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IQGeo Group plc

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FY2018 Annual Report · IQGeo Group plc
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Accelerate 
your network  
operations

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018

 
 
 
 
 
What is IQGeo?

IQGeo is a market 
leading provider of 
geospatial productivity 
and collaboration software 
for the telecommunications 
and utilities industries.

Our customers include 45 major network operators and partners 
with a combined global deployment of more than 35,000 users. 
IQGeo offers a unique end-to-end, mobile geospatial solution that 
connects complex field operations with business-critical office 
processes. Our customers depend on IQGeo to deliver digital 
transformation strategies that enable new technologies, reducing 
operational and construction costs, while improving services and 
customer satisfaction.

Major change

Discontinued operations

On 21 November 2018 Ubisense announced an exciting and significant change 
to the organisation. The RTLS SmartSpace division and Ubisense brand would 
be sold and the Geospatial myWorld division would be rebranded IQGeo™. 
Following the completion of the disposal on 31 December 2018, the new IQGeo 
branding was formally launched and shares began trading under the name 
IQGeo Group plc (AIM: IQG). This strategic separation provides both new 
businesses with the management focus and investment they need to achieve 
exciting future growth targets.

The disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business
The Group agreed to sell the RTLS SmartSpace business unit and the Ubisense 
brand to a company that is owned and controlled by funds managed or advised 
by Investcorp Technology Partners. The terms of the disposal were comprised 
of £30 million in cash upon completion, £2 million in rollover investment in the sold 
business and £3 million earn-out tied to 2018 and 2019 revenue performance. 
The RTLS SmartSpace business unit takes real-time location data from sensing 
hardware products and transforms this data into high value spatial event 
information, delivering highly reliable, automatic, adaptive asset identification, 
precise real-time location and spatial-monitoring to offer meaningful insights 
that help businesses make smarter decisions.

Revenue

£15.5m

18

17

16

Gross margin

52%

18

17

16

15.5

10.8

9.1

52

42

44

Highlights

Group operations (RTLS SmartSpace & Geospatial) 

Total revenue

£25.5m

Own product revenue

£20.3m

18

17

16

Gross margin

49%

18

17

16

£25.5m

£27.3m

£26.5m

18

17

16

£20.3m

£16.6m

£12.9m

Net cash balance

£30.9m

49%

18

17

£6.6m

16 £0.2m

40%

39%

£30.9m

“We have a strong foundation to 

build on for the new IQGeo with our 
proven myWorld software, experienced 
and focused management team and 
investment capital needed to accelerate 
the growth of our business.”

Richard Petti, Chief Executive Officer, IQGeo

Read more about 
myWorld in action 
on pages 16-17

Read more about 
our products on 
pages 14-15

Strategic report
1  Highlights
2  At a glance
4  Chairman’s statement
6  Chief Executive’s statement
10  Case study – Cable One
12  Our markets
14  Our products
16  Case study – Unitil
18  Our business model and strategy
20  Key performance indicators (KPIs)
22   Chief Financial Officer’s 

statement

26  Principal risks and uncertainties
30  Our people

Corporate governance
32  Board of Directors
34  Corporate governance report
38  Audit Committee report
39  Directors’ remuneration report
41  Directors’ report
43   Directors’ responsibilities 

statement

Financial statements
44  Independent auditor’s report
51  Consolidated income statement
52   Consolidated statement 

of comprehensive income

53   Consolidated statement 
of changes in equity
54   Consolidated statement 
of financial position
55   Consolidated statement 

of cash flows

56   Notes to the consolidated 
financial statements
90  Company balance sheet
 Company statement 
91 
of changes in equity
92   Notes to the Company 
financial statements

96   Advisers

For more information 
view our website:

 www.iqgeo.com

1

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018At a glance
Creating business value

IQGeo accelerates digital transformation, improving 
productivity and collaboration across enterprise planning, 
design, construction and maintenance processes. Our mobile 
geospatial software gives field and office staff access to the 
right information at the right time. Unlocking data previously 
hidden away in complex and disconnected systems.

Our vision
We put our customers in control of their 
business-critical network operations, 
reducing the cost of field construction 
and maintenance, increasing customer 
satisfaction and enabling the delivery 
of high value services.

Read more on pages 12-13

The opportunity
The pressure to rollout new network technology, emerging competitors 
and business models, alongside increasing regulatory and environmental 
risks are pushing our customers to further enhance their operational strategies. 
In order to remain competitive, they must develop digital transformation 
strategies that reimage network operations. IQGeo is at the forefront of this 
unprecedented challenge.

Read more on pages 14-15

Why customers choose us
Our software and team have the 
technical and industry experience to 
assist telecommunications and utility 
providers with the momentous industry 
transformation that is underway. 
Strong customer references with 
proven return on investment clearly 
demonstrate why our software 
solutions generate long-term, 
recurring revenue for IQGeo.

Read more on pages 10 and 16

Geo operations hub
Our myWorld software creates a ‘geo operations hub’ that is unique to 
the ecosystem of each customer, delivering a trusted view of their complex 
network infrastructure. This easy-to-use, mobile first technology improves 
data quality between office and field operations and business-critical 
applications, reducing operating costs, mitigating risks and supporting 
execution of strategic business objectives.

Real-time 
Crew & Asset 
Location

Enterprise 
Resource 
Planning

Workforce 
Management 
System

People

35,000+

Professionals rely on our 
mobile geospatial software 
to accelerate their network 
operations and deliver strategic 
business optimisation.

Data

Inspections & 
Compliance

Construction 
& 
Maintenance

Customer 
Relationship 
Management

Usability

myWorld
Geo operations hub

Geographical 
Information 
System 

Integration

Planning & 
Design

IIoT & 
Network 
Management

Field Data 
Capture

Mobility

Things

2

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Locations
IQGeo’s HQ is in Cambridge, UK, and it has 
regional sales and service offices in North 
America, Europe and Japan. 

3

3

11

45

of the Top 10 North 
American telecom providers
Our customers include three 
of the top 10 North American 
telecom providers.

of the Top 10 North 
American utility providers
Our customers include three 
of the top 10 North American 
utility providers.

new customers
IQGeo established 
11 new telecom and 
utility customers in 2018.

network operators 
and partners
IQGeo works with 
network operators 
and industry partners.

Partner ecosystem
Our partner ecosystem provides a depth 
of expertise and knowledge in its specialist 
areas, delivering innovative operational 
solutions to customers around the world.

www.iqgeo.com/our-partner-ecosystem

3

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Chairman’s statement
A transformational year

The announced sale of the RTLS 
SmartSpace business to Investcorp 
advised funds in November and its 
completion on 31 December will be 
transformational. Rebranding the 
Geospatial business line as IQGeo 
initiated a sequence of changes for 
both newly established businesses. 
The response from the market, our 
customers and our employees has 
been overwhelmingly positive, which 
is a strong endorsement for the 
underlying financial rationale that 
drove our decision to split the 
two businesses.

Since a new executive management 
team joined the Company in 2016, 
we have continued to evaluate the 
strategy, organisation and structure 
of the continued business. While we are 
extremely proud of the technological 
and business success that the 
Geospatial myWorld and RTLS 
SmartSpace products have achieved, 
it became clear that maintaining the 
right levels of focus on these increasingly 
different business opportunities was 
proving challenging. This position 
made it difficult to provide the level 
of investment required for each of these 
two, largely independent, businesses to 
develop the momentum they needed 
to achieve the ambitious growth 
targets established. 

Having worked with Ubisense for 
many years, we are all sad to be saying 
goodbye to our Ubisense colleagues. 
They are an excellent group of people 
that have developed world-class 
technology used in automotive and 
industrial manufacturing around the 
globe. However, we are confident that 
under the leadership and investment 
of Investcorp, their technology will be 
well positioned to realise its full business 
potential. This report does not focus on 
the details of the Ubisense trading results, 
but the products and activities of that 
business are outlined on their website 
(www.ubisense.net) and in previous 
years’ annual reports.

For the new IQGeo, this is an 
exciting change. The freshly branded 
Company is developing a unique, 
customer-focused voice to clearly 

articulate the compelling benefits 
that the myWorld software brings to 
the telecommunications and utilities 
industries. From the perspective 
of the Board, we are encouraged 
by the pace of the structural change 
at IQGeo. The business now has a 
sharper market focus, has strong 
customer relationships and a rapidly 
developing market opportunity. 
Richard’s CEO Statement outlines 
more details on the future direction 
and strategy for IQGeo.

Results overview
As the RTLS SmartSpace division was 
managed throughout the year as part 
of the combined Group with the disposal 
being concluded on 31 December 2018, 
it was felt appropriate that the financial 
performance is described with reference 
to the results of the total operations. 
Whilst this data would be considered in 
the category of Alternative Performance 
Measures, it must be recognised that 
the business was managed on a 
combined basis for almost the full 
period, and significant reorganisation 
was required to create clear legal 
separation between the two divisions. 
Where KPIs are outlined, clear separation 
of combined Group metrics and 
continuing operations metrics is made.

The combined Group financial results 
for 2018 were slightly below where we 
had hoped, in part impacted by the 
distraction of both managing and then 
disposing of the RTLS SmartSpace 
division on 31 December. The combined 
Group delivered revenue of £25.5 million 
across the Geospatial myWorld and RTLS 
SmartSpace businesses. The planned 
decline in third party geospatial service 
revenues continued, but was offset by 
increasing own product revenues of 22% 
driven by RTLS SmartSpace growth.

For the continuing operations of 
IQGeo, total revenue reduced primarily 
due to a £5.4 million expected decline 
in third party geospatial service 
revenue, but also due to the delay in 
closing of certain myWorld contracts. 
Gross margin percentage improved 
with the increased balance towards 
myWorld products, though the gross 
profit value was reduced impacting 

Paul Taylor
Chairman

“

The business now has 
a sharper market focus, 
has strong customer 
relationships and a 
rapidly developing 
market opportunity.” 

4

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018This is a truly transformational change 
for IQGeo. We have an exciting new 
brand with a clear market and technology 
focus and, critically important, we have 
a strong balance sheet which this 
business needs. Our customers and 
prospects have responded with 
enthusiasm and the market opportunity 
for myWorld software is stronger now 
that it has ever been.

Our target markets are facing their 
own digital transformation journey as 
they implement new technology such 
as fibre, 5G and smart meters. myWorld 
is uniquely positioned to help these 
companies increase productivity and 
collaboration, making sense of their 
complex network environment to enable 
rapid, informed decision making.

2019 is a fresh start for the new IQGeo 
and we are well positioned to execute 
on our ambitious growth objectives.

Paul Taylor
Chairman
10 April 2019

Governance
In the middle of 2018 I assumed interim 
responsibility for Board chairmanship 
as a result of a personal health issue 
of our Chairman, Peter Harverson. 
On 13 February 2019, Peter decided 
to step down from the Board, at which 
time I was made full-time Chairman. 

This year we reinforced our commitment 
to a high standard of corporate 
governance by adopting the QCA 
Corporate Governance Code into our 
reporting structure. The Board continually 
reviews its composition and that of its 
Committees and feels that, at this stage 
of the Group’s development, the skills 
and mix of its members best serve our 
current needs.

Currently this means that I will 
continue to act as Audit Committee 
Chair, whilst Oliver Scott assumes chair 
of the Remuneration Committee. 
The Board recognises that it must 
evolve its Committee strategy as it 
grows in the future.

Future outlook
The disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business to Investcorp advised funds 
and the rebranding of the myWorld 
business to IQGeo creates exciting 
opportunities. The Board is very pleased 
that we have been able to negotiate 
such a positive outcome for both 
businesses, giving them the focus and 
investment needed to move forward 
with confidence. We would like to thank 
the management team and employees 
for all their hard work in executing this 
transaction and for completing the 
hundreds of large and small tasks 
required to successfully create the 
two new independent businesses.

overall profitability and creating an 
operating loss in 2018 having been 
profitable in 2017. Our closing order 
book for the IQGeo business amounted 
to £3.7 million.

Following the completion of the RTLS 
SmartSpace business unit disposal, the 
Board intends to return excess funds 
to Shareholders (subject to complying 
with all relevant law and regulation 
in effecting such return which is likely 
to include a capital reorganisation). 
Further details of the amount and 
timing of the return to shareholders 
will be made in due course.

For the 2018 financial year and 2017 
restated comparatives, the RTLS 
SmartSpace business is reported within 
the consolidated income statement 
of IQGeo as discontinued operations. 
The balance sheet reported is that of 
the new IQGeo business only, establishing 
a clear financial baseline going 
into 2019. 

Group strategy
Our focus remains on software revenue 
growth and the development of a strong 
recurring revenue base. Greater focus 
and a strong balance sheet will allow 
the right level of investments and give 
our customers confidence that IQGeo 
can support the growing needs of their 
business for many years. 

