Seeing Machines' annual loss widens as group ramps up investment

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Head and eye tracking technology group Seeing Machines posted a wider annual loss on the back of a sharp increase in investment and marketing. In the year to 30 June, the group saw its pre-tax loss soar from AU$ 2.7m to AU$ 10.2m, while revenue rose 13% to AU$ 19m and the group booked a AU$3.1m gain thanks to favourable foreign exchange rates.

The rise in revenue was driven by a strong performance in services to the mining industry division and by the company's driver safety system products.

However, the increase in revenue was offset by increased spending on development, marketing and customer support, as operating expenses jumped from AU$13.2m to AU$24.3m.

In a statement released on Monday, the London-listed company added the slowdown in the mining market had prevented it from reaching its goals in 2015 "While the significant downturn in global mining markets meant that we didn't achieve the upper level of our growth objectives, we still shipped a record number of products, achieved record full year revenues and better than budgeted net income results," said group chairman Terry Winters.

Seeing Machines shares were down 5.64% to 4.60p at 1045 BST on Monday.