WANdisco shares fall following £22m loss

Shares in software firm WANdisco fell 18 per cent on the news that the group made a pre-tax loss of £22m in 2015.

The Sheffield-based firm said it was disappointed that its shares were down 25p at 115p as it believes the market has ignored its positive statements about a reduction in the cost base.

Chief financial officer Paul Harrison said the company is on track to break even in 2017.

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“We announced that we’ve taken the cost base from $40m (£28m) to $25m (£18m),” he said. “We are frustrated by the share price as the only new news is the reduction in the cost base. The news is positive, but the market is saying prove it.”

Chief executive David Richards added: “We’ve got a number of things in the pipeline. We’d rather surprise the market than flag them up.”

WANdisco said revenue dropped ​slightly​ from ​£7.9m to ​£7.8m while​ adjusted EBITDA​ losses narrowed to ​£11.4m​ from ​£12.7m in 2014.

The group said that it had taken a big step forward in the still nascent big data market. WANd​isco launched a new p​latform​ called Fusion​, which enables companies to install software for data replication.

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“Fusion is increasingly viewed as a crucial technology enabling customers to migrate on to our partners’ emerging Cloud data platforms. With partners such as IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, we are working increasingly closely on data migration offerings and go to market activities​,” said Mr Richards​

Analyst Andrew Darley at FinnCap said: “WANdisco has reported prelims in line with the February trading update, indicating revenue behind original expectations but significant progress in reduction in cash costs.”