CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - Mar 10, 2014) - CriticalControl Solutions Corp. (CCZ.TO) today reported its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2013.
"Our operations improved in 2013 as we paid down $2.2 million in debt and made significant investments in new products and sales capability in the United States," said Alykhan Mamdani, President & CEO of CriticalControl. "The new sales we have already announced in Q1 2014 are early success indicators of our new product strategy."
Annual 2013 highlights
Revenue
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Total revenue was $45.7 million in 2013 compared to $46.8 million in 2012. A decline of $2.2 million in Q1 2013 compared to Q1 2012 was offset by $1.1 million in growth in the subsequent three quarters driven by an increase of $0.4 million in recurring revenue from Canadian and US Energy Services.
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Revenue from the Canadian Energy Services was stable at $12.6 million in 2013 compared to $12.8 million in 2012. Recurring revenue increased by $0.3 million and non-recurring revenue decreased by $0.5 million.
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Revenue from the US Energy Services business increased to $17.8 million in 2013 from $17.7 million in 2012.
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Revenue from the Corporation's Service Bureau Operations decreased by $1.1 million from $16.4 million in 2012 to $15.3 million in 2013. This decline was primarily related to Q1 2013.
Gross margin percentage
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Gross margin percentage for the Corporation was 36.7% in 2013 compared to 37.2% in 2012.
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Canadian Energy Services gross margin percentage decreased from 57.1% in 2012 to 55.3% in 2013. The decline is attributable to a number of unrelated factors, some of which should be non-recurring. The decline was partially attributable to increased infrastructure associated with customer support and client relationship management necessary for additional growth in the Corporation's existing and new service offerings.
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US Energy Services gross margin percentage increased from 28.5% in 2012 to 30.0% in 2013.
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Service Bureau Operations gross margin percentage decreased from 31.1% in 2012 to 29.3% in 2013 due to a combination of factors impacting margins on hardware, software and related service agreements in Q4 2013 compared to Q4 2012, and a change in the mix of projects in Q1 2013 compared to Q1 2012.
Selling and administrative expenses
Other expenses
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Research and development costs decreased by $0.1 million compared to 2012. The Corporation was required under IFRS to capitalize certain development costs starting in 2013, resulting in $424 thousand being capitalized in 2013. The impact of this was to normalize research and development expenses in relation to 2012. The decline for the year is attributable to an increase in Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credits recognized in 2013 compared to 2012.
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Finance costs in 2013 decreased by $0.5 million compared to 2012. The decrease was primarily attributable to a favorable swing in foreign exchange rates, decreasing debt levels and lower bad debt expense.
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Other operating expenses in 2013 decreased by $0.5 million compared to 2012, primarily due to non-recurring items in 2012.
Earnings and net earnings
Cash flow, working capital and debt
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Working capital increased slightly to $2.3 million at December 31, 2013.
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Annual net cash from operating activities increased to $4.1 million in 2013 from $3.4 million in 2012.
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The Corporation paid down debt resulting in a drop of $2.2 million in total loans and borrowings, net of cash, from December 31, 2012 to December 31, 2013.
Outlook and forward looking statements
Revenue growth will be dependent upon the Corporation successfully exploiting products it has recently brought to market, innovation of existing solutions, and the introduction of new products in order to replace revenue from depleted or shut-in wells. Current interest in the Corporation's new products and innovations on existing products provides management optimism for growth in its Canadian Energy Services business segment. Management believes that the expenditure on building these new tools is essential for the Corporation's long term growth prospects and will fuel recurring revenue growth later in 2014 and beyond.
Continued growth in the Corporation's Canadian Energy Services business segment is dependent upon the continued success of the Corporation's sales effort, market acceptance of the Company's innovations and new products, the successful deployment of the Corporation's ProMonitor platform and the successful and timely development of its field data capture solution, all of which are risk factors that may negatively impact growth.
The Corporation is building a sales team and reinforcing its management team in the Appalachian basin to maximize penetration in the region with its products and services. The costs associated with this expansion are necessary for the Corporation's long term growth prospects and are expected to result in increased sales in 2014.
The Corporation is in the process of rolling out its existing technologies in the US and, given the investment in development, sales and potential channel partnerships, expects evidence of success to become material in 2014.
Growth from the Corporation's US Energy Services business segment is dependent upon acceptance of the Corporation's technology solutions, the success of its sales capability and the successful hiring and training of staff to manage growth, none of which can be guaranteed. These risk factors, if they arise, will have a negative impact on management's outlook and the Corporation's profitability.
Management has attempted to drive efficiencies from its existing Service Bureau Operations to become more competitive. Management has also attempted to target its solutions away from commoditized imaging and data entry services and into outsourcing day-forward business processes in order to improve margins.
Based on a change in operational management for the Service Bureau Operations and recent success in establishing new customer revenue, which is expected to ramp up over 2014, management is optimistic that it can generate revenue and profit growth in 2014.
Management's longer term outlook for the Service Bureau Operations is subject to the successful change in its sales strategy and the success of its sales capability, which cannot be assured. Failure to mitigate these risks would result in reduced performance from expectations. In addition, expected growth from a contract signed with a large financial institution for day-forward imaging is dependent upon the successful ramp up of volume resulting from a change in the client's current process, the timing of which carries uncertainty, which may in turn push revenue expectations to a later date.
About CriticalControl
In a world of escalating globalization, with an increasingly transient workforce, enterprises have difficulty maintaining their knowledge and are forced to focus on their key market advantages to remain competitive. CriticalControl provides these enterprises with secure and cost-effective solutions for the completion of document and information intensive business processes through an integrated offering of software, outsourced services and optimized business processes.