To support our growth ambitions, 
we are embarking on a controlled 
investment strategy to provide the 
organisation with additional software 
engineering, sales and support 
infrastructure. This is being done 
in direct response to the myWorld 
opportunities we are seeing across 
the telecommunications and utilities 
industries. Delivering to our ambitions 
brings with it many challenges but we 
have never been better positioned 
to meet these challenges. We can 
now provide IQGeo with the levels 
of focus and investment that it needs 
to realise the market potential of the 
myWorld products.

5

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Chief Executive’s statement
A software-first strategy

Dear shareholder,
2018 was an important year for us. 
Our three-point strategy of refocusing 
the overall business, improving sales 
execution and repositioning the product 
portfolio resulted in another year of 
increased own product sales, improved 
margins and more new customer logos 
to add to our roster.

However, in 2018 we realised that our 
ability to grow two separate business 
lines in diverging markets was a stretch 
on both our resources and balance sheet. 
Therefore, the decision was taken to focus 
the business by disposing of the RTLS 
SmartSpace business line.

Our vision for IQGeo is to create 
a company that provides the most 
advanced geospatial collaboration 
and productivity tools for utilities and 
telecommunications companies in the 
world. Our goal for IQGeo is to transform 
ourselves into a software-first business 
with high margins and levels of recurring 
revenue. In the rest of this statement I 
will explain why I believe that IQGeo 
will achieve this.

The IQGeo market
While the IQGeo brand is new, 
our flagship product myWorld is 
well established. In the eight years 
that this product has been in existence, 
it has become recognised as a market 
leader in geospatial mobile technology 
for utilities companies and our 
technology has been licensed to over 
35,000 users at over 45 companies 
worldwide. In North America, our 
customers include three of the top 
ten cable/telecommunication 
companies, and three of the top 
ten energy companies.

What makes us different? 
While many high-tech and e-businesses 
have come to dominate business 
headlines, few industries rival the 
sophistication and complexity of utilities 
or telecommunications. It is a complex 
production and distribution chain that 
can start with a burst of sunshine in 
Florida and then transforms and 
delivers that energy to a household 
that is tens of thousands of miles away. 
Telecommunications data networks 
are similarly complex, broadcasting 
high definition movies on demand to 
tens of millions of homes and devices 
simultaneously. By any standards these 
energy and data networks are technical 
triumphs. In fact, in telecommunications 
and utilities we see one of the most 
sophisticated, integrated and enduring 
producer-to-consumer relationships in 
any industry in the world. 

These complex producer-to-consumer 
relationships are underpinned by 
nationwide technical infrastructures 
that are being constantly extended, 
upgraded and in need of constant 
care. This is essential for consumers 
to receive the safe and reliable service 
that they expect – and for producers 
to protect and grow their market share. 
This is why analysts are projecting a 60% 
increase in 5G small cell infrastructure 
investment between 2018 and 2022, 
and broadband fibre subscribers are 
projected to grow by more than 12% 
CAGR in North America and Eastern 
Europe and by more than 22% CAGR 
in Western Europe and Asia between 
2015 and 20201.

1  Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Richard Petti
Chief Executive Officer

“

Our vision for 
IQGeo is to create 
a company that 
provides the most 
advanced geospatial 
collaboration and 
productivity tools 
for utilities and 
telecommunications 
companies in 
the world.”

IQGeo timeline

Nov 2018

Jan 2019

Feb 2019

Mar 2019

Plans announced for 
the disposal of Ubisense 
business line

The new IQGeo 
is launched

IQGeo announces 
plans for next generation 
geospatial platform

IQGeo launches new 
myWorld Construction 
Manager and myWorld 
Operations Manager products

6

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Digitisation of utilities 
and telecommunications
Consumers will be familiar with the 
transformation digital tools that have 
delivered benefits in their relationship 
with their utility and telecommunications 
providers. Today, typical broadband 
consumers can log a fault, receive 
acknowledgement, be given an expected 
fix time and get hourly updates and 
final notification of resolution without 
ever speaking to another human. 
Similarly, they can order mobile 
phones, broadband services, electricity, 
water and gas online and receive a 
great product at a competitive price. 
In other words, when companies invest 
in digitisation, consumers receive a very 
effective service that has been shown 
to directly increase customer satisfaction.

What consumers will be less aware 
of is the amount of digitisation that 
goes on behind the customer portals. 
The utilities networks – be they telephony, 
cable, electricity, gas or water, are highly 
complex production, storage and 
distribution networks often combining 
many decades of different technology 
and standards. These networks do not 
stand still for a moment – they are 
constantly being extended, upgraded, 
maintained, monitored and, where 
necessary, fixed by many hundreds of 
engineers, employees and managers. 

In fact, one of our largest customers 
has over 12,000 employees using 
myWorld on a daily basis. From a 
digitisation perspective, the challenge 
these companies face is tremendous 
– they are dealing with vast amounts 
of network information, typically in 
different formats and often locked deep 
in legacy systems. Moreover, tens of 
thousands of users in the office and 
in the field need to interact with this 
information every day or face 
frustrating delays or worse, make 
mistakes that can compromise their 
service. It is a tremendous data 
challenge – and it is precisely where 
myWorld delivers value.

myWorld geospatial collaboration 
and productivity 
myWorld excels in its ability to bring 
together disparate and fragmented data 
in order to create a single, current view 
of the operator’s network. This means 
bringing together not just accurate 
location information (geospatial data) 
but all the correct technical information 
of that network, down to individual 
switches, fibres, ports and customer 
data so that every employee whether 
in the office, the field or the call centre 
has the specific information they need 
to carry out an instruction, make a 
decision or sell a product. 

Telus, one of our largest customers 
in Canada, has integrated 27 different 
data sources into myWorld to create a 
single view of its network assets, which 
service over 1,000 daily users. This level 
of geospatial network integration was 
unthinkable even ten years ago.

Accelerating sales
In order to accelerate sales, we 
market myWorld as a series of functional 
packages that are specific to each 
stage of the network asset lifecycle. 
For example, our recently launched 
Construction Manager tool helps 
companies design network changes, 
put these into work packages (that 
include technical design work, customer 
information, permissions, etc.) and which 
assign them to engineering teams which 
receive these packages on mobile devices 
in the field. Once completed, these same 
engineers can document any necessary 
variations they made to the design and 
certify the job as complete. 

“If you were on your way to work and if you knew you didn’t have 

myWorld, you would contemplate calling in sick. I can’t remember 
how we used to display and get to a lot of the problems before 
myWorld. We have been a customer now for seven to eight years 
and we’ve pretty much grown with the product. It has been very 
well accepted throughout our footprint.”

Bill Vincent, ROC Lead Representative, Altice USA

7

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Chief Executive’s statement continued

Accelerating sales continued
Further along the asset lifecycle 
we have also recently launched our 
Operations Manager module, which 
gives a network operations centre 
(NOC) the ability to combine all 
monitoring data network devices 
into a single network view, enabling 
it to monitor network performance 
degradation, predict outages and 
prioritise network resolution issues 
and assign outages to field operators. 
We are unique in providing our customers 
a single “office to field” platform.

Our myWorld product line is very well 
articulated. We have more applications 
along different parts of the value chain 
that are specific to each industry we serve. 

In addition, we are changing the way 
we price and sell myWorld in order to 
encourage more long-term subscriptions 
and recurring revenue. Specifically, 
we are changing our pricing schemes 
to more usage-based models that 
provide our customers better price 
points to start using myWorld and 
better aligns value with increased 
usage as system integration and user 
adoption grows. Additionally, we have 
retrained our salesforce and created 
new pricing and marketing tools to 
foster a “subscription first” culture.

Market opportunity
In 2018 myWorld signed up eleven new 
customers, including another top ten 
utility in North America and thanks to 
our own product focus we were able 
to increase gross margins. That said, 
financial results for the IQGeo business 
in the second half of 2018 were out 
of line with our expectations as deals 
we had forecast slipped into 2019. 
During the period our sales team 
continued to mature and improve. 
We employed a number of new 
quota-carrying personnel and 
implemented programmes/training 
to optimise performance.

However, the potential of our 
target markets remains strong. 
The telecommunications industry is 
making major investments in fibre 
and 5G networks and utility operators 
are actively engaged in network upgrade 
programmes that include the rollout 
of new technologies such as smart 
metering. These investment activities 
are linked directly to strategic digital 
transformation initiatives that will 
improve their profitability, capture 
new customers, improve and extend 
product offerings and cut operating 
costs. Our myWorld and next generation 
geospatial platforms are uniquely 
positioned to help our customers enable 
the digital transformation initiatives 
that are mission critical to the growth 
and competitiveness of their business. 

Outlook and competitive positioning
As telecommunications and utilities 
customers consider the merits of large 
upgrade programmes of their legacy 
Geospatial Information Systems (“GIS”), 
some of which are more than 20 years 
old, they are taking the opportunity to 
look at fresh technology. Customers 
continue to tell us they need systems 
that are cloud ready, mobile ready 
and very easy to integrate. On those 
measurements IQGeo is already well 
positioned. In response to this window 
of opportunity, IQGeo has announced 
that it will aim to not only integrate 
legacy geospatial data systems but 
allow them to be replaced by 
introducing our own system of record. 
This creates a tremendous opportunity 
for us to become the alternative for 
these well-established GIS vendors.

Initial response to our technology 
and business strategy has been positive 
with customers and prospects desiring 
a fresh approach. While many of these 
opportunities remain large, long sales 
cycle projects, we are seeing healthy 
pipeline growth and we are investing 
in a modular product roadmap that 
allows customers to embark on these 
large projects in a simplified and lower 
risk way.

8

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018In 2019, we anticipate the managed 
decline of the third party geospatial 
services revenue to continue, falling to 
minimal levels by the end of 2019, but 
being replaced by growth in, higher 
margin, myWorld revenues. In the 
longer-term, we anticipate revenues 
accelerating underpinned by increased 
recurring subscriptions in myWorld.      

Reorganising for success
The creation of the new IQGeo has been 
well received by employees and has 
involved a substantial amount of internal 
work to deliver new subscription-based 
IT systems, updated internal processes 
and a move to serviced offices in 
Cambridge, Frankfurt and Tokyo. 

We will expand the product development 
team to both deliver our product 
roadmap and address the system 
of record opportunity, expecting to 
double the size of the team by the 
end of 2019, split between Denver and 
Cambridge. To maximise sales activity 
and results, we have created dedicated 
telecommunications and utilities sales 
teams and in early 2019 added two sales 
people in Europe and three in the US. 

Resetting the budget for 2019 to include 
the expanded organisation, the flexible 
support environment and additionally 
the corporate costs, such as insurance, 
that couldn’t be shared with the 
discontinued operations means that 
operational expenses are expected to 
increase by approximately £2 million 
over 2018’s figures.

Thanks to the hard work of our 
team, we have been able to make a 
smooth transition and communicated 
frequently through videos, emails and 
face-to-face meetings. The result has 
been to create a strong, shared group 
ethos. We are now a smaller and more 
focused team that is communicating 
more effectively than in the past and 
this is a positive culture change that 
will be essential for growth. The new 
IQGeo emerges at a very interesting 
time for the geospatial market in 
utilities and telecommunications. 

We believe – and our customers tell 
us – that our technology is compelling 
in its ability to accelerate productivity 
and collaboration across enterprise 
planning, design, construction and 
maintenance processes. We know 
we deliver clear business value to 
our customers as they upgrade and 
expand their network assets and that 
large swathes of our target market are 
seriously considering what geospatial 
technology to adopt for the next 
20 years. I can confidently speak for 
the entire team when I say that we 
are all extremely positive about the 
future of IQGeo. 

Richard Petti
Chief Executive Officer
10 April 2019

Continued operations 

Total revenue

£10.0m

18

17

16

£10.0m

£16.5m

£17.4m

myWorld product revenue

£4.7m

£4.7m

£5.8m

£3.8m

18

17

16

Gross margin

44%

18

17

16

Net cash balance

£30.9m

18

17

£6.6m

16 £0.2m

44%

39%

36%

£30.9m

9

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Case study – Cable One

Enhancing the 
customer experience

myWorld gives Cable One 
the ability to rollout future 
cable networks across 
21 American states.

Phoenix, Arizona

10

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018“

myWorld and Capture give us a simple tool to assist 
with network planning and auditing that is easy to use 
in the field. Over the 40 plus years that I have spent 
in the field, I have never found a solution that can 
do this, not until I found myWorld. We were looking 
for something simple to help us get the everyday 
work done, while also keeping our network maps as 
accurate as possible. 

I truly believe that this is the right tool for Cable 
One. myWorld and the Capture tool are going to 
allow me to keep my systems and the network 
updated, giving us the availability to build our 
future networks.” 

