Vianet Group upbeat after bumper first half

Business data device company Vianet Group updated the market on the six months ended 30 September on Tuesday, reporting that trading for the period was strong, with revenue and operating profit growth in line with market expectations.

The AIM-traded firm said its smart machines division, including ‘Vendman’, delivered a “strong” year-on-year increase in the number of connected devices deployed, underpinned by three recent contract wins, as announced in August.

It said those three long-term contracts with “leading” vending operators, for a combined 20,000 units, would generate in the region of £10m of revenue for the group over their three-to-five year contract terms.

In its ‘Smart Zones’ division, contribution was also said to be “robust” in the first half, helped by investment in pubco data analytics capability and technology upgrades.

That performance was achieved despite delays due to pubco corporate activity, the board noted.

“The team has continued to make very good commercial progress, particularly with contract wins for our telemetry and payment solutions in the coffee vending and unattended retail vending market, with solid support from our Smart Zones business which is developing new revenue lines,” said Vianet chairman James Dickson.

“Double digit growth in the period builds on our successful recent track record and further demonstrates that the strategy of leveraging the power of our cutting edge technology to bring game changing business insight to our customers has exciting prospects.”

Vianet said it would release its results for the half-year ended 30 September on 12 December.

As at 0958 BST, shares in Vianet Group were up 6.12% at 130p.