I've been a bit distracted this week, so have missed a few quarterlies -- but great to see all the key details posted here for the ones I missed. Nice work team!

I did notice Straker out with its second quarter results today, so thought I'd post some key highlights here.

Q2 revenue was 19% higher at $14.2m, taking the first half result to $33m -- up 42%. (all figures in NZD)

You'll notice a slowdown from Q1 to Q2, which Straker said was due to "general uncertainty caused by global macroeconomic pressures and geopolitical tensions". Honestly, not sure how that would massively impact their customers, but I could be wrong. The UN is a client I guess.

Adjusted EBITDA (which excludes acquisition and restructuring costs) came in negative at -$1m, but was a positive $0.5m for the half.

The company was $500k poorer on a cash basis for the first half of FY23, but the second quarter was a positive $1.8m. They have $12.5m of cash on hand, so remain very well funded.

Of course, we have to account for the IDST acquisition, and unhelpfully they didnt provide like-for-like comparisons. Still, IDST did about NZ$6.6m in the 12m prior to acquisition, which was at the end of FY22, so it seems they have still achieved some decent organic growth for the half.

The company reiterated their guidance from May of 20% revenue growth and 54% gross margins. That implies H2 revenue of $34 -- basically flat on the first half.

Accounting for FX, shares are presently on 1.2x forward sales.

Our discussion with CEO and Founder Grant Straker is here

Full ASX announcement here

Disc. Not held

Another strong result from Straker -- not that you'd know it by looking at the market's reaction (down 6% at time of writing, not far off their 52-week low).

• Q1 Revenue up 66%, or 8% up from the preceding quarter
• EBITDA positive for the 3rd consecutive quarter
• reiterated FY23 FY guidance of 20% revenue growth, with increasing gross margins
• ISO certification audit completed successfully
• No debt and balance sheet of NZ$11m
• Strong sales pipeline

On FY23 guidance, Straker is trading on 0.64x sales..so it seems very cheap at face value.

On the downside:

• Operating cash flow negative due to increased working capital and timing of customer receipts. They expect to be opCF positive again next quarter
• Total cash outflow was $4.3m due to earn out payments for recent acquisitions (in part because these acquisitions had performed well)

I don't own but have kept an eye on the company since we met with the founder and CEO earlier in the year (see Meetings page). I also like that it's one of the companies the Bailador have backed (and still own a part of).

It's probably not worth reading too much into the market's reaction. There was a sum total of 21 trades on the ASX today, for a total value of $50k.

ASX announcement here