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Appen’s (ASX:APX) shares rise on business restructure

ASX 200
ASX:APX      MCAP $137.4M
19 May 2021 11:30 (AEST)
Appen (ASX:APX) - CEO, Mark Brayan

Source: Appen

Appen (APX) has made some changes to the structure of its business to provide greater visibility of the drivers and performance.

The machine intelligence company has evolved from a language data service provider to a leading artificial intelligence (AI) data annotation services provider.

The ASX 200-lister will organise a new structure to include four customer-facing business units – Global, Enterprise, China and Government.

Global will focus on providing data annotation services and products to major U.S. technology customers, while Enterprise will drive growth outside of these customers by leveraging Appen’s product suite.

The China and Government units will focus on capturing share in their high-growth markets.

“Our new structure will drive performance and growth by aligning our business
with market opportunities and customer needs,” CEO Mark Brayan said.

“Value will be created by pursuing product-led expansion and by giving our teams end-to-end responsibility and control over delivery for their customers,” he added.

Appen will also change its reporting currency from Australian dollars to U.S. dollars. This change is due to the fact that more than 90 per cent of the company’s revenue and assets are in U.S. dollars.

In addition, the billion-dollar stock has maintained its previously announced underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of between US$83 million and US$90 million (roughly A$106.6 million and A$115.6 million) for the year ended December 31 2021.

On the market this morning, Appen is up 12 per cent and is trading at $12.59 per share at 11:51 am AEST.

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