Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Web Hosting Provider, iWeb, Reports Near Double Revenue Growth

Martin Leclair , President, Products and Technology noted, ”Monthly revenues reached the $2.4 million mark in March, though we have to work even harder to maintain that pace, given the current economic context. In recent months, we noticed a slowdown in new net recurring revenues, mostly due to an increase in the churn rate. This increase in churn is mainly attributable to current clients who are downsizing the level of certain services which were not considered essential at this time. We believe that these same services will be reintroduced when our customers’ situation will allow them to pursue more ventures.”
Philip Tousignant , Chief Financial Officer added, ”The strong improvement of our operations, in terms of profitability, is not yet reflected in our net results. Due to financial expenses resulting from external market conditions, totalling $560,000 for the last quarter, we are reporting a net loss. For the second consecutive quarter, the main element of these financial expenses is the unrealized exchange loss on the long-term debt of $10 million US.”
Revenues for the second quarter ended March 31, 2009 increased by $3.4 million or 94%, compared to the same period of 2008, to reach almost $6.9 million.
Revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 originated from iWeb’s three main service offerings as follows: Dedicated servers accounted for 85%, followed by 8% for co-location services and 7% for the shared web hosting. 78% of iWeb revenues for the quarter were generated in U.S. dollars, a significant advantage for the Company during the last quarter, as the impact of the decrease in value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar compared to the same period of last year, had a positive impact of more than $1.0 million on revenues. Without taking into account this impact, revenues would have increased by 65% compared to the quarter ended on March 31, 2008.
Gross profit was 51% of revenues for the second quarter of 2009 compared to 53% for the same period of the previous year. The favourable impact of the variation of Canada/U.S. exchange rates on gross profit margin for the last quarter was more than compensated by higher payroll expenses in order to support the sustained high growth of the Company’s operations.

Operating expenses for the quarter went from 52.1% of revenues in 2008 to 46.3% in 2009. This improvement is explained by lower costs compared to the revenues for selling and administrative expenses, but compensated by a rise in interest expenses. Selling expenses decreased from 17.3% to 15.3% of revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2009. Administrative expenses decreased from 26.0% to 20.2% of revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2009. Interest expenses increased significantly (from 7.2% to 10.9% of revenues for the second quarter of 2009). This is caused by the increase in long-term debt in order to support the important addition of the infrastructures of the Company, the greater part of which carry interests in U.S. currency.

The operating income of the Company was $324,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, compared to $6,000 for the corresponding period of the preceding year.
The other financial expenses represent elements which are the consequence of the external conditions of the market. These expenses amounted to $560,000 for the last quarter ended March 31, 2009. The most important element of these expenses is the unrealized exchange loss on the long-term debt of $10 million US. For the end of quarter ended March 31, 2009, the Canada/U.S. exchange rate was 1.26, compared to 1.225 for the beginning of quarter, explaining the unrealized loss of $356,000.
Taking into account the impact of the other financial expenses, the Company recorded a net loss of $246,000 for the second quarter of 2009, compared to a net income of $19,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

No comments: