Digital media and technology company Catenae Innovation's (LON: CTEA) share price plunged on Wednesday after the company reported a widened loss for the first half of the year.
The AIM-quoted firm reported a pretax loss of £586,798 for H1, compared to £379,384 during the same period in 2020.
Revenue for the period rose to £12,308 from £4,521 the previous year. The UK Government's decision to offer free public coronavirus testing and not pursue its vaccination passport initiative impacted Catenae's revenue.
“Commercial traction with the Onsite ID app has been impacted and revenues have been unsubstantial,” the company said in a statement.
A placing in January 2021 raised £1 million for the company and helped it achieve a net asset position of £1.04 million.
Catenae said it has entered H2 2021 in a stable financial position with a renewed focus on identifying non-COVID-19 related opportunities. For example, the group is evaluating prospects in the regulated critical infrastructure industries and the local government, policing, and social care sectors.
Guy Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of Catenae, said: “Notwithstanding Catenae's JV with BHA-Medical and its efforts to offer Onsite ID to organisations to securely record COVID-19 test and vaccine status and then pass this data onto PHE, as well as for users to be able to present their status via its GDPR compliant mobile app, short-notice changes to the UK Government's pandemic strategy meant that commercial traction was impeded, and the company did not generate material revenues in the period.
“The Board believes that the Company's product set retains significant value and, with support from Nick Delacamp, our recently appointed Chief Commercial Officer, the Company has a healthy pipeline of non-COVID-19 related opportunities that will allow us to leverage our technology for use in other markets.”
Catenae's share price has plunged 27.78% on Wednesday, trading at 0.976p per share. It is down 61% for the year to date.
In a separate announcement, Catenae announced its full-year results for the twelve months ended 30 September 2020, reporting a net loss of £769,186 compared to £825,230 in 2019, with revenues of £14,948 vs £102,549 the prior year.
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