Boku Inc (AIM: BOKU), the mobile and alternative payments network, said underlying revenue growth eased to 11% in the six months to 30 June, after one-off merchant and regulatory setbacks weighed on the half. The moderation follows a strong FY2025, in which full-year revenue grew 30%. Shares rose about 2% in early trade.
Shares in the AIM-listed group traded at 125.5p as markets opened, a snapshot rather than a closing level, up about 2% from yesterday’s close of 123p.
Boku said the headline weakness reflected three largely resolved factors: delayed launches for a key merchant that dual-sources its payment connections, now live; the suspension of two direct carrier billing connections, a mobile-payment method billed via a customer’s phone contract, in one country, with no further exposure; and minor other launch delays. The group’s first channel partnership, with payments company Stripe, went live during the half, giving Stripe’s merchants access to Boku’s network of local payment methods, alongside first transactions processed on Brazil’s PIX and India’s UPI payment systems.
Headline group revenue rose 5% to $66.5m from $63.3m a year earlier, or 11% stripping out a $3.4m non-recurring pricing benefit booked in H1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, was $19.6m at a 29.4% margin, up 7% on the same underlying basis, while operating profit fell to $4.8m from $11.9m headline a year earlier. Total payment volume, the value of transactions processed across Boku’s network, rose 16% to $8.6bn from $7.4bn.
The board reiterated full-year guidance of $135m to $142m in revenue and $38m to $42m in adjusted EBITDA, first set on the 8th of July, and said trading since the half-year end has been in line with expectations. Chief executive Stuart Neal said the company was confident heading into the second half.
We go into the second half confident in the strengths of our network, licences, partnerships and the scale of the growth opportunity ahead.
Stuart Neal, Boku Inc
Group cash fell to $186.8m at 30 June from $245.6m at the end of December, partly reflecting $23.6m of share buybacks in the half. The board has extended the buyback programme by up to a further 8m shares.