Monitise hikes guidance after stellar first half

Mobile banking technology firm Monitise saw its first-half revenue surge three-fold year-on-year as demand accelerates for its mobile money services.

Revenue in the six months ended December 31st was £15.8m, up from £5.3m in the same period the year before and 12% higher than the £14m in total revenue generated in the whole of the prior fiscal year.

The firm had a record order book of £83m at the end of the first half, "with a further £120m of revenues with a high degree of visibility from existing contracts over the next five years, totalling £203m," the group said.

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As such, the group now expects full-year revenue to total £34m in the 12 months ending June 30th, 21% higher than its previous guidance of £28m.

"Our growth continues to accelerate and we had an excellent six months to the end of December 2011 with encouraging signs across all our key financial, operational and adoption metrics," said Chief Executive Officer Alastair Lukies.

"Our rapidly growing order book, increasing pipeline and deepening partnerships further validate Monitise's leadership role as the enabler of choice in the mobile money industry," he said.

The firm made a pre-tax profit of £1.05m in the first half, compared with a loss of £8.70m the year before, as rising revenue and a one-off £10.1m gain relating to the acquisition of Monitise Americas helped offset increased operating costs.

Shares rose 2.05% to 37.25p in early trading on Monday.

BC