Dick Rohm,
Director of Engineering, West  at Cable One

Creating business value

Cable One needed a solution to 
enhance its as-built data, accelerate 
time to market and reduce Mean 
Time to Repair (MTTR) to improve 
the customer experience. 

In early 2018 Cable One started 
using the myWorld platform. 
By creating a single architecture 
for geospatial-based applications to 
manage Cable One’s geographically 
dispersed network assets, myWorld 
quickly improved the visibility and 
quality of outside plant data for 
its engineering, planning and 
field operations.

myWorld Capture has enabled the 
Cable One field staff and contractors 
to deliver high quality walkout surveys, 
same day construction as-builts, 
red-lines and data corrections from 
any mobile device, with a supporting 
secure offline data synchronisation 
that can scale to thousands of users.

Future plans for myWorld
myWorld will become the complete 
GIS platform for Cable One, including 
design, project tracking and developing 
applications for other business units to 
manage network assets.

7th

Largest cable company in the 
United States

800,000+

Customers

11

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018STRATEGIC REPORTOur markets
A digital transformation journey

The telecommunications and utilities industries targeted by 
IQGeo are undergoing tremendous change driven by economic, 
consumer and technological factors. At the root of this change 
is increased competition for existing customers, creating constant 
pressure to provide higher quality, more reliable services. 
Remaining competitive means delivering new technology like 
fibre, 5G and smart meters that demand the efficient planning, 
construction and maintenance of major network investments.

Industry transformation drivers
Increasing regulatory oversight.
• 

• 

Increasing frequency and severity of national disasters.

• 

Increasing customer expectations.

• 

Increasing competition from innovative players.

This perfect storm of technology rollout, increasing competitive 
pressure, greater regulatory oversights and more frequent 
and severe natural disasters creates a compelling market 
opportunity for IQGeo’s software solutions. To support 
essential digital transformation initiatives, more sophisticated 
technology is being pushed further to the edge of the network, 
creating greater data gaps between field operation and 
legacy centralised management systems.

The GIS crossroads
In early 2019 IQGeo announced plans for the development 
of a next generation geospatial platform that is tightly 
integrated with the existing myWorld platform and applications. 
The timing of this announcement reflects major changes 
happening in the traditional Geographic Information 
Systems (GIS) market.

To date, network operators have used large, complex 
and centralised GIS environments as their primary “system 
of record” but now struggle with these environments as ever 
greater data gaps are emerging between siloed systems 
and processes. Two of the largest GIS players are now 
requiring that their customers undertake major system 
upgrades, typically costing millions of dollars.

The IQGeo solution
IQGeo software creates a geo operations hub that reflects 
each customer’s environment, providing a mission-critical 
resource for telecommunication and utility operators to take 
control of the new realities they face. Unlike many of our 
competitors, the IQGeo software has been built exclusively 
for the needs of these industries; its “mobile first” platform 
effectively enables them to manage assets at the very 
edge of a network and our single common architecture 
delivers a highly flexible and extendable solution.

The IQGeo solution
Our next generation geospatial platform will disrupt the 
complex, legacy GIS status quo, allowing network operators  
to reimagine their operational system strategy. Our new 
platform will provide a much more agile, integrated and 
cost-effective solution for our customers and an excellent 
mid to long-term opportunity for our business.

12

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Market stats

Telecommunications
Investment in technology deployment to the edge of the network continues to grow 
as subscriber number for cable and fibre connections remains healthy.

Total worldwide 5G small cell units 2015-2024 (000)

CAGR broadband fibre subscribers 2015–2020

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

4
3
4

0

7
1
9

,

2
6
1
1

1
,
5
6
7

,

3
5
7
12
9
7
6

,

,

4
4
0
3

,

4
2
2
4

,

4
3
8
8

,

3
9
7
5

e
g
a
t
n
e
c
r
e
p
h
t
w
o
r
G

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

22.2%

23.5%

12.1%

13.5%

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

As of November 2018. Includes small cells units only. Sources: Industry 
data and Kagan estimates. Kagan, a media research group within the 
TMT offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. © 2018 S&P Global 
Market Intelligence. All rights reserved.

Utilities
Utilities are making major investments in digital infrastructure 
that enables high value services and operational automation, 
including new technology such as smart meters.

$133.8 billion 

14% increase in capital expenditure for the top 50 electricity 
and gas companies in North America to a record $133.8 billion

Source: Deloitte 2019 power and utilities industry outlook.

North America 
summary

Eastern Europe 
summary

Asia Pacific 
summary

Western Europe 
summary

Source: Industry data and Kagan estimates. © 2018 S&P Global 
Market Intelligence.

Smart Meters, Global Market Size 2012, 2017, 2022

$10.50bn

1
3
5
4

.

$7.07bn
8
8
2

.

$4.02bn
6
3
4

.

s
t
i
n
u
n
o

i
l
l
i

M

150

120

90

60

30

0

2012

2017

2022‘e’

Source: GlobalData, Technology Intelligence Center.

“Technology is expanding opportunities to improve operations. 

While customer-interface technologies may be the most visible 
aspect of technological enhancement of the utility business, 
they are far from the only aspect. The technology landscape 
for utilities, from generation right through to the customer, 
has probably never been richer.”

Scott Smith, US Power & Utilities leader, Deloitte LLP

13

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
 
Our products
Integrating complex field operations 
and office processes 

IQGeo product offering
IQGeo’s mobile geospatial software solutions accelerate 
productivity and collaboration across enterprise planning, 
design, construction and maintenance processes for the 
telecommunications and utilities industries.

Our flagship myWorld software is at the heart of our 
end-to-end mobile geospatial solution strategy. IQGeo 
customers use the software to create an easy-to-use geo 
operations hub that unlocks the right information at the right 
time, accessing data previously hidden away in complex 
and disconnected back end systems.

The ability to capture and visualise field information is 
mission critical to efficient operations and this is enabled 
by our strong mobile capabilities, which are second to none. 
myWorld captures field operations information that was 
previously lost, improving data quality for rapid and 
informed decision making.

More than 35,000 users from 45 operators and partners 
around the globe rely on myWorld software to easily visualise 
and manage their operational assets from anywhere, on 
any device, online or offline, in the office or in the field.

With our design principles of mobility, usability and integration, 
we put our customers in control of their business-critical 
processes. Our software reduces the cost of field maintenance 
and construction and enables our customers to deliver high 
value services that increase customer satisfaction and 
reduces churn. 

2018 applications
IQGeo offers a range of customer-led applications 
that are tightly integrated with the myWorld platform, 
supporting each customer’s unique geo operation hub: 

•  Capture — enables field staff and contractors to 

deliver high quality, same day construction as-builts, 
red-lines and data corrections from any mobile device. 

•  Damage Assessment — improves overall field 

communication as well as the speed and quality 
of information collected during storms or 
emergency events.

•  Fibre Planning — the FTTX and N+0 planning 

and design solution that accelerates time to market 
for next generation fibre network projects.

•  Inspection & Survey — transforms infrastructure 

companies’ ability to increase field inspection team 
productivity, eliminating regulatory penalties and fines.

•  myWorld for Salesforce — gives sales, customer 

service and operations staff self-service access to 
accurate and reliable network engineering, capacity 
and serviceability information.

•  Network Insight — delivers an array of simple-to-use 
data analytics and visualisation tools that enable 
rapid investigation of reliability issues on network 
to help determine the root cause of problems and 
optimise maintenance.

14

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018DataIntegrationUsabilityMobilityThingsPeopleEnterprise Resource PlanningReal-time Crew & Asset LocationCustomer Relationship ManagementGeographical Information System Workforce Management SystemIIoT & Network ManagementConstruction & MaintenanceField Data CapturePlanning & DesignInspections & ComplianceGeo operations hubmyWorldPlatform advantages

Business advantages

Built for infrastructure networks
•  Reality-centric and not map centric

Mobile first architecture
•  View and update data anywhere work is done

One common platform
•  Single flexible development environment

Enable
• Innovative digital transformation 
• Rapid technology and network rollout 
• Higher margin business models

Increase
• Service reliability 
• Network uptime
• Customer satisfaction
• Operational safety

Decrease
• Design, build and maintenance costs
• Field response times 
• Cost of ownership for IT systems 
• Operational and IT risks

Next generation geospatial platform
In early 2019, IQGeo announced development plans for a 
next generation geospatial platform. Traditional GIS have 
been with us for more than 30 years and these legacy 
systems now struggle to deliver the technology, agility 
and cost-effective economics that are essential for 
network digital transformation.

IQGeo’s next generation geospatial platform is designed 
to address the realities of our customers’ rapidly changing 
ecosystem. Built on our proven mobile myWorld platform, 
its cost-effective and innovative architecture is challenging 
the conventional role and capabilities of expensive, complex 
GIS environments.

Organisations can take control of their operational assets by 
creating, capturing and editing their geospatial data on any 
mobile device, online or offline, in the field or in the office. Its 
mobile first approach is radically different from any of the 
offerings from traditional GIS vendors. The future is all about 
updating network asset data immediately as work happens 
in the field, in increasingly automated ways.

2019 applications
Based on direct feedback from our customers and prospects, 
IQGeo will also be extending its suite of applications in 2019. 
New applications will focus on three areas of planning, 
workflow and field and inspection.

•  Construction Manager — controls the construction 
programme by giving field staff what they need to 
get the job done right, first time.

•  Operations Manager — simplifies field and network 
operations to accelerate repairs and reduce rework.

•  Serviceability Manager — project managers can 
quickly create estimates for high volume simple 
projects, using different optimisation models.

15

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Case study – Unitil

Increasing operational 
efficiencies

myWorld Inspection & Survey 
improves data collection for 
Unitil to meet compliance 
and safety regulations.

Hampton, New Hampshire

16

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018“

After adopting the myWorld Inspection and Survey 
product, Unitil has increased operational efficiencies 
and has been able to produce verifiable, traceable 
and complete audit records in support of mobile 
leak survey activities. We look forward to expanding 
the use of the myWorld Inspection and Survey 
product to other operational areas of the business. 
I am excited about our continued partnership.” 

Stacey Kilroy, Sr.
Integrity Management and Pipeline Safety Coordinator at Unitil

Creating business value

Unitil, as with all utility companies, 
faces a wealth of compliance and 
safety regulation. It has an affirmative 
obligation to make its systems safer. 
To do so it must prioritise risks, which 
need to be supported by accurate 
data. This data is then used to help 
Unitil demonstrate system 
improvements over time.

In 2016, Unitil started deployment 
of myWorld Inspection & Survey to 
conduct driving surveys using laptops, 
replacing paper-based systems and 
providing a simple, clear audit trail 

that allows field teams to see which 
areas have been surveyed. myWorld 
delivers asset data digitally to users in 
the field, which has increased accuracy 
and enabled them to identify the exact 
location of facilities.

myWorld has also enabled Unitil’s 
supervisors to easily generate 
reports of current and historic activity, 
including print maps where required. 
It also supports walking surveys and 
inspections such as critical valve, 
meter and atmospheric corrosion.

105,600

Electric customers

82,700

Natural gas customers

2011

2016

Sep 2017

Dec 2017

2018

Started working 
with myWorld

Achieved all 
operational goals 
(set in 2011)

Awarded “NGA 
Excellence in Safety 
and Health Recognition 
Program” in recognition 
of Unitil’s safety program 
that positively impacted 
the lives of employees, 
customers or the 
general public

Objectives set:

• 

Increase the amount 
of collective data on 
new installation

•  Fill in the data gaps 
on existing assets

•  Real time 

data collection

• 

Improve leak 
management program

•  Ability to respond 

to field observations 
more quickly

•  Aid in compliance

myWorld used 
to survey Unitil’s 
distribution network 
post-earthquakes to 
ensure its integrity:

•  February 15, 2018, 

earthquake in New 
Hampshire

•  December 21, 2018, 
earthquake in 
Gardner, 
Massachusetts

17

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018STRATEGIC REPORTOur business model and strategy
Transition to subscription revenue

IQGeo is transitioning from a perpetual to a 
subscription-based software licensing model to 
create a more predictable, recurring revenue stream.

Our subscription gearing model
In 2019 the IQGeo sales team 
is quoting subscription pricing 
for all new project opportunities. 
Under this model, the customers’ 
recurring revenue ‘shifts up a gear’ 
each time new users, capabilities 
and applications are added to 
their environment. 

Perpetual software licensing 
agreements with existing customers 
will be retained and they will continue 
to be charged an annual recurring 
maintenance fee. However, the addition 
of certain new capabilities and 
applications will only be available 
through a subscription agreement.

Perpetual
One-time, perpetual 
use software licence.

Services
Project-based revenue 
generated from services 
related to software products.

Maintenance
Annual maintenance 
and support for perpetual 
licence contracts.

