Monitise cuts revenue growth forecast, announces share sale
March 24 (Reuters) - Mobile banking technology company Monitise Plc (Other OTC: MONIF - news) cut its revenue growth forecast for the year ending June and said it would post a core profit in 2016 as it transitions its business model from upfront licences to subscriptions.
Monitise, which forecast a slowdown in revenue growth in 2015, also announced a placing of 160.64 million shares to accelerate the shift in business.
The company has 1.68 billion shares outstanding.
Separately, MasterCard said it would make a minority investment in, and partner with, Monitise to help develop and deploy mobile wallets and other digital payment services to financial institutions.
Monitise, which plans to raise the number of registered users to 200 million by 2018 from the current 28 million, said it expected revenue to rise about 40 percent in 2014, compared with its previous forecast of a 50 percent growth.
The company also said it expected its loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the second half to exceed its first-half loss of 10.2 million pounds ($17 million).
Monitise said Barclays Bank Plc and Canaccord Genuity Ltd are the joint bookrunners for the offering. ($1 = 0.6065 British Pounds) (Reporting by Aashika Jain in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)