IkeGPS, the laser measurement tool maker that expects to be cash break-even in the fourth quarter of 2017, is in a trading halt pending a placement of shares to institutional investors in Australia and New Zealand.
The company had operating cash outflows for the year ended March 31 of about $9.9 million and a cash balance at March 31 of $5.3 million, down from $10 million at September 30 last year, suggesting it will have burned through all its cash at that pace by the end of the September this year.
Wellington-based IkeGPS didn't give details in its notice for the placement sent to the NZX yesterday. The company more than doubled sales in the year ended March 31 to $9.2 million, although that included government grants. Revenue missed the $14.3 million forecast in its 2014 prospectus, which it attributed to a slower sales pipeline.
The measurement tool maker received $640,000 from Callaghan Innovation in its 2016 year, up from $364,000 a year earlier when it received subsidies from Callaghan and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.
The company's net loss widened to $8.8 million from a loss of $5.1 million a year earlier and was bigger than the $5.8 million loss originally forecast. Still achieving break-even on a cash-flow basis in 2017 would be sooner than it had originally projected. In IkeGPS' first year as a listed company, its $1.9 million of sales was dominated by the utilities and communications sector and while that segment has grown fast, it added signage and construction in 2015, which has also achieved a surge in revenue, and contract revenue has also grown.