Subscription revenue focus
IQGeo provides a value-based software 
subscription model for its customers. 
This supports a very cost-effective entry point 
to encourage new project deployment, while 
generating a predictable revenue stream.

Subscription
Annual recurring 
right-to-use software 
licence fee.

18

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Revenue evolution
While we are transitioning to a subscription model for our enterprise software, we will continue to have a mix 
of non-recurring and recurring revenue. The business objective is to transition, over time, as much non-recurring 
revenue as possible to recurring revenue.

New subscription-only software capabilities will include the addition of myWorld data sources and support for 
increased “burst” user licensing during natural disasters such as hurricanes and snow storms.

Non-recurring revenue

Perpetual
Perpetual licences will continue with existing customer 
contracts. This will only be possible for new customers 
in special cases with executive approval.

Services
Service revenue generated from projects will continue, 
focused less on third party products and more on services 
for IQGeo software.

Recurring revenue

Subscriptions
All new customer proposals incorporate a software 
subscription revenue model.

Maintenance
Recurring maintenance 
and support revenue with 
continue for customers 
with existing perpetual 
licence contracts.

19

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Key performance indicators (KPIs)
KPIs of total Group operations

Recurring M&S revenues

£2.5m

18

17

16

£2.5m

£1.8m

£1.4m

Software revenues

£3.8m

Own product revenue

£20.3m

18

17

16

£3.8m

£3.9m

£3.2m

18

17

16

£20.3m

£16.6m

£12.9m

Transformation of the Group into 
a software-first business with strong 
customer retention has resulted in a 
35% increase in recurring M&S revenues.

Software revenues remained consistent 
with the prior year with the timing of 
pipeline conversion delaying key deals 
into 2019.

The Group has been successful 
in delivering its strategy of growing 
higher margin own product revenue, 
achieving an increase of 22% in 2018.

Total revenue

£25.5m

Gross margin 

49%

Profit/(loss) for the year

£19.8m

18

17

16

£25.5m

£27.3m

£26.5m

18

17

16

49%

18

£19.8m

40%

39%

17

£(3.1)m

16 £(5.3)m

Gross profit margin increases have 
been delivered through significant 
growth in own product revenues.

The 2018 profit includes the profit 
on disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit.

Total revenue decreased by 6% with 
increases in own product revenues 
largely offsetting the managed decline 
in geospatial services associated with 
third party products.

Employee headcount at 31 December

120

18

17

16

120

138

142

2018 headcount of 120 includes 
61 employees of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit.

20

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018KPIs of continuing operations

Recurring M&S revenues

£0.9m

18

17

16

£0.9m

£0.8m

£0.5m

Recurring M&S revenues have 
increased by 22% due to a higher 
number of software users and 
continued customer retention.

myWorld software revenues

myWorld product revenue

£1.4m

18

17

16

£1.4m

£1.0m

£2.6m

£4.7m

18

17

16

£4.7m

£5.8m

£3.8m

Software revenues decreased by 46% 
due to the timing of pipeline conversion. 
The Group plans to mitigate the risk 
of future revenue volatility through 
improving its business model to grow 
recurring revenues.

myWorld product revenue decreased 
by 18% with the decline in myWorld 
software revenue partially offset by 
the increase in recurring revenues.

Gross margin 

44%

18

17

16

Adjusted EBITDA

£(1.1)m

Net cash

£30.9m

44%

£(1.1)m

18

39%

36%

17

16

£1.8m

18

17

£6.6m

£30.9m

£2.4m

16 £0.2m

Gross profit margin increases are due 
to the change in revenue mix between 
higher margin own product revenue 
and the lower profit margin Geospatial 
services from third party products.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing 
operations has declined due to a 
reduction in total revenue and increased 
investment during 2018 in sales and 
product development which is anticipated 
to generate growth in future periods.

Net cash increased to £30.9 million 
following the successful sale of the 
RTLS SmartSpace business unit 
and the repayment of all bank debt.

Employee headcount at 31 December

59

18

17

16

59

83

79

As the business shifts from lower 
profit margin service revenues 
to having a greater mix of higher 
profit margin product revenues, 
the headcount requirements 
of the business have reduced.

21

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Chief Financial Officer’s statement

On 31 December 2018 the Group disposed of its RTLS SmartSpace business unit 
for a consideration of up to £35.0 million with £30.0 million paid in cash on completion 
(subject to adjustments for net debt and net working capital) in addition to a £2.0 million 
rollover investment and further £3.0 million earn-out consideration. The earn-out 
consideration is dependent on milestones set for the revenues achieved in 2018 and 
2019, for which the first milestone was not met as outlined in note 6 of the financial 
statements. The transaction price reflected the 44% revenue growth achieved 
during the 2018 period together with the future anticipated growth of the business. 
The delivery of the software strategy that the Board first implemented in 2016 led 
to significant improvements in gross profit margin and profitability during 2018.

The trading performance of the RTLS SmartSpace business is summarised as follows:
Year on
year growth
44%
81%
10%

Revenue of discontinued operations
Total revenue
Gross profit
Gross margin

2017
£’000
10,796
4,486
42%

2018
£’000
15,519
8,117
52%

The successful sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit enables the remaining 
IQGeo Group to be a focused and well-funded geospatial software operation 
working globally with telecommunications and utilities industries. Continued investment 
in myWorld products, building an industry-leading offering, alongside the development 
of sales channels, is anticipated to increase recurring own product revenues and 
gross profit in future periods.

Revenue
The continuing operations of the Group are managed as a single Geospatial 
division. The Geospatial division is focused on growing own product myWorld 
revenues which include selling perpetual software licences, generating recurring 
revenues from software subscription products and maintenance and support 
contracts, and delivering consultancy services revenues. Additionally, the Geospatial 
division has a legacy operation that provides lower margin consultancy services 
connected to third party products which have declined in the current period and 
are expected to decline in future periods.

Revenue composition by revenue stream is summarised in the table below:
2018
£’000
1,395
918
2,424

% of
total revenue
16%
5%
15%

% of
total revenue
14%
9%
24%

2017
£’000
2,575
750
2,459

Year on
year growth
(46)%
22%
(1)%

Revenue of continuing operations
Software
Maintenance and support
Services
Total revenue generated from 
myWorld products
Geospatial services from 
third-party products
Total revenue

4,737

47%

5,784

35%

(18)%

5,242
9,979

53%
100%

10,675
16,459

65%
100%

(51)%
(39)%

The Group has shown growth in recurring maintenance and support contracts 
of 22%. Sales of perpetual software licences have declined during the 2018 period 
as the division has remained reliant on the timing of completion of a small number 
of significant orders. Going forward, the Group plans to evolve its business model 
to grow recurring revenues beyond maintenance and support contracts with 
additional subscription-based software sales contracts. This will provide greater 
stability to income and operations in future periods.

Tim Gingell
Chief Financial Officer

“

The successful 
sale of the RTLS 
SmartSpace division 
will allow the Group 
to focus on myWorld 
product growth.”

22

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Orders
Total bookings of new Geospatial customer orders in 2018 decreased by 
31% to £8.2 million (2017: £12.0 million). £3.4 million of this related to myWorld 
(2017: £6.8 million) and £4.8 million to third party geospatial services 
(2017: £5.2 million).

The order book backlog as at 31 December 2018 was £3.7 million (2017: £5.1 million), 
most of which will be recognised during 2019. £1.6 million of this related to 
myWorld (2017: £2.9 million) and £2.1 million to third party Geospatial Services 
(2017: £2.2 million).

Gross profit

Gross profit of continuing operations
Geospatial division

2018
£’000
4,380

Gross
margin % 
44%

2017
£’000
6,371

Gross
margin %
39%

Gross margin
movement
5%

The gross margin % of the Geospatial division has increased during 2018 due to 
the increase in higher profit margin recurring maintenance and support revenues 
and the managed reduction in lower profit margin service revenues associated 
with third party products.

Operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations
Operating expenses were £6.0 million (2017: £5.9 million) and are summarised 
as follows:

Other operating expenses
Depreciation
Amortisation and impairment
Share option expense
Unrealised foreign exchange on intercompany trading balances
Non-recurring items
Total operating expense

2018
£’000
5,446
273
774
248
(151)
(619)
5,971

2017
£’000

4,602

46

807

237

252

—

5,944

Other operating expenses of the Group include sales and product development 
costs directly attributable to the Geospatial division. Other operating costs have 
increased during 2018 due to investment in sales headcount to deliver future growth 
and investment in product engineering, in line with the strategy outlined last year.

The other operating costs reported above include an allocation of the central 
administration and marketing costs of the Group which supported both the 
Geospatial and discontinued RTLS SmartSpace divisions during 2018 and 2017. 
Accordingly, the figures reported above do not provide a realistic cost base to 
support the continuing operations going forward and other operating costs will 
be expected to increase in future periods. Following the separation, the Group 
will maintain flexibility within its cost base and these measures will include utilising 
short-term serviced office leases and a subscription-based IT environment. It is 
anticipated that other operating expenses will increase by approximately £2 million 
in 2019 from the 2018 expenses reported above. There will be a reduction in capital 
expenditure as a result of this strategy.

Non-recurring items relates to the profit on disposal of the third party geospatial 
services business of our Japanese subsidiary which occurred on 30 March 2018. 
Strategically this sale was part of the managed decline of the Group’s third party 
geospatial services business.

23

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Chief Financial Officer’s statement continued

Operating expenses and adjusted 
EBITDA from continuing operations 
continued
Adjusted EBITDA from continuing 
operations excludes amortisation and 
impairment, depreciation, share option 
expense, foreign exchange gains/losses 
on intercompany trading balances and 
non-recurring items and is reported as it 
reflects the performance of the Group. 
Adjusted EBITDA for the period was 
£1.1 million loss (2017: £1.8 million profit). 

The operating loss for the period from 
continuing operations was £1.6 million 
(2017: £0.4 million profit).

EPS and dividends
Adjusted diluted loss per share from 
continuing operations was 3.0 pence 
(2017: 1.6 pence gain). Reported basic 
and diluted loss per share from 
continuing operations was 2.2 pence 
(2017: 0.8 pence gain). The Board does 
not feel it appropriate at this time to 
commence paying dividends.

Impact of IFRS 15 and IFRS 16
IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts 
with Customers has replaced IAS 18 
Revenue. The new standard has been 
adopted from 1 January 2018. IFRS 15 
introduces a number of new concepts 
and requirements, and also provides 
guidance and clarification on 
existing practice. 

IFRS 16 Leases will replace IAS 17 
and three related interpretations. 
Leases will be recorded on the 
statement of financial position in 
the form of a right-of-use asset and 
a lease liability. The consolidated 
statement of comprehensive income 
is impacted through reduced operating 
expenses, and higher depreciation 
and finance costs. The new standard 
is applicable from 1 January 2019 but 
the Group adopted the standard from 
1 January 2018.

The impact of the adoption of IFRS 15 
and IFRS 16 on the results for the period 
ended 31 December 2018 has been 
disclosed in detail within note 2 to the 
financial statements. In summary, 
implementation of IFRS 15 has had 
minimal revenue impact, whilst the 
impact of IFRS 16 has been to increase 
adjusted EBITDA from continuing 
operations by £0.2 million for the 
year ended 31 December 2018.

Discontinued operations
The profit recognised during 2018 
from discontinued operations is 
£21.5 million (2017: £3.5 million loss). 
The 2018 results of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business reflected significant growth 
with revenues increasing by 44% from 
the prior period; however, the first 
milestone of the earn-out was not 
achieved due to the timing of certain 
customer orders. The full value of the 
earn-out would be achieved if the 
2019 revenue for the RTLS SmartSpace 
business exceeds £22.9 million.

While the achievement of an 
additional £3.0 million earn-out cash 
consideration remains possible, no 
contingent asset has been recognised 
within the statement of financial position 
as at 31 December 2018. Management 
believes that this is appropriate as 
achievement of the milestones is 
dependent on the new management 
team’s strategy and performance, 
over which IQGeo has no influence 
as a non-controlling shareholder.

The disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit followed reorganisation 
involving the creation of new legal 
entities within the UK, USA, Canada, 
Germany and Japan regions. 
The Group completed a reorganisation 
whereby the trade and assets of the 
RTLS SmartSpace and Geospatial 
business units were separated into 
different legal entities in each country. 
The restructured RTLS SmartSpace 
group of legal entities, headed by 
Ubisense Limited, was disposed of on 

31 December 2018. Central functions 
such as finance and IT were allocated 
between the RTLS SmartSpace and 
Geospatial legal entities so that both 
divisions could continue trading 
post-disposal. This was supported 
through a transition services 
agreement between IQGeo and 
the discontinued business.

