m, compared to $85m at the end of 2020.
The board said that came despite four acquisitions for a combined $18.3m in the year, and the settlement of combined deferred consideration of $1.7m.
CentralNic reported an adjusted cash conversion ratio of 116%, compared to 120% in 2020, and adjusted earnings per share for the year up 18% to 11.8 US cents.
Looking ahead, CentralNic said the record organic growth in 2021 as the world began to emerge from Covid-19 lockdowns demonstrated the success of its strategy of investing during the pandemic.
It said its market consolidation strategy was continuing, with acquisition opportunities being “continually evaluated” in a large, global and fragmented market.
The group was consolidating the “carefully-curated assets” into its marketplace model for online presence and online marketing services, it explained, in a bid to develop network effects among the “highly complementary businesses” it had acquired.
It said the strong growth experienced during 2021 had continued into 2022 thus far, adding that the year-on-year revenue growth experienced during the first quarter to date, which was largely driven by the performance of the online marketing segment, was “materially ahead” of the revenue growth rates implied by analyst consensus expectations for the full year ended 31 December.
Given the early stage of the current financial year and given the uncertainty implied by the current “geopolitical situation”, the directors said they were yet to fully ascertain the expected impact on full-year performance.
They did, however, reconfirm their opinion that it should be at least “at or above” the high end of the latest range of analyst expectations.
“CentralNic has enjoyed a very strong 2021 across both our online presence subscription products and our privacy-safe online marketing solutions – achieving record organic growth of 39% for the year,” said chief executive officer Ben Crawford.
“Significant investment in human resources, restructuring and market-leading products has contributed to the group having revised its performance expectations for 2021 upwards repeatedly over the course of the year.
“A virtually pure-play recurring revenue business with cash conversion of over 100%, CentralNic continues to improve its cash position, interest coverage and net debt to EBITDA ratio as it grows.”
Crawford said that, as the firm’s investment levels plateaued going forward, it expected future periods to benefit from increasing operational leverage.
“These robust results reflect CentralNic’s continued success in sourcing, completing and integrating transformative acquisitions, integrating them into marketplaces enjoying network effects, and driving organic growth.
“The pipeline of future acquisition targets remains strong and we are confident in continuing our trajectory towards joining the ranks of the global leaders in our industry.”
At 1322 GMT, shares in CentralNic Group were down 5.24% at 126.5p.
