ATW Tech Announces Revenue Growth of 13% for 2018 to Reach $12.0m

MONTREAL, April 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATW Tech Inc. (the “Company”) (TSX-V: ATW) announces its annual financial results for the year ended December 31, 2018.

• The Company generated year-over-year revenue growth of $1.3m (12.5%) on its continuing operations for revenues of $12.0m in 2018 compared to $10.7m in 2017.
  
  
• On October 31, 2018, the Company completed the sale of the assets of its psychometric assessment division ('Atman') for a total selling price of $1.3m, including $1.1m paid cash and $200k payable in equal monthly payments over 3 years.
  
  
• The Company increased the gross margin on its continuing operations by 2.7% from 14.7% in 2017 to 17.4% in 2018. The Company also increased its gross margin by 1.9% from 17.1% in Q4-17 to 19.0% in Q4-18.
  
  
• For its fourth quarter of 2018, the Company generated a positive EBITDA of $47k for its continuing operations, a second consecutive quarter of positive operating income. For 2018, the Company generated an EBITDA of -$12k compared to -$208k in 2017 for an improvement of $196k.
  
  
• On November 6, 2018, the Company signed a letter of intent for the major acquisition of the outstanding shares of Greywolf Entertainment Group (‘Greywolf’) for a purchase price of $2.95m. For the unaudited financial year ended December 31, 2018, Greywolf’s revenues totaled $9.0 million.

“2018 was a busy year that allowed us to refocus our activities and resources on our core payments and interactive communications solutions following the sale of Atman's business in the fall of 2018. We are proud of the progress achieved, the organic growth generated in 2018 by our various platforms and our improved profitability. 2019 is also very exciting and we expect to add targeted acquisitions to our existing solutions to further fuel this growth”, said President and CEO of ATW Tech, Michel Guay.

Share purchase options
The Company also announces that a total of 3,200,000 share purchase options have been granted to employees, officers, and consultants of the Company, as well as to members of the board of directors, pursuant to the terms of its share option plan (the “Plan”). These options are exercisable at $0.07 per share and expire on April 2, 2024. The Plan provides that options may be exercised on a cumulative basis over a period of four years from the date they are granted, as to one-fourth every year.

The above data includes a summary of highlights. For further information, please consult the Corporation’s consolidated financial statement as well as the Management Report for the year ended December 31, 2018 at www.sedar.com

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company’s current expectation regarding future events. There is a risk that expectations and forward-looking statements will not prove to be accurate. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as they involve risks and uncertainties, which could make actual results differ materially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to, no history of profitability, future financing, intellectual property and patents, key personnel, competitive marketplace, technology obsolescence, share price volatility and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company’s filings. While ATW Tech anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause its views to change, ATW Tech specifically disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, unless obligated to do so by applicable securities laws.

Additional information regarding the Company is available on SEDAR www.sedar.com. The TSX Venture Exchange and its Regulatory Services provider (as per meaning assigned to this term in TSX Venture Exchange’s policies) bear no liability as to the relevance or accuracy of this press release.

ABOUT ATW TECH

ATW Tech (TSX-V: ATW) is a leader in financial technologies (‘fintech’), owner of several web platforms including VoxTel, VuduMobile, Option.vote and Bloomed. VoxTel offers various interactive communication, landline and mobile carrier billing phone solutions. VuduMobile is specialized in text messaging for enterprises through its unique, user-friendly and bilingual text messaging application and turnkey solutions. Option.vote offers a large scale, customizable, and secure multi-method voting system for unions, political parties, professional associations, and others looking for a way to reduce their voting costs and to improve their participation rates. Bloomed is a cloud-based platform to manage data (smart data) on consumers and their behaviors which is developed for marketing agencies and their campaigns for the consumer and corporate markets.