LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Home safety technology company FireAngel said in a trading update on Monday that it was expecting a more-than-7% improvement in sales for 2021m to £42.8m.
The AIM-traded firm said its underlying loss before tax improved "significantly" to an adjusted £3.8m from £5.7m year-on-year, in line with market expectations, with a "marked improvement" in adjusted LBITDA to £0.3m from £1.2m.

It said the adjusted gross margin for the year improved to 23.1% from 19.8%, while stock at year-end on 31 December stood at £3.7m, down from £6.6m at the end of 2020.

Net cash before lease obligations totalled £0.1m at year-end, swinging from net debt of £3.7m a year earlier, with cash balances totalling £3.3m and a CBILS loan of £3.2m.

The loan had a term of six years from March 2021, with the first year being free of capital repayments, and payments thereafter made monthly over the remainder of the term.

FireAngel also has an invoice discounting facility, which was undrawn at year-end.

"The board is satisfied with the company's performance in what was a particularly tough year," said executive chairman John Conoley.

"Whilst the business faced external challenges, particularly around global supply chain issues, we continued to make strong progress against our strategic priorities.

"Particularly pleasing is the continued improvement in gross margin, driven mainly by management action and focus."

Conoley said the company's relationship with Techem was of longer-term value and "huge significance", adding that it had progressed well and was expected to continue that way.

"While we are already seeing an easing of supply chain challenges, there may still be some issues during this year, especially in the first quarter of 2022.

"The board will continue to monitor these developments closely."

From the second quarter, John Conoley said the company's existing strategy, combined with new pricing and supply chain measures, would offer "strong validation" of the margin improvement opportunity.

"Our proposition to protect and save lives with innovative, cutting-edge home safety technology remains compelling, while our strategic ambition to achieve this through margin improvement and a focus on investing in connected homes technology is unchanged.

"We look forward to making further progress against our priorities in 2022."

FireAngel said it would announce its audited final results for the year ended 31 December in late March.

At 1317 GMT, shares in FireAngel Safety Technology Group were up 3.51% at 14.75p.

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