Wed, 08 Nov 2023 | ADMINISTRATION
Actual Experience, a listed analytics services firm based in Bath, has appointed administrators after saying that it is poised to run out of cash. The company provides clients with digital workplace software services and, according to its 2022 annual report, previously employed 65 people.
The company has been struggling for several months, seeking to reduce costs (including through job cuts) and attract new funding. Following efforts to cut costs, the company stated that it had reduced its headcount to its “lowest viable level”.
It had explored options including an equity fundraise and had been in active discussions with existing and potential shareholders, as well as potential new investors including venture capital trust and EIS funds, in an effort to secure funding.
The company also engaged FRP Advisory to run an accelerated M&A process in an effort to find a buyer for the business and its assets. A number of potential buyers were contacted, but FRP received no firm indications of interest.
In the company’s unaudited consolidated interim results for the six months to March 31 2023, it revealed that, according to its latest base case assessment and without significant cost reduction or commercial progress, it was forecast to run out of cash by December 2023.
The board had also prepared a "severe, but plausible, downside scenario based on significantly more pessimistic sales forecasts, with corresponding reductions in controllable costs" in which cash would run out in November 2023.
The company said it has made commercial progress during FY23, but that securing new revenue and significant sales had not happened as quickly as expected, meaning that its trading has "largely tracked the severe, but plausible, downside scenario".
In light of its depleted cash position and the lack of progress in securing new funding or attracting potential buyers for the business and assets, the company’s board said that it was unlikely to be able to secure the required funding to continue trading.
On November 7, the company filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, with FRP Advisory’s Jonathan Dunn and Andrew Sheridan appointed as joint administrators later the same day. The company has also requested a suspension of trading in its ordinary shares on AIM with immediate effect.
In the company’s most recent full year accounts, for the year to September 30 2022, it reported revenue of £1.18 million, down from £1.7 million a year earlier. It also reported a pre-tax loss of close to £5.5 million, although this was an improvement upon a £5.9 million loss a year earlier.
At the time, the company’s non-current assets were valued at £1.5 million and current assets at £3.3 million, with total equity amounting to £3.4 million, down from £8.8 million a year earlier.
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