Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Appen (APX) reports challenging half-year results for CY23, where ongoing external operating and macroeconomic conditions have led to a decline in group revenue, plummeting by 24 per cent
- New markets revenue fell by 13.7 per cent to $38.9 million, led by all-time record lows in global services, which plummeted by 27.4 per cent to $100.1 million
- The underlying net loss after tax for H123 sits at $34.2 million compared to $3.8 million the year before, and statutory net losses after tax round off at $43.3 million
- APX has no debt and expects to exit the 2023 financial year with an annualised run-rate operating cost base lower than $113 million
- APX shares are down 28.2 per cent, trading at $1.61 at 12:54 pm AEST
Appen (APX) has reported its half-year results for the 2023 calendar year, where ongoing external operating and macroeconomic conditions have led to a decline in revenue.
Results for the six months that ended on June 30 showed a 24 per cent decrease in group revenue, totalling $138.9 million.
New markets revenue also dropped by 13.7 per cent, reaching $38.9 million, led by all-time record lows in global services, which recorded a 27.4 per cent plummet to $100.1 million.
The company’s underlying net loss after tax for the first half of 2023 was $34.2 million, compared to an underlying net loss of $3.8 million the previous year.
Statutory net losses after tax amounted to $43.3 million, compared to a loss of just $9.4 million in 2022.
While the company’s results showcase a challenging year so far, APX currently has no debt and holds a cash balance of $55.2 million as of June 30, with no dividends.
“In response to the broader technology slowdown, we are focusing on areas we can control and have already achieved 63 per cent of our $46 million cost reduction target,” APX President and CEO Armughan Ahmad said.
“We remain focused on exiting FY23 as an underlying EBITDA and cash EBITDA-positive business…to help achieve this, we are exploring further actions to prioritise our investments into a more focused set of higher potential areas and expect to exit the year with a further reduced cost base.
“We are seeing growing demand in generative AI and have seen some early green shoots in our new generative AI product offerings…to date, 42 LLM projects have been delivered and we have signed our first million-dollar deal with Nvidia.”
Appen continues to make strong and early progress with multiple projects related to generative artificial intelligence (AI) model development and evaluation for both large tech and enterprise customers.
APX shares were down 28.2 per cent, trading at $1.61 at 12:54 pm AEST.
