Transcription of Finance News Network with Nearmap Limited (ASX:NEA) CEO, Dr Robert NewmanCarolyn Herbert: Hello I’m Carolyn Herbert from the Finance News Network and joining me from aerial imagery provider, Nearmap Limited
(ASX:NEA) to discuss its FY16 results is CEO, Rob Newman. Rob, welcome back.
Rob Newman: Thanks Carolyn.
Carolyn Herbert: You’ve just announced your full year results for FY16. What were the highlights?
Rob Newman: It’s been a really strong year for us at Nearmap, probably the highlight of the year was our top line growth. So our revenue and our portfolio under management has grown significantly in the year. And specifically for the last four halves, we’ve had accelerating growth across the company, to the point now where we’ve got over $30 million in annual revenue, from both Australia and the US. Another real highlight for us has been our gross margin. We’ve maintained the gross margin across the company above 80 per cent, which for a technology company is a very strong result.
Carolyn Herbert: What drove the improved results?
Rob Newman: We’re a disrupter in the industry, in fact we’re a leader in Australia. We’ve really created the industry for online subscription aerial mapping. So I think that adoption within Australia has really taken off.
Carolyn Herbert: Taking a look at your Australian operations, how have your businesses in Australia performed?
Rob Newman: Australia across the board has performed really well. We have customers in government, in insurance and finance, in the renewable energy industry and in transporting utilities. And all four sectors have performed really well for us.
Carolyn Herbert: Where did you experience the greatest growth?
Rob Newman: Again, it’s across the board, the growth has come in all sectors. We’ve increased our number of customers from just over 5,000 to 6,800 in the year. So really strong broad diverse customer base.
Carolyn Herbert: In FY16 the company expanded its business into the US. So how is the US subscription portfolio progressing?
Rob Newman: It’s early days in the US and a lot of my focus over the last 12 months has been building the right foundations in the US. So we put leadership in place, we’ve got the right marketing programs and we’ve got the right product. So we expect that market to really take off and replicate the performance of Australia, coming forward.
Carolyn Herbert: Can you tell us a bit about your strategic partnership with OmniEarth Communications Inc. and how this fits with your growth strategy?
Rob Newman: OmniEarth is an interesting example of the types of partnerships we want to form. Taking our aerial imagery or location data, as we call it and then making decisions based on that data, how many solar panels are on a roof, how many trees in the backyard? That information is of interest to the insurance industry, to the water industry and so on. So that partnership really extracts information from our core data. So it’s a valuable partnership for us.
Carolyn Herbert: Finally Robert. What’s your outlook for FY17 and what’s the focus for the next 12 months?
Rob Newman: It’s really continuing the same themes. So continuing that growth in Australia, really accelerating the growth in the US, because we’ve put all the foundations in place. And then extracting more data and value from our content is really the third theme. So investing in our core technology and continuing that.
Carolyn Herbert: Rob Newman, thanks for the update.
Rob Newman: Thanks Carolyn.
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