Datalex shares fall despite growth
Datalex, the Irish developer of travel retail software, in which Dermot Desmond and its chairman, Paschal Taggart, have significant stakes, pledged to deliver double-digit growth in revenues in each of the next three years.
It highlighted recent wins, including from an airline in the Lufthansa Group, a China customer, and its first in the huge loyalty market, as drivers of sales.
However, the shares, at one stage, fell 3% in Dublin, before cutting their losses to end 1% lower, amid concerns about global trade wars between the US and China, which rattled stock markets.
Datalex, which reports earnings in dollars, posted a 31% rise in net profit to $7.1m (€5.75m) for 2017, as revenues increased 15%, to $63.9m — boosted by existing customers, like JetBlue, and more recent contract wins from Lufthansa’s Swiss International Air Lines and Chinese carriers. Its costs rose 31%, to $56.6m.
“With the commencement of platform revenue at the Lufthansa Group and our new customer deployments, coupled with continued, organic growth across our customer base, we are projecting double-digit growth in platform revenue annually over the next three years,” the company said.
Mr Desmond’s IIU owns 26.8% of the company and Mr Taggart has a 3.2% stake.
According to its annual report, the pay, bonus, and pension payment to chief executive, Aidan Brogan, climbed to $620,000 last year, from $532,000 in 2016.
The shares have slumped almost 20% in the past year, with the firm valued at €226m. They ended yesterday at €2.90.
However, Goodbody, which has a price target of €4.50, said it saw “upside” after its 2017 “positive” earnings report, “which included continued organic growth, new travel vertical wins, and margin progression”.
It said: “We remain comfortable on our future years’ forecasts.” Reiterating its “outperform” recommendation on the shares, Davy said the company had a “strong growth pipeline”.