Disposal of Japanese geospatial 
services business
On 30 March 2018, the Group 
concluded the sale of its Japanese 
third party geospatial services business 
including the Geoplan brand name for 
a gross consideration of JPY 100 million 
(£0.7 million). This disposal was consistent 
with the Group’s strategy to focus on 
higher margin own product revenues 
while managing a decline in lower 
margin services associated with 
third-party products.

The Japan disposal has not been 
included within discontinued operations 
as geospatial services connected to 
third party products will continue in the 
short-term future within our North America 
operations, and the net assets disposed 
of under this transaction were not 
significant to the Group.

Alongside this transaction, the Group 
acquired the 23% non-controlling interest 
of Ubisense Japan K.K. in March 2018. 
The acquisition of this non-controlling 
interest gave the Group 100% ownership 
of its remaining Japanese operations 
prior to its inclusion as part of the sale 
of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit.

Consolidated statement 
of financial position
On 31 December 2018 the Group received 
a net sum of £27.1 million cash consideration 
from the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business, after settlement of all outstanding 
debt of the Group, including the balance 
on the HSBC loan of £1.8 million.

24

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Operating cash flows from operating 
activities after adjusting for working 
capital and tax was £0.9 million inflow 
(2017: £3.6 million inflow). 

The Group had investment inflows 
of £24.3 million (2017: £2.1 million 
outflow), which is largely made up 
of cash received following the sale of 
the RTLS SmartSpace business unit. 

Cash outflows from financing activities 
were £3.5 million (2017: £4.3 million 
inflows). This included repayment 
of the HSBC loan of £2.5 million 
during 2018.

Return to shareholders
Following the completion of the RTLS 
SmartSpace business unit disposal, 
the Board intends to return some of the 
excess funds to shareholders (subject 
to complying with all relevant law 
and regulation in effecting such return 
which is likely to include a capital 
reorganisation). Further details of the 
amount and timing of the return to 
shareholders will be made in due course.

Tim Gingell
Chief Financial Officer
10 April 2019

As at 31 December 2018, the Group had 
a cash position of £30.9 million with no 
debt (2017: net cash position of £6.6 million 
being £9.1 million of cash and £2.5 million 
of debt).

Current assets
Total current assets increased to £34.5 million 
(2017: £21.1 million) which is driven by 
a cash increase to £30.9 million 
(2017: £9.1 million). 

Non-current assets
Total non-current assets were £3.6 million 
(2017: £3.5 million). 

Capitalised development costs 
represent the key intangible assets 
of the Group being investment in 
IQGeo’s own products which will support 
the future growth of the business. 
Capitalised development costs at 
31 December 2018 were £1.2 million 
(2017: £2.7 million) with the reduction 
during the year being due to the disposal 
of the RTLS SmartSpace intellectual 
property. The remaining book value 
relates solely to myWorld products. 

The appropriateness of the 
assessment of the useful life of current 
development projects was reviewed, 
but no change has been made to the 
current three-year amortisation period, 
due to the fast-moving nature of the 
technology. The recoverable amount 
of the capitalised development costs 
is supported through the anticipated 
growth in revenues of the 
myWorld products. 

As a result of the early adoption 
of IFRS 16, leases greater than 
twelve months have been recorded 
on the statement of financial position 
in the form of a right-of-use asset 
with £0.3 million recognised as 
at 31 December 2018 (2017: £nil).

The consideration for disposal of the 
RTLS SmartSpace business included 
£2 million in a rollover investment into 
the sold business and accordingly 
an investment asset of £2 million is 
recognised as at 31 December 2018 
(2017: £nil).

Following the sale of the RTLS 
SmartSpace business the working 
capital requirements of the Group have 
significantly decreased. Trade receivables 
net of provisions decreased to £1.5 million 
(2017: £6.2 million). Amounts recoverable 
on contracts totalled £0.6 million 
(2017: £2.7 million) which are generated 
from services contracts or end of period 
deliveries, and are then invoiced in 
the following month or as the 
relevant milestone is reached. 
Hardware inventories decreased to 
£nil (2017: £1.5 million) as the continuing 
operations do not involve hardware.

Total assets
Total assets increased to £38.1 million 
(2017: £24.6 million) which includes 
£30.9 million of cash.

Current liabilities
Total current liabilities decreased 
to £5.5 million (2017: £10.0 million). 
Trade payables decreased to 
£2.2 million (2017: £3.0 million).

Non-current liabilities
Total non-current liabilities decreased to 
£0.3 million (2017: £2.5 million) following 
the repayment of the HSBC loan 
(£1.8 million) on 31 December 2018. 

Net assets
Net assets increased to £32.3 million 
(2017: £12.1 million) following the disposal 
of the RTLS SmartSpace business.

Cash and cash flow
Operating cash flow before working 
capital movement was £0.4 million 
inflow (2017: £0.4 million inflow). 

25

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Principal risks and uncertainties

Key

Increase

Decrease

No change

New

The Directors of IQGeo Group plc confirm that we have carried out a detailed assessment of the principal risks facing 
the Company, including those that would threaten its business model, future performance, solvency or liquidity. Risks that 
present a potential material impact are identified and governed in accordance with our risk management policies.

Effective risk management is critical to the achievement of the Group’s long-term growth. The Board has overall 
accountability for ensuring that risk is effectively managed across the Group through the implementation and review 
of the Group’s risk processes.

The principal risks listed in the table are those we believe could cause our results to differ materially from expected 
and historical results. They are also the risks that may impact the achievement of the Group’s strategic priorities.

Strategic risks

Principal risk and impact

Mitigation of risk

Change in the year

Growth management
Near-term expansion is expected to develop 
existing markets and expand into new markets. 
The risks associated with growth include the 
delivery of market penetration through the 
conversion of leads to sales, and control of 
increases in fixed operating costs to support 
revenue growth. If the Group is unable to 
manage expansion effectively, its business 
and financial results could suffer.

•  Close monitoring of business development 
strategy and regular reviews of the sales 
opportunity pipeline at Board meetings.

•  Head office support of regional office 

development in the event of accelerated 
regional growth.

•  Development of systems and processes that 

can scale with the business while maintaining 
good financial management.

Dependence on key customers
The Group has a concentrated customer base, 
many of which are substantially larger enterprises 
than the Group. The Group is reliant on significant 
projects with its key customers to deliver financial 
results. The conversion of opportunities to signed 
contracts and then the subsequent timing of the 
projects are not fully under the control of the Group. 

Technological risk
The Group operates in an industry where 
competitive advantage is heavily dependent 
on technology. Technological development may 
reduce the importance of the Group’s function 
in the market.

•  The Group’s management performs regular 
reviews of the opportunity pipeline, including 
critical stages to complete the larger deals 
with status reported at Board meetings.

• 

Increase the breadth of the opportunity pipeline 
through recruitment of more quota-carrying 
sales and pre-sales personnel.

•  The Group continues to invest in the key 

customer relationships that it has successfully 
retained over many years, while also 
maintaining a strategy to extend and diversify 
its customer base.

•  Development of recurring revenue streams 
including M&S and subscription services.

•  Regular monitoring of the industry and advances 

through participation in research forums.

•  Review of the myWorld product roadmap 
by the Board to ensure competitiveness.

•  Continued investment in technologies that 

meet customer needs.

•  Monitoring of planned R&D to ensure 

resources are allocated to deliver advances 
that are aligned to the Company strategy.

26

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
 
 
 
Key

Increase

Decrease

No change

New

Operational risks

Principal risk and impact

Mitigation of risk

Change in the year

Customer satisfaction and retention
Barriers to entry into the market are high 
with proof of delivery in customer environments 
essential. The Group operates in a market with 
a small number of significant customers and 
reputational damage through poor customer 
satisfaction could be significant. Large customers 
generate a high proportion of recurring business 
as well as upsell and cross-sell opportunities. 
These customers also provide solution references 
and often trial new products or updates to 
existing ones.

Additionally, poor customer satisfaction could 
result in delays in the timing of customer 
payments which would reduce the working 
capital available to the Group.

Staff recruitment and retention
The Group’s success is substantially dependent 
upon recruiting, retaining and incentivising senior 
management and key technically skilled employees, 
the loss of whom could have an adverse impact 
on the performance of the business.

•  Maintain regular communications 

with customers.

•  Ensure appropriate level of resources 
are applied to key customer accounts.

•  Deal with issues quickly through a clear 

escalation path.

•  The Group has in place appropriate incentive 
structures to attract and retain the calibre of 
employees necessary to ensure the efficient 
development and management of the Group.

•  The Group has implemented Employer of 

Choice initiatives including career planning 
and organisational development.

27

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
 
 
 
Principal risks and uncertainties continued

Key

Increase

Decrease

No change

New

Operational risks continued

Principal risk and impact

Mitigation of risk

Change in the year

•  The Group monitors new developments taking 

input from local advisers.

•  The Group regularly reviews its processes to 
ensure that the risk of default is minimised.

Legal and regulatory breaches
The Group is required to comply with local laws, 
regulations and legislation in each jurisdiction in 
which it operates. These include compliance with 
financial reporting and conduct requirements 
and health and safety, data protection and 
anti-bribery rules.

Failure to comply with local laws may result 
in the cessation of the ability to trade in that 
jurisdiction, fines or the allocation of resources 
to perform corrective actions. 

International trade
The UK is anticipated to leave the European 
Union. The risks associated with Brexit include a 
potential increase in the level of market volatility 
and barriers to trade between the UK and the EU 
following the end of any transition arrangements 
that come into force post-Brexit, and may impact 
the investment plans of our customers.

The Group is exposed to economic downturn 
within the markets in which it operates.

•  European customers enter into contracts with 
IQGeo GmbH, a Germany-based subsidiary 
of IQGeo Group plc.

•  The Group’s customer sales are spread across 
multiple territories which may partially mitigate 
against a downturn in any one region.

•  The nature of the continuing operations 

following the disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit will reduce the impact of Brexit 
on the Group.

Digital infrastructure and cyber security
Breaches of the Group’s digital security through 
cyber attacks or otherwise, or failure of the Group’s 
digital infrastructure could seriously disrupt 
operations, including the provision of customer 
services, and result in the loss or misuse of sensitive 
information, legal or regulatory breaches resulting 
in potential liability and reputational damage 
among the customer base leading to a decline 
in revenues.

•  The Group continues to invest in resources in 

enhancing its network resilience and defences, 
through monitoring and reviewing the incident 
response processes to mitigate the impact of a 
security breach.

•  Short and medium-term cyber security 

enhancement plans are regularly reviewed 
by the Board.

28

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
 
 
 
Key

Increase

Decrease

No change

New

Financial risks

Principal risk and impact

Mitigation of risk

Change in the year

RTLS SmartSpace disposal warranties
On 31 December, the Group disposed of its 
RTLS SmartSpace business. The sale agreement 
included a number of warranties which would 
allow the new owners of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business to make a claim against the Group, 
should additional liabilities crystallise at a 
later date.

Taxation
The Group has operations in multiple countries 
and is exposed to international tax laws. 
Changes to taxation legislation could have an 
adverse impact on the working capital and 
profitability of the Group. 

Foreign exchange risk
The Group’s international operations expose it to 
the effect of changes in foreign currency exchange 
rates. A major proportion of the Group’s receivables 
and payables are currently denominated in 
Canadian dollars and US dollars.

•  The Group has worked extensively with 

external advisers in concluding the transaction 
to minimise the extent of the warranties.

•  The Group reviews local compliance 
and upcoming changes to legislation 
with its advisers and continues to update 
forecasts accordingly.

•  The Group relies on a partial natural hedge 
of Canadian Dollar, US Dollar, Euro and 
Japanese Yen receivables being in the same 
currency as the local operation’s payables.

•  The Group’s working capital is forecast 

and monitored in the local currency of each 
subsidiary allowing the foreign currency 
exposure across the Group to be reviewed.

Financial reporting risk
In preparing the financial statements, the 
Group makes accounting estimates that have 
a significant risk of causing material adjustment 
to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities 
within the next financial year. These judgments 
are detailed further in note 4 to the financial 
statements and include revenue recognition 
and myWorld development costs.

• 

In forming our accounting judgments, 
management discusses estimates with internal 
experts within the IQGeo Group to ensure all 
relevant facts are understood.

•  The underlying fact pattern and conclusions 
reached in making accounting judgments 
are discussed in detail with the Audit Committee 
of the Group.

Risks reported in the prior year which are no longer considered to be principal risks
Future funding requirements and meeting covenants associated with bank debt were identified as principal risks in prior 
periods. These are no longer risks to the Group following the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit and repayment 
of the Group bank debt on 31 December 2018. 

The Strategic report was approved by the Board of Directors on 10 April 2019 and signed on its behalf by:

Tim Gingell
Chief Financial Officer
10 April 2019

29

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
 
 
 
Our people

With staff tenure well above industry averages, IQGeo benefits from 
improved business productivity and high employee satisfaction.

