CORRECT: GeoOp posts wider 1H loss as it chases growth   11 Dec 2014

CORRECT: GeoOp posts wider first-half loss as it chases global growth

(Fixes revenue, user figures in 2nd graph, updates share price in 8th graph)

By Suze Metherell

Dec. 11 (BusinessDesk) - GeoOp, the small business app developer, widened its first-half loss as it spent more on product development and sales to chase global growth.

The Auckland-based company widened its loss to $2.7 million in the six months ended Sept. 30, from a loss of $1.6 million, a year earlier, it said in a statement. Sales rose 206 percent to $382,000, as the company boosted licensed users to 13,370 from 4,700 a year earlier. GeoOp said it passed $1 million of annualised subscription revenue in November.

In September, Leanne Graham resigned as GeoOp's chief executive, 11 months after it listed on the New Zealand Alternative Index, to take a new role leading the company’s push into the US. The search for a new chief executive is still underway, the company said today.

The app developer is looking to capture the growing smart phone reliant workforce with its app which helps small- to-medium sized businesses manage remote workforces. It is now looking to target larger corporations and government with its app.

"GeoOp has continued to focus on the two fundamental matters that are critical to our success, product and sales," said chairman Mark Weldon. "Significant investment has continued to enable GeoOp to take advantage of the global opportunity."

In October, Callaghan Innovation, the government innovation investment fund, awarded the company $1.1 million in funding over the next three years to boost its research and development. In the six month period it more than tripled spending on R&D to $1.1 million, from $352,000 a year earlier, while its sales and marketing costs doubled to $499,000 from $290,000.

As at Sept. 30, GeoOp had cash and investments of $4.9 million, up from $678,000 a year earlier.

The company raised $10 million at $1 a share in a private offer before listing on the NZAX last October. The shares rose 4 percent to 52 cents today, and have declined some 89 percent from the high of $4.49 reached last November.

It didn’t declare a dividend.

(BusinessDesk receives funding from Callaghan Innovation to write on the commercialisation of innovation.)

(BusinessDesk)

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