Imagination Technologies announces initial unaudited results for the first half of 2021 (H1/2021), where overall revenues increased by 55% to $76m (H1/2020: $49m).
Based on strong first half bookings and revenues, together with a robust pipeline of sales opportunities, the Company now expects full-year revenues to grow by around 25% relative to 2020. It expects the growth to be broad-based across key strategic market segments.
Adjusted EBITDA* increased by $20m to $17m (2020: -$3m); and adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 22% (H1/2020: -7%). Current cash is $70m (H1/2020 $36m); the business has no external third-party debt.
In the first half Imagination signed over 35 licensees across segments including automotive, datacentre and desktop, mobile, and DTV. Imagination has a 37% share in smartphone graphics processing unit (GPU) (source: TSR) and is the largest GPU supplier to the automotive industry with approx. 45% share and over a quarter of a billion automotive units shipped (source: company data).
Imagination identified the datacentre and desktop market as a significant opportunity during its strategic review in Q4/2020 and has used the high-performance of its A-Series and B-Series GPU products to gain significant traction in this higher performance GPU space with significant revenue growth amongst customers in these segments. The company expects to launch a further GPU family, C-Series, in Q4/2021, maintaining a rapid pace of technology development and roll-out.
In Automotive, the transition to EV (electric vehicles), especially in China, is creating a strong pipeline of growth opportunities in a market in which Imagination is already the leader for HMI (human machine interface) GPU solutions. The company has now entered the autonomous vehicle sub-segment with both its GPU and AI technologies. In addition, the requirement for connecting complex automotive systems has enabled the company to bring a new EPP (ethernet packet processor) offering to market.
This year Imagination is re-entering the CPU market with designs based around the RISC-V open ISA. Imaginations heritage in CPU enables it to provide innovative and patent protected technologies for the discrete CPU market as well as addressing demand for heterogeneous solutions that combine GPU, CPU and AI processors. This strategy will enable further growth.
The company is continuing to invest in engineering and customer support resources at its existing locations in Kings Langley and Bristol (UK), Poland, Romania, India, Taiwan, and China. The company is closing a small office in Australia and opened a new one in Cambridge (UK).
Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO, says: The strong set of first half results, together with the healthy pipeline of opportunities, confirms we are executing well against our refreshed strategy. Were focused on the right segments and the right geographies. Its also gratifying to see that Imagination is back to growth and generating solid profits and free cash-flow. My sense is that we now have good momentum and I look forward to building on the turnaround that we have affected.
Imagination is wholly owned by private equity company Canyon Bridge and specialises in technologies for graphics, including ray tracing; AI, notably neural network acceleration; and general compute, including CPU.
Canyon Bridge founding partner and Imagination Executive Chairman Ray Bingham, says: We are truly delighted by the strong financial results now being delivered by Imagination Technologies. We believe they vindicate the significant investments we have made over the last three years in R&D to ensure that we have market-leading IP. These investments have enabled us to add outstanding new image compression technology to our GPU architecture, which has now won significant market share, and to re-invigorate Imaginations CPU development, exploiting our considerable heritage in CPU IP. Semiconductors have risen in prominence as the world navigates complex manufacturing, lifestyle and geo-political shifts, and Imagination has shown that it has the right technologies, and commitment to strategic partnerships, to lead in the industry.