USA – 56%

UK – 25%

Germany – 8%

Canada – 6%

Japan – 5%

Culture, Values, and CSR
Our people are expert and passionate 
professionals whose commitment to the 
company are essential for our success. 
They create compelling and innovative 
technical solutions that solve real world 
problems and they thrive on the 
challenge of delivering success for our 
customers. We recruit staff from a wide 
range of backgrounds including utilities, 
telecommunications, technology and 
professional services companies, and it 
is this combination of competencies 
that enables us to deliver high value 
solutions to our core markets. 

Values
We are a knowledge-based industry, 
so staff retention is important for the 
growth and success of the company. 
Providing core values that employees 
want is key to having an engaged and 
successful workforce. We believe that 
employees want interesting work,

IQGeo team in Cambridge

5.8 years 

Average staff tenure

IQGeo global staff distribution56+

30

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201825
+
8
+
6
+
5
+
g
Everyone receives mid-year and 
year-end performance reviews, 
aligning activity with engaging work. 
Knowing that effective managers 
will yield high performing teams, all 
managers received one-on-one 
coaching by Human Resources to 
assess management ability and to 
identify individual areas of development. 
In addition, staff received professional 
training in strategic selling, product 
management, and pragmatic marketing.

Focusing on talent development, 
engaging with employees to create 
a positive working environment and 
recognising success, all made 2018 a 
successful year with a highly dedicated 
and confident work force.

career opportunities, recognition for 
their effort, and connection to the local 
and global community. Over the course 
of 2018 the company provided focused 
effort in all these areas, summarised as 
our Employer of Choice initiative.

Culture and value indicators 
measured on a scale of 1 to 10
Motivation:  

Up 2 points from 6 to 8

Clarity of Vision:  Up 2 points from 5 to 7

Team Work: 

Up 1 point from 8 to 9

Each employee was given the 
opportunity to perform work with 
input on goals and objectives setting 
and had a conversation regarding 
their long-term career and career 
path that is recorded and used when 
considering new roles internally. 
We recognised key victories in individual 
performance during all-hands meetings. 
Additionally, each employee can 
participate in their local community 
by taking one day a year of paid leave 
to assist with a charity of their choice. 
This effort is creating stronger employee 
engagement as shown by the Annual 
Employee Survey.

In 2018, our staff recorded a renewed 
excitement and engagement at work 
in our confidential annual survey. 
By tracking key engagement factors, 
we can see where staff perceptions 
greatly improved and are indicative 
of higher employee satisfaction over 
the previous year:

Business Focus:  Up 1 point from 7 to 8

Innovation: 

Up 1 point from 7 to 8

Quality:   

Up 1 point from 7 to 8

These improvements show that staff 
morale, confidence in the company 
direction and the management team 
are at good levels. Even after the split 
of the business, we see nearly half 
(47%) of IQGeo staff have been with 
the business five or more years. This is 
higher than the industry average of 
4.2 years. Our retention programmes 
are bearing results.

Employee Engagement
The Employer of Choice initiative also 
provided coaching and training to the 
staff, especially focusing on managers 
and leaders. All staff received Time 
Management Tips training that was 
well received and is available to all 
new staff. 

1.8 years

the average staff tenure 
for the 10 biggest 
tech companies* 

4.2 years 

the average staff tenure 
for salaried employees 
in the US**

5.8 years

an average of 5.8 years 
per person across 
IQGeo staff

*  Business insider Top 10 tech company staff tenure https://www.businessinsider.com/employee-retention-rate-top-tech-companies-2017-8?r=US&IR=T

** US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 September 2018 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.nr0.htm

31
31

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Board of Directors
Guidance and counsel

The Board of Directors has overall responsibility for the Group. 
Its aim is to provide the leadership and industry-specific insight 
required to develop a successful business, through utilising the 
broad range of skills and experience of the Board members.

Paul Taylor
Chairman

Richard Petti 
Chief Executive Officer

Tim Gingell
Chief Financial Officer

Experience
Paul Taylor spent over 21 years with 
AVEVA Group plc and was Group Finance 
Director from 2001 to 2011. Paul is a Fellow 
of the Chartered Association of Certified 
Accountants and was recipient of the 
FTSE 250 Finance Director of the Year in 
2008. Paul was appointed to the IQGeo 
(then Ubisense) Board on 28 February 
2011. Previously, Paul was a non-executive 
director of Anite plc, KBC Advanced 
Technologies plc and Escher Group 
Holdings plc.

Other appointments
Paul serves as a non-executive director 
of Thruvision Group plc and Frontier Smart 
Technologies Group Limited. Paul is also 
a Trustee of CAD Centre Pension Fund.

Experience
Richard Petti brings 25 years of experience 
in developing market-leading businesses 
for automotive, financial and industrial 
customers. He was previously CEO 
of Asset Control, a supplier of data 
management systems to leading 
financial institutions, and COO at WEMA, 
a leading provider of sensors to 
commercial vehicle manufacturers.

Other appointments
None.

Experience
Tim has over 25 years of commercial 
and financial experience across software, 
wireless and telecoms industries. At IQGeo, 
Tim has rebuilt the balance sheet through 
disposals, organisation restructuring, 
renegotiating debt finance and closing two 
fundraising rounds on London’s AIM stock 
market, and positioned the business for 
software-led growth. Tim held leadership 
positions at i2/IBM, The Cloud Networks 
and MFS/WorldCom.

Other appointments
None.

32

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Dr. Robert Sansom
Non-Executive Director

Ian Kershaw
Non-Executive Director

Oliver Scott
Non-Executive Director

Experience
Dr. Robert Sansom co-founded and 
was CTO of FORE Systems, acquired by 
Marconi for $4.5 billion in 1999. Robert 
joined the IQGeo (then Ubisense) Board 
on 16 December 2005. He co-founded and 
was Chairman of the Cambridge Angels 
from 2001 to 2010.

Other appointments
Robert is a non-executive director to 
enterprises including Myrtle Software Ltd, 
Focal Point Positioning Ltd, Featurespace 
Ltd, Camfed International, Cambridge 
Communication Systems Ltd, CRFS Ltd and 
Netronome Inc. Robert was elected as a 
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers 
in 2010.

Experience
Ian has over 30 years’ experience in the 
automotive, manufacturing and power 
industries. Ian was appointed as a 
Non-Executive Director to the IQGeo 
(then Ubisense) Board on 23 May 2014. 
Previously, Ian was a director of Ricardo 
UK Ltd. Ian is Executive Chairman of 
Coryton Advanced Fuels (Premier Topco 
Limited), a supplier of bespoke fuels to 
the world’s automotive industry.

Other appointments
Ian is also a non-executive director 
of Surface Generation Ltd.

Experience
Oliver is a partner of Kestrel Partners LLP, 
IQGeo’s largest shareholder. Kestrel invests 
in small and microcap UK-listed companies 
and has a particular focus on the enterprise 
software and services sector. Prior to 
co-founding Kestrel in 2009, Oliver spent 
20 years advising smaller quoted and 
unquoted companies, latterly as a director 
of KBC Peel Hunt Corporate Finance. 
He was previously a non-executive director 
of KBC Advanced Technologies plc prior 
to its takeover by Yokogawa in 2016.

Other appointments
Oliver is a non-executive director 
of IDOX plc.

33

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Corporate governance report

On 8 March 2018, 
London Stock Exchange 
published AIM Notice 
50 outlining corporate 
governance practices. 
In accordance with 
the guidance, the 
Group has adopted 
the Quoted Company 
Alliance’s (QCA) 
Corporate Governance 
Code for Small and 
Mid-Sized Quoted 
Companies.

34

Principle 1: 
Establish a strategy and business 
model which promote long-term 
value for shareholders

Following the sale of its RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit in December 2018, 
IQGeo continues to develop the 
Group’s activities in a structure that 
enables it to develop and execute 
its sales and marketing strategies 
designed to increase operational 
productivity across targeted industries 
through its technology. The myWorld 
business unit is concentrated on the 
communications and utilities industries.

The Group is focused on a three-point 
strategy to achieve the performance 
goals of the business:

Refocus the business
•  Target key industries and top 200 

global companies

•  Develop customer-driven product 

roadmaps with subscription products

•  Manage out legacy third party 

product service business

Improve sales execution
•  Strengthen go-to-market capabilities 

and geographic coverage

•  Deploy metric-driven CRM and 
marketing automation resources

•  Establish a broader, more consistent 

business pipeline

Reposition the product portfolio
•  Solve enterprise-level 
business challenges

•  Create a modular software 

architecture addressing known 
customer pain points

•  Communicate the long-term 
value IQGeo products deliver 
to customers

Principle 2: 
Seek to understand and meet 
shareholder expectations

The Company maintains a 
dedicated contact form which is 
prominently displayed on its website 
together with the Company’s address 
and phone number for investors to use. 
The Company holds an Annual General 
Meeting (AGM) to which all members 
are invited. During the AGM, time is set 
aside specifically to allow questions 
from attending members to any Board 
member. As the Company is too small 
to have a dedicated investor relations 
department, the CEO is responsible for 
reviewing all communications received 
from members and determining the 
most appropriate response, engaging 
the executive team and Board as 
needed. In addition to these passive 
measures, the CEO typically engages 
with members through investor 
roadshows held at least twice each 
year following the release of results.

Principle 3: 
Take into account wider stakeholder 
and social responsibilities and their 
implications for long-term success

In addition to members, the Company 
believes its main stakeholder groups are 
its employees, suppliers and customers. 
The Company devotes significant time to 
understanding and acting on the needs 
and requirements of each of these 
groups via meetings dedicated 
to obtaining feedback.

With regards to corporate social 
responsibility (CSR), IQGeo is engaged 
in a range of CSR programmes through 
corporate activities sponsored by its 
regional offices. In addition, the Company 
encourages employees to participate 
in local activities by giving each employee 
an annual charity day to volunteer for 
an organisation of their choice. IQGeo 
believes that participation in CSR activities 
is a fundamental responsibility of the 
Company. It encourages the personal 
development of employees and greater 
community integration, which helps 
contribute to the long-term success of the 
Company by creating a more experienced, 
passionate and productive workforce.

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Principle 4:
Embed effective risk management, 
considering both opportunities and 
threats, throughout the organisation

Risk management on pages 26 to 29 
details risks to the business, how 
these are mitigated and the change 
in identified risks over the last 
reporting period.

The Board considers risk to the 
business at every Board meeting 
and the risk register is regularly 
reviewed. The Company formally 
reviews and documents the principal 
risks to the business at least annually.

Both the Board and senior managers 
are responsible for reviewing and 
evaluating risk and the Executive 
Directors meet at least monthly to 
review ongoing trading performance 
and discuss budgets, forecasts and new 
risks associated with ongoing trading.

Internal control
The Board of Directors has overall 
responsibility for the Group’s system 
of internal control and for reviewing 
its effectiveness. The risk management 
process and systems of internal control 
are designed to manage rather than 
eliminate the risk of failure to achieve 
the Group’s objectives. It should be 
recognised that such systems can only 
provide reasonable but not absolute 
assurance against material misstatement 
or loss. The Directors acknowledge their 
responsibilities for the Group’s system 
of internal control and for reviewing its 
effectiveness. The principal features of the 
system of internal financial controls are:

•  budgetary control over all operations, 
measuring performance against 
pre-determined targets on at least 
a monthly basis;

•  regular forecasting and reviews 
covering trading performance, 
assets, liabilities, cash flows and 
bank covenants;

•  delegated limits of authority 

covering key financial commitments 
including capital expenditure and 
recruitment; and

• 

identification and management 
of key business risks.

The Board continually reviews 
the effectiveness of other internal 
controls, including financial, 
operational and compliance 
controls and risk management.

Principle 5: 
Maintain the board as a  
well-functioning, balanced 
team led by the chair

The Company is controlled by the 
Board of Directors. The Board comprises 
the Non-Executive Chairman, three 
Non-Executive Directors and two 
Executive Directors. The Non-Executive 
Chairman is responsible for the running 
of the Board and Richard Petti, the 
Chief Executive, has responsibility 
for running the Group’s business 
and implementing Group strategy.

The Non-Executive Directors are required 
to be available to attend Board meetings 
and to deal with both regular and 
ad-hoc matters and they are expected 
to commit sufficient time to fully discharge 
their responsibilities. All Non-Executive 
Directors have confirmed and 
demonstrated that they have adequate 
time available to meet the requirements 
of the role and they have no conflicts. 
Executive Directors work full time in the 
business and have no other significant 
outside business commitments.

All Directors receive regular and timely 
information on the Group’s operational 
and financial performance. Relevant 
information is circulated to the Directors 
in advance of meetings. 

The Board is satisfied that it 
has a suitable balance between 
independence and knowledge of 
the business to allow it to discharge 
its duties and responsibilities effectively 
but will continue to review the 
composition of the Board regularly.

