This announcement contains inside
information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014
as retained as part of UK law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended. Upon the publication of this
Announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in
the public domain.
13 May 2024
ZOO
DIGITAL GROUP PLC
("ZOO",
the "Group" or the "Company")
Trading
and Debt Facility Renewal Update
ZOO Digital Group plc (AIM:
ZOO), a leading provider of end-to-end cloud-based
localisation and media services to the global entertainment
industry, today provides an update on trading and its debt
facilities.
Debt Facility and Cash
position
Further to the trading statement of
26 March 2024, the Company has since renewed for a further twelve
months debt facilities of up to $3 million with HSBC. These
facilities remain fully undrawn but provide the Company with
enhanced financial flexibility for working capital purposes in an
improving market environment.
Year-end net cash on 31 March 2024
was $5.3 million, significantly better than indicated previously
following stronger collections than anticipated in the month of
March.
Current Trading
Customer demand has continued to
recover with March 2024 invoicing the highest month since April
2023 following acceleration of the Company's pipeline. Work has
continued to expand throughout March and April 2024 and visibility
extends to September 2024. Revenues for FY25 Q1 are expected to be
36% up on FY24 Q4 which, together with recently implemented cost
savings, is expected to result in EBITDA at break-even in
Q1.
The Company has now received dubbing
and subtitling orders from the major film and TV distributor for
which it was recently appointed as a primary vendor as referenced
in the announcement of 26 March 2024.
ZOO's strategy remains focused on
developing and deploying innovative technology to provide leading
and differentiated end-to-end services to its customers. This
includes the use of Artificial Intelligence to augment and
complement processes where applicable. The strategy is achieved
through a capital-efficient approach involving production hubs in
key locations to provide a 24/7 service offering, which the Board
believes will deliver profitable revenue growth.
With market commentators forecasting
a return to 2022 levels of entertainment output in 2025, the Board
continues to see opportunities to rebuild revenues following the
significant industry disruptions of FY24 and is confident of at
least meeting FY24 market expectations*.
Notice of Full Year
Results
The Company expects to announce full
year results for the period to March 2024 in early August
2024.
The persons responsible for
arranging for the release of this Announcement on behalf of ZOO are
Stuart Green, Chief Executive Officer and Phillip Blundell, Chief
Financial Officer of ZOO.
* The Company understands market
consensus for FY24 to be revenue of $39.7 million, EBITDA adjusted
for share based payments loss of $14.0 million and net cash of $3.7
million.
For
further enquiries, please contact:
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ZOO
Digital Group plc
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+44 (0) 114 241 3700
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Stuart Green - Chief Executive
Officer
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Phillip Blundell - Chief Finance
Officer
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Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint
Broker)
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+44
(0) 20 7710 7600
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Fred Walsh / Erik Anderson
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Singer Capital Markets (Joint Broker)
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+44
(0) 20 7496 3000
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Shaun Dobson / Asha Chotai
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Instinctif Partners (Financial PR)
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+44
(0) 207 457 2020
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Matthew Smallwood / Joe
Quinlan
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zoo@instinctif.com
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About ZOO Digital Group
plc:
ZOO Digital supports major Hollywood
studios and streaming services to globalise their content and reach
audiences everywhere, by providing leading, technology-enabled
localisation and media services.
Founded in 2001, ZOO Digital
operates from hubs in Los Angeles, London, Dubai, Turkey, South
Korea, India, Denmark and Spain with a development and production
centre in Sheffield, UK.
The Group provides media services
through its platforms that include: ZOOsubs, ZOOdubs and ZOOstudio.
Its full-service proposition delivers the end-to-end services
required to prepare both original and catalogue content for digital
distribution; these services include dubbing, subtitling &
captioning, metadata creation & localisation, mastering,
artwork localisation and media processing. Alongside this offering,
ZOO also provides its customers with management platforms and
strategic solutions to support their own internal globalisation
operations.
ZOO is a go-to service partner for
media businesses looking to globalise their content across
different territories, languages and distribution platforms. Using
its innovative technology-enabled approach, ZOO helps its customers
to reduce time to market, lower costs and deliver high quality
products to their global audiences. The business has frameworks in
place with all major Hollywood studios and streaming services. Its
customers include Disney, NBCUniversal, HBO and Paramount
Global.
ZOO's competitive advantage arises
from three interlinking factors - the leading role it has played in
the digital transformation of its sector; the world class
proprietary platforms that it develops to enable this
transformation; and the global supply chain of thousands of
freelancers, working collaboratively in ZOO's platforms, which
delivers services that scale easily to meet demand. These factors
combine to make ZOO uniquely placed to capitalise on new market
opportunities in a fast-paced and constantly evolving
industry.
www.zoodigital.com