Intercede shares drop on warning of multiple enterprise awards failing to materialise

UK-based software firm Intercede Group said on Monday that its ability to meet market expectations for the company's financial year had been hindered by a combination of several large enterprise awards failing to materialise despite "customer commitments to the contrary" and a generally slower market.

Intercede stated that although the orders were expected to be awarded "eventually", customer delays had made accurate forecasting for the financial year ending 31 March "extremely challenging".

The company was informed on 3 November that a "significant order" of over $2m from an existing customer which had been previously expected to materialise this year would not be realised until the first quarter of the next financial year.

Intercede also issued new guidance for revenue growth for the current financial year which it now expected to be in the range of 10% to 20%.

Richard Parris, chairman and chief executive, said, "the market has never been in more need of the solutions we provide, we have recently invested in a world-class sales team and we have migrated our platform to also operate in the Cloud on a subscription-based model.

"We are poised for take-off in new mid-market enterprise and consumer-oriented markets. Unfortunately, short-term sales in our traditional markets have been disappointing and are challenging our plans for organic growth," he added.

As of 1500 GMT, shares had retreated 17.58% to 37.50p.