The Board holds full meetings at least 
ten times per year, with attendance 
required in person whenever possible. 
The principal matters that it considers 
are as follows:

•  reviewing operating 

and financial performance;

•  ensuring that appropriate 

management development and 
succession plans are in place;

•  determining corporate strategy, 
including consideration and 
approval of the Company’s 
annual strategy review;

•  establishing dividend policy;

•  approving and accepting all new 

committed funding facilities;

•  approving and accepting major 
changes in the capital structure 
of the Company;

•  reviewing and approving 

formal treasury policies relating 
to funding, liquidity, transactional 
foreign exchange and interest 
rate risk management;

•  reviewing the health and safety 

and environmental performance 
of the Group;

•  approving corporate acquisitions, 

mergers, divestments, joint ventures 
and major capital expenditure; and

•  receiving, reviewing and approving 
recommendations by the designated 
committee on matters related to audit, 
nominations and remuneration.

20 Board meetings were held in 2018. 
Attendance at the meetings was 
as follows:

Total
meetings attended

Peter Harverson
Paul Taylor
Richard Petti
Tim Gingell
Robert Sansom
Ian Kershaw
Oliver Scott

10 (20)
19 (20)
20 (20)
20 (20)
17 (20)
14 (20)
18 (20)

Figures in brackets denote the maximum number 
of meetings that could have been attended by 
that person.

35

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Corporate governance report continued

Principle 7: 
Evaluate Board performance based 
on clear and relevant objectives, 
seeking continuous improvement

Board members are appointed with 
full consideration of the knowledge 
and skills that they will contribute to the 
Board and aligned to the needs of the 
Company at that time. The Chairman 
ensures that full consideration of the 
development of the Board is addressed 
by reviewing the Board composition 
annually in consultation with the other 
Board members. The Board, through 
its Remuneration Committee, ensures 
that appropriate annual performance 
targets are set for Executive 
Board members. 

The Chairman routinely reviews the 
management and performance of the 
Board Committees and will address 
any performance concerns directly with 
the Chairman of, and/or participants 
of, that Committee. Over the next 
twelve months we intend to review the 
performance of the team as a unit to 
ensure that the members of the Board 
collectively function in an efficient and 
productive manner.

Principle 8: 
Promote a corporate culture 
that is based on ethical values 
and behaviours

The Board believes that the promotion 
of a corporate culture based on sound 
ethical values and behaviours is essential 
to maximise shareholder value. These 
values are reinforced with employees 
by the management team through 
annual business review sessions and 
form the cornerstone of the employee 
performance review process. The ethical 
standards at IQGeo are a key factor in 
the evaluation of individual performance 
and that of the entire Company.

Principle 9: 
Maintain governance structures 
and processes that are fit for 
purpose and support good 
decision making by the Board

The Board of IQGeo Group plc currently 
comprises two Executive Directors, one 
Non-Executive Chairman and three 
Non-Executive Directors. For now the 
Board considers its composition 
appropriate given the size of the 
Company, its revenues and profitability.

The key Board roles are as follows:

•  Chairman: The primary 

responsibility of the Chairman is 
to lead the Board effectively and to 
oversee the adoption, delivery and 
communication of the Company’s 
corporate governance model. 
The Chairman has sufficient 
separation from the day-to-day 
business to be able to make 
independent decisions. The Chairman 
is also responsible for making sure 
that the Board agenda concentrates 
on the key issues, both operational 
and financial, with regular reviews 
of the Company’s strategy and its 
overall implementation.

•  CEO: Charged with the delivery of 

the business model within the strategy 
set by the Board. Works with the 
Chairman and Non-Executive 
Directors in an open and transparent 
way. Keeps the Chairman and 
Board up to date with operational 
performance, opportunities, risks 
and other issues to ensure that the 
business remains aligned with its 
key objectives.

The Board has three sub-committees 
as follows:

•  Audit Committee: See Audit 

Committee report for further details.

•  Remuneration Committee: See 

Remuneration Committee report 
for further details.

Principle 6: 
Ensure that between them the 
directors have the necessary 
up-to-date experience, skills 
and capabilities

The Board of Directors has overall 
responsibility for the Group. Its aim 
is to provide the leadership and 
industry-specific insight required to 
develop a successful business, through 
utilising the broad range of skills and 
experience of the Board members.

The Board is satisfied that, between 
the Directors, it has significant industry, 
financial, public markets and governance 
experience, possessing the necessary 
mix of experience, skills, personal qualities 
and capabilities to deliver the strategy 
of the Company for the benefit of the 
shareholders over the medium to long 
term. The roles of the Chairman and 
CEO are split in accordance with best 
practice. The Chairman has responsibility 
of ensuring that the Board discharges 
its responsibilities and is also responsible 
for facilitating full and constructive 
contributions from each member of the 
Board in determination of the Group’s 
strategy and overall commercial 
objectives. The CEO leads the business 
and the executive team ensuring that 
strategic and commercial objectives 
are met. He is accountable to the Board 
for the operational and financial 
performance of the business. 

The Nomination Committee of the 
Board oversees the process and makes 
recommendations to the Board on all 
new Board appointments. Where new 
Board appointments are considered 
the search for candidates is conducted, 
and appointments are made, on merit, 
against objective criteria and with 
due regard for the benefits of diversity 
on the Board, including gender. 
The Nomination Committee also 
considers succession planning.

The Board carries out an evaluation 
of its performance annually, taking into 
account the Financial Reporting Council’s 
Guidance on Board Effectiveness.

Biographical details of all members of the 
Board are set out on pages 32 and 33 and 
also on the Company website.

36

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Principle 10: 
Communicate how the 
Company is governed and is 
performing by maintaining a 
dialogue with other relevant 
stakeholders

The Company communicates with 
shareholders through the Annual Report 
and Accounts, full-year and half-year 
announcements, the Annual General 
Meeting (AGM) and the one-to-one 
meetings with existing and 
prospective shareholders.

•  Nomination Committee: 

The Nomination Committee 
will consider the selection and 
re-appointment of Board members.

The Nomination Committee has 
responsibility for the following matters:

•  reviewing the size and composition 
of the Board to ensure that an 
appropriate mix of skills, knowledge 
and experience is achieved;

•  succession planning for the Board 
and other key management roles;

• 

identifying and recommending 
to the Board candidates to fill 
Board vacancies;

•  ensuring Non-Executive Directors 

are able to make the necessary time 
commitments to fulfil their role;

•  ensuring Non-Executive Directors 
receive letters of appointment, 
detailing their responsibilities; and

•  making recommendations to the 
Board about the appointment, 
removal or continuation in office 
of any Director.

During the period under review, the 
Committee has met twice on a formal 
basis. The Committee is expected to 
meet formally twice a year. A summary 
of Nomination Committee composition 
and attendance is as follows:

Peter Harverson
Robert Sansom 
(Chair)
Paul Taylor

Nomination
Committee

1 (2)

2 (2)
2 (2)

37

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018• 

the external auditor’s report on any 
deficiencies in the internal controls 
of the Group identified during the 
statutory audit. IQGeo Group plc 
does not have an internal audit 
function and believes that given the 
size of the business, this remains 
appropriate; and

•  assessment of the independence 

of the external auditor. As part of this 
review, the Committee monitors the 
provision of non-audit services by 
the external auditor. An analysis 
of non-audit services is disclosed 
in note 9 to the financial statements. 
The non-audit services charged by 
Grant Thornton in 2018 relate to the 
review of half-year results and the 
provision of tax advisory services 
supporting the group reorganisation 
and disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business. The Audit Committee 
were satisfied that safeguards are 
adequately observed to ensure no 
issues arise impacting upon the 
auditor’s independence.

The Audit Committee has satisfied 
itself that the key areas discussed above 
have been addressed appropriately 
within the Annual Report.

Audit Committee report

Audit Committee
The Audit Committee consists of two 
independent Non-Executive Directors, 
who between them have a balance 
of financial experience and business 
knowledge. There were no changes 
to the Committee membership during 
the year.

During the period under review, the 
Committee has met four times on a 
formal basis. The Committee is expected 
to meet formally four times a year.

The timing of meetings allows the 
Audit Committee to consider the 
external auditor’s planned approach 
to the half-year interim review and 
full-year audit of the Annual Report. 
The Committee discusses the auditor’s 
findings ahead of financial statements 
being approved for release. When 
appropriate, non-Committee members 
are invited to attend, including the 
Chief Financial Officer and members 
of the finance team.

A summary of Committee composition 
and attendance is as follows:

Paul Taylor
Ian Kershaw 

Audit
Committee

4 (4)
4 (4)

The Audit Committee has responsibility 
for the following matters:

Financial reporting
•  review of all financial reports released 
to the market and shareholders, to 
ensure that reports provide a fair and 
balanced review to shareholders 
with clear disclosure to provide an 
understandable view of performance;

•  review of significant reporting issues 

and key judgments; and

•  review of accounting policies 

selected and their application to 
ensure compliance with reporting 
standards and that they are 
consistently applied.

External audit
•  recommending appointment, 
re-appointment or removal 
of the external auditor;

•  overseeing the Group’s relationship 
with the external auditor, including 
assessing its independence; and

•  agreeing the annual audit plan 
and reviewing the findings and 
effectiveness of the audit.

Whistleblowing
•  review of the Group’s whistleblowing 

policies and procedures.

Internal control
•  review the adequacy and 

effectiveness of the internal control 
and risk management systems.

Activities of the Committee 
during the year
The Audit Committee has met with both 
the auditor and internal management 
during the year and discussed the 
following key matters:

•  accounting and audit approach to 

the reorganisation of the Group and 
the subsequent disposal of the RTLS 
SmartSpace legal entities on 
31 December 2018;

•  adoption of IFRS 15 Revenue from 
Contracts with Customers effective 
1 January 2018, the appropriateness 
of revenue recognition policies and 
application of the standard to 
prior periods;

• 

• 

the impact and application of the 
early adoption of IFRS 16 Leases 
effective 1 January 2018, including 
the adequacy of disclosure within 
the financial statements;

the resolution of significant 
accounting judgments or matters 
raised by the external auditor during 
the course of its half-year review and 
annual statutory audit. These key 
matters are stated within the external 
auditor’s report included within this 
Annual Report;

38

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Directors’ remuneration report

The Remuneration Committee has 
responsibility for the following matters:

•  agreeing the framework for the 
Group’s remuneration policy for 
Directors and key management 
personnel, including determining 
individual remuneration policies 
for Executive Directors;

•  approving the design and targets for 
short and long-term incentive plans;

•  approval of the Group’s share 

option plans for all participants;

•  determining the policy and scope 

of pension arrangements;

•  ensuring contractual terms and 
payments made on termination 
are fair to both the individual 
and the Group; and

•  agreeing the policy for authorising 
expense claims by the Chairman 
and Chief Executive.

The Committee aims to set levels of 
remuneration for Executive Directors 
that are sufficient to attract, retain and 
motivate directors of the quality required, 
without paying more than necessary, 
and that are appropriate for the size 
and complexity of the Group. It aims 
to see that a significant proportion of 
each Executive Director’s remuneration 
package is performance related.

During the period under review, the 
Committee has met twice on a formal 
basis. The Committee is expected to 
meet formally twice a year.

The Remuneration Committee 
comprises of Ian Kershaw, Paul Taylor 
and Oliver Scott who are Non-Executive 
Directors of the Company.

Oliver Scott who is not an independent 
Director, sits on the Remuneration 
Committee. The Board acknowledge 
that this is not considered best practice 
but feel that it is appropriate for the 
scale and structure of the Group at this 
stage given his knowledge, experience 
and ability to represent interests of 
investors in general.

A summary of Committee composition 
and attendance is as follows:

Paul Taylor
Ian Kershaw 
Oliver Scott (Chair)

Remuneration
Committee

2 (2)
2 (2)
2 (2)

In February 2019, Oliver Scott was 
appointed Chair of the Remuneration 
Committee, replacing Paul Taylor 
who remains on the Committee.

Remuneration practice overview
The Committee believes in pay for 
performance and that Executive 
Directors’ remuneration should be 
designed to promote the long-term 
success of the Group. 

When reviewing and setting 
remuneration policy, the Committee 
benchmarks remuneration against 
quoted companies of a similar size and 
considers a range of factors including 
the Group’s strategy and circumstances, 
the prevailing economic environment 
and best practice guidelines. The policy 
must also enable IQGeo Group plc to 
attract, retain and motivate the talent 
it needs to ensure success.

The remuneration of the Non-Executive 
Directors is determined by the Executive 
Directors and the Chairman, rather 
than the Committee.

Remuneration of Executive Directors
The Executive Directors are entitled 
to receive base salary, benefits and 
employer pension contributions 
and to participate in share option 
schemes approved by the 
Remuneration Committee.

