On 1st April 2025, we announced our Financial Results, for the 11 months ending 31 December 2024. Here we have broken down key highlights from the announcement.
Financial highlights
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- Revenue including intercompany revenue on an 11m comparative basis was up 15.1% to £31.2m
- Gross profit including intercompany revenue on an 11m comparative basis is up 16.5% to £28.2m
- Underlying EBITDA on an 11m comparative basis was up 6.9% to £14.0m
- FY24 underlying profit before tax of £8.5m, ahead of consensus analyst expectations.
Operational Highlights
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- Strong revenue growth was driven by efficient completion of the Lithia UK system rollout, with a focus on vertical sales into existing customers, and significant new customer wins
- Pinewood.AI now supplies 5 of top 20 UK dealership groups
- Total users increased to 35,200, up 6.3% at the end of FY23
- Churn in existing customers remained minimal at 1.1% in FY24
- 5-year contract with Marshall Motor Group signed in October 2024, with Pinewood to implement its systems into Marshalls c.120 UK dealerships
- North American roll-out preparation is progressing well, and we remain on track to pilot in Lithia US stores in H2 FY25, with the wider roll-out to Lithia US stores starting in FY26. Meanwhile our North American headquarters are set to be opened in Florida during 2025
- A new user experience for all Pinewood system customers will be launched during 2025. Development work on the new UX has taken place over several years and is a key next step in the evolution of the Pinewood system
Post-Period End Updates
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- In February 2025, we announced that Pinewood.AI had secured a five-year contract with Global Auto Holdings, to implement the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence™ platform into all of its owned dealerships across the UK, North America and Scandinavia. This contract will be materially earnings enhancing, as the largest non-associated dealership group to adopt the platform.
- In March 2025, we completed on the acquisition of the outstanding 90.9% of the share capital of Seez App Holding Ltd. for a total consideration of $42m (c.£33.3 million). This followed the $4.2m strategic investment made in September 2024. The acquisition significantly enhances our in-house capabilities with the integration of Seez’s leading AI and ML technology, particularly its AI chatbot functionality. The acquisition is expected to be significantly earnings accretive by FY26.
Outlook
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- Our priority in the UK in FY25 is to begin system implementations with Marshalls and Global Auto Holdings. Having strengthened our sales team, we will look to add more Top 100 dealer groups to our customer base.
- Outside the UK, the geographies identified at our Capital Markets Event in H2 2024 are our priority, namely, North America, Central Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia and South Africa.
- Roll-out of new user experience is a key focus for 2025
- The Board remains confident in prospects for the Group and expects underlying profit before tax for the full year to be in line with current market expectations.
- Previous guidance of £30m of underlying EBITDA in FY27 has been increased to ‘mid to high £30 millions’
Bill Berman, Chief Executive Officer of Pinewood Technologies Group PLC, said:
“Pinewood has made a strong start to life as a standalone software business. A key priority this year was the implementation of our system into Lithia’s UK network, and I’m pleased this project has been completed successfully, driving up our total users and revenues. On top of this we delivered major customer wins, most notably with Marshalls, while maintaining a low level of churn thanks to the quality of our service.
“Since the close of the financial year, our positive momentum has continued with the announcement of our largest ever contract with Global Auto Holdings, the acquisition of Seez, and our significantly oversubscribed equity raise. This year will see us focus on implementing our market-leading system with our new customers in the UK, driving growth in our key international geographies and continuing to prepare for our roll-out in the US through our ‘joint venture’ with Lithia. Trading in the current year has started well, and we remain highly confident in the opportunities ahead for Pinewood.AI.”
A webcast replay of the presentation lead by Bill is available to watch here: https://pinewood.ai/investors/results/
