Press Release
From: UrtheCast
Posted: Tuesday, March 28, 2017
UrtheCast Corp. (TSX:UR) ("UrtheCast" or the "Company") today announces financial results for the three and twelve months ended on December 31, 2016.
Strong Growth in Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA Year-Over-Year
The Company is pleased to report fiscal 2016 non-IFRS revenues of $49.9 million, a 95% increase over fiscal 2015 non-IFRS revenue of $25.5 million. IFRS revenue for the year was $112.3 million as compared to $36.5 million reported in the prior year. Similarly, the Company's non-IFRS adjusted EBITDA was positive $5.6 million in the year compared to a loss of $12.9 million in the same period in 2015, amounting to an $18.6 million dollar improvement year-over-year to adjusted EBITDA. At December 31, 2016, the Company had total cash balances of $15.6 million and working capital of $18.9 million.
CFO Transition and Guidance
As announced on February 21, 2017, Mr. Sai Chu will be appointed Chief Financial Officer effective March 29, 2017. At this time, UrtheCast re-affirms its preliminary view for 2017 of growing non-IFRS revenues and expanding adjusted EBITDA margins over 2016 with similar seasonality to that of 2016.
Revenues in Earth Observation Growing by 115% Year-Over-Year
Revenues in the Company's Earth observation (EO) business in the 2016 fiscal year grew by 115% compared with fiscal 2015, growing from $7.1 million to $15.2 million (non-IFRS reporting). This triple-digit growth in the EO business is primarily due to the continued acceptance of the high-resolution imagery offering from the Deimos-2 satellite.
Impairment Charge for ISS Cameras
During the quarter, the Company recorded an additional non-cash asset impairment charge of $3.1 million for the Company's two EO cameras aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This resulted in a total non-cash impairment charge in fiscal 2016 of $10.9 million.
As the Company was unsuccessful in negotiating a new agreement with its ISS partner following the termination of the original agreement effective December 31, 2016, the deferred revenue liability associated with the ISS cameras was written off at December 31, 2016. This non-cash write-off was recognized as revenue of $40.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. This was offset by an acceleration of depreciation on the barter assets to reflect the reduced useful life. Following the termination of the agreement with the Company's ISS partner on December 31, 2016, the Company's financial statements will no longer require barter accounting for this partnership.
The Company continues to seek to monetize the ISS cameras through alternative means, including licensing arrangements or an asset sale.
Business Highlights
Earth Observation Update
UrtheDaily Update
OptiSAR Progress
Financing and Liquidity
"We're really pleased with the progress the Company is making across the board", said Wade Larson, UrtheCast's President and CEO. "Growing EO revenue, a strengthened balance sheet, programmatic and technological progress on our development programs, significant customer signings on both OptiSAR and UrtheDaily, and an improved outlook going forward on both top-line revenue and adjusted EBITDA."
- Read the full financial report here.
As previously announced, UrtheCast will host a conference call regarding its 2016 fourth quarter and fiscal year financial results at 4:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT) on March 28, 2017. The live conference call will be available by calling toll-free at 1-800-806-5484, or by toll call at +1-416-340-2217. The participant pass code is 1329750.
An archived version of the conference call will be made available on the Company's investor website (investors.urthecast.com) following the live conference call.
ABOUT URTHECAST CORP.
UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company that serves the rapidly evolving geospatial and geoanalytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services. The Company operates Earth Observation (EO) sensors in space, including two satellites, Deimos-1 and Deimos-2, to produce imagery data that is displayed on UrtheCast's cloud-based web platform and sold to partners and customers. Through its subsidiary Deimos Imaging, UrtheCast processes and distributes imagery data and value-added products on behalf of the PanGeo Alliance, a network of eight satellite operators with a combined 15 medium- and high-resolution EO sensors. UrtheCast is also developing and expects to launch two EO satellite constellations: the world's first fully-integrated constellation of sixteen multispectral optical and SAR satellites, called OptiSAR™, and an eight-satellite constellation designed to capture high-quality, medium-resolution optical imagery of the Earth's entire landmass (excluding Antarctica) every day, called UrtheDaily™. Together, the Company believes these constellations will revolutionize monitoring of our planet with medium- and high-resolution, high-coverage and high-revisit imagery in all weather conditions. Common shares of UrtheCast trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ticker 'UR'.
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