The appointment of the Chief Executive 
Officer and Chief Financial Officer is 
terminable on six months’ notice by 
either party.

Base salary
Base salaries are reviewed annually 
and adjustments made if required to 
reflect Group performance, individual 
performance and market rates. 
Remuneration is through the Group’s 
flexible benefits scheme under which 
the individuals can elect to switch basic 
salary into pension contributions and 
other benefits.

Benefits
The Group offers benefits to all 
employees including life assurance and 
healthcare solutions, appropriate to each 
of the markets in which it operates.

Bonuses
Executive Directors are eligible 
to participate in an annual bonus 
programme, which is calculated by 
reference to the annual financial 
and operational targets including 
orders, revenue, operating cash flow 
(excluding working capital) and 
goal-driven objectives.

Pensions
The Group operates defined 
contribution personal pension schemes 
appropriate to each of the markets in 
which it operates. Under the UK scheme 
rules the Group pays a matched 
contribution of up to 5% of base salary 
as adjusted for current pension 
legislation. The scheme is open to 
Executive Directors and employees.

Remuneration of  
Non-Executive Directors
The Non-Executive Directors have 
entered into letters of appointment 
with the Company. The appointments 
are terminable on one month’s notice 
by either party. The Non-Executive 
Directors, including the Non-Executive 
Chairman, may participate in the 
Group’s pension scheme.

The appointment of the Non-Executive 
Chairman is terminable on six months 
notice by either party.

39

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Directors’ remuneration report continued

Directors’ remuneration
The Directors received the following remuneration during the year:

Director

Richard Petti1
Tim Gingell2
Executive Directors
Paul Taylor3
Peter Harverson
Robert Sansom4
Ian Kershaw5
Oliver Scott
Non-Executive Directors
Total

Basic
salary
£’000

Benefits
in kind
£’000

Performance
payments
£’000

2018 total
excluding
pensions
£’000

Pensions
£’000

210
151
361
46
71
—
21
20
158
519

3
2
5
—
—
—
—
—
—
5

156
91
247
—
—
—
—
—
—
247

369
244
613
46
71
—
21
20
158
771

37
9
46
—
7
—
—
—
7
53

Total
2018
£’000

406
253
659
46
78
—
21
20
165
824

Total
2017
£’000

299
181
480
25
145
—
25
20
215
695

1 

 The performance related payments of Richard Petti include £125,000 relating directly to the completion of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit disposal. 
Additionally, Richard Petti is entitled to a performance related bonus of up to £125,000.

2   The performance related payments of Tim Gingell include £62,500 relating directly to the completion of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit disposal. 

Additionally, Tim Gingell is entitled to a performance related bonus of up to £50,000.

3   In April 2018, Paul Taylor’s base remuneration increased from £25,000 to £35,000 per annum after becoming the Remuneration Committee Chairman. 

From September 2018, Paul Taylor’s base remuneration increased to £75,000 when he became acting Non-Executive Chairman. 

4  Robert Sansom has waived his entitlement to annual remuneration of £25,000 (2017: £25,000 waived).

5   In April 2018, Ian Kershaw’s remuneration reduced from £25,000 to £20,000 per annum after stepping down from being the Remuneration 

Committee Chairman.

Share options
The Company issues share options to the Executive Directors and employees to reward performance and to align interests 
with those of the shareholders. 

The aggregate emoluments disclosed above within Directors’ remuneration does not include any amounts for the value 
of options to acquire ordinary shares in the Company granted to or held by the Directors.

On 14 December 2016, IQGeo Group plc implemented a long-term incentive share option plan for Executive Directors and 
key management. As participants in the new share scheme, the Company granted 3,150,000 options of 2 pence each in the 
Company to the Executive Directors with an exercise price set at the nominal value. The options will vest if the Company’s 
share price exceeds 70 pence for 60 consecutive days between the second and third anniversary of issue and the period 
of employment continues for over three years.

Director

Peter Harverson

Richard Petti
Tim Gingell

Total

Award date
Year

2010

2016

2016
2016

Vests
Years

2011-13

2019

2019
2019

Expires
Year

2020

2026

2026
2026

Exercise
price
£

0.14

0.02

0.02
0.02

Awards
outstanding
at 1 January
2018
Number

91,333 

850,000

941,333
1,600,000
700,000

3,241,333

Granted
during
the year
Number

Exercised
during
the year
Number

Lapsed
during
the year
Number

Awards
outstanding at
31 December
2018
Number

Awards 
exercisable at 
31 December
2017
Number

— 

—

—
—
—

— 

— 

—

—
—
—

—

91,333

91,333

— 

—

850,000

—
941,333
— 1,600,000
—
700,000

— 3,241,333

—

91,333
—
—

91,333

Following his resignation from the Board, Peter Harverson exercised 91,333 options at 14 pence per share on 25 February 2019. 
These shares were immediately sold, resulting in a gain of £36,000.

40

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Directors’ report

The Directors present their annual report 
on the affairs of the Group together 
with the audited financial statements 
for the year to 31 December 2018. 
The Corporate governance statement 
set out on pages 34 to 37 forms part 
of this report.

Incorporation and constitution
IQGeo Group plc is domiciled in England 
and incorporated in England and Wales 
under company number 05589712. 
IQGeo Group plc’s Articles of Association 
are available on the Group’s website at 
www.iqgeo.com. 

Principal activity
Going forward, the Group will be 
focused on its Geospatial operations. 
The Geospatial business delivers 
software solutions that integrate data 
from any source – geographic, real-time 
asset, GPS, location, corporate and 
external cloud-based sources – into a live 
geospatial common operating picture, 
empowering all users in the customer’s 
organisation to access, input and analyse 
operational intelligence to proactively 
manage their networks, respond quickly 
to emergency events and effectively 
manage day-to-day operations.

The RTLS SmartSpace business unit 
was sold on 31 December 2018 and is 
presented as discontinued operations 
within this report. The RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit will continue trading under 
the Ubisense brand. The principal activity 
of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit 
was the provision of location solutions 
which enabled customers to create a 
real-time digital twin of their physical 
operations. The RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit takes real-time location data 
from SmartSpace sensing hardware, 
or from standards based integration with 
third party hardware, and transforms 
this data using SmartSpace software 
into high value spatial event information, 
delivering highly reliable, automatic, 
adaptive asset identification, precise 
real-time location and spatial-monitoring 
to provide meaningful insights that help 
businesses make smarter decisions. 
The main customer base of the RTLS 
business unit is the automotive and 
aerospace manufacturing industry, 
however the technology is transferable 
to other sectors including defence 
and transportation industries.

Business review and key performance indicators 
The Group’s results are set out in the Consolidated income statement on page 51 
and are explained in the Chief Financial Officer’s statement on pages 22 to 25. 
A detailed review of the business, its results and future direction is included in the 
Non-Executive Chairman’s statement on pages 4 and 5.

Capital structure
The Company has one class of ordinary share of 2 pence each which carries no 
right to fixed income. Each share carries the right to one vote at general meetings 
of the Company.

Details of the share capital of the Company, including shares issued during the 
year, can be found in note 23 of the consolidated financial statements. 

There are no specific restrictions on the size of a holding nor on the transfer 
of shares, which are both governed by the general provisions of the Articles 
of Association and prevailing legislation. The Directors are not aware of any 
agreements between holders of the Company’s shares that may result in 
restrictions on the transfer of securities or on voting rights.

Details of employee share schemes are set out in note 24.

No person has any special rights of control over the Company’s share capital 
and all issued shares are fully paid.

With regard to the appointment and replacement of Directors, the Company is 
governed by its Articles of Association, the Companies Act and related legislation. 
The Articles of Association themselves may be amended by special resolution 
of the shareholders.

Substantial shareholdings
On 10 April 2019, the Company had been notified of the following significant 
interests in its ordinary share capital:

Kestrel Partners

Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Robert Sansom

NFU Mutual Insurance Society Ltd

Canaccord Genuity Group Inc

Richard Griffiths and family

Old Mutual Global Investors

Janus Henderson Investors

Total holding
Number

19,045,493

13,980,154

6,235,899

4,326,490

4,164,853

3,961,113

2,538,221

2,495,000

% of issued
share capital

25.98%

19.07%

8.51%

5.90%

5.68%

5.40%

3.46%

3.40%

Directors
The Directors serving at 31 December 2018 were as follows:

Peter Harverson 
Paul Taylor 
Riccardo (Richard) Petti 
Timothy (Tim) Gingell 
Robert Sansom 
Ian Kershaw 
Oliver Scott

Board changes
Peter Harverson resigned as Non-Executive Chairman and member of the Board 
on 13 February 2019, and was succeeded by Paul Taylor as Non-Executive Chairman.

41

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
Going concern review
The Board has considered the going 
concern position of the Group which 
is discussed further in note 3 to the 
financial statements.

Post-balance sheet events
There are no post balance sheet 
events to report.

Dividends
The Directors do not recommend 
payment of a dividend for the year 
(2017: £nil).

Auditor
A resolution to re-appoint 
Grant Thornton UK LLP as the 
Group’s auditor will be proposed at 
the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. 
In accordance with normal practice, 
the Directors will be authorised to 
determine the auditor’s remuneration.

Approved by the Board of Directors 
and signed on behalf of the Board.

Tim Gingell
Chief Financial Officer 
and Company Secretary
10 April 2019

IQGeo Group plc

Registered number: 05589712

Directors’ report continued

Directors’ interests – shares
Directors’ interests in the ordinary shares of IQGeo Group plc at 31 December 2018 
were as follows:

Peter Harverson

Richard Petti

Tim Gingell

Robert Sansom

Paul Taylor

Ian Kershaw

Total

Oliver Scott has no direct interest in the 
ordinary shares of IQGeo Group plc 
but is a partner with the significant 
shareholder Kestrel Partners.

On 16 April 2018 Kestrel Partners LLP 
sold, on behalf of its discretionary 
clients, 1,600,000 ordinary shares 
of the Company. The sale was made 
in response to demand from an 
institutional investor that wanted 
to acquire a stake in the Company. 
The price achieved was 45p per share.

The Directors consider that there is 
no party that represents a person who 
has significant control over the Group. 
Despite Kestrel holding greater than 
25% of the shares of the Group, the 
Directors reached this conclusion 
having considered the ownership 
structure of Kestrel Partners and 
control of voting rights.

There has been no change in the 
Directors’ interests set out above 
between 31 December 2018 and 
10 April 2019.

Directors’ interests
Details of Directors’ remuneration 
and share options are provided in 
the Directors’ remuneration report 
on pages 39 and 40. There are no 
loans to or from the Directors.

2018
Number

223,286

78,125

86,875

6,235,899

191,459

2,000

6,817,644

2017
Number

223,286

78,125

86,875

6,235,899

191,459

2,000

6,817,644

Directors’ indemnity arrangements
The Group has made qualifying 
third party indemnity provisions for 
the benefit of its Directors which were 
made during the year and remain in 
force at the date of this report.

The Group has purchased and 
maintained throughout the year 
Directors’ and Officers’ liability 
insurance in respect of itself 
and its Directors.

Financial instruments 
Principle financial risks and mitigating 
activities have been set out within the 
Strategic report. Additionally, note 28 
to the financial statements provides 
further details in respect of credit risk, 
market risk and liquidity risk.

Research and development 
During the year, the Group has been 
active in the development of software 
in respect of the continuing Geospatial 
operations as well as development of 
software and hardware products for 
the discontinued RTLS SmartSpace 
business. In the opinion of the 
Directors, continuity of the investment 
in software development is essential 
for the long-term growth of the 
business. The Board regularly reviews 
the myWorld product roadmap to 
ensure its competitiveness.

42

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Directors’ responsibilities statement

The Directors are responsible for 
keeping adequate accounting records 
that are sufficient to show and explain 
the Company’s transactions and 
disclose with reasonable accuracy at 
any time the financial position of the 
Company and enable them to ensure 
that the financial statements comply 
with the Companies Act 2006. They are 
also responsible for safeguarding the 
assets of the Company and hence 
for taking reasonable steps for the 
prevention and detection of fraud 
and other irregularities.

The Directors confirm that:

•  so far as each Director is aware, 

there is no relevant audit information 
of which the Company’s auditor is 
unaware; and 

• 

the Directors have taken all the steps 
they ought to have taken as Directors 
in order to make themselves aware 
of any relevant audit information 
and to establish that the Company’s 
auditor is aware of that information.

The Directors are responsible for 
the maintenance and integrity of the 
corporate and financial information 
included on the Company’s website. 
Legislation in the United Kingdom 
governing the preparation and 
dissemination of financial statements 
may differ from legislation in 
other jurisdictions.

The Directors are responsible for 
preparing the Annual Report and the 
financial statements in accordance with 
applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the Directors 
to prepare financial statements for 
each financial year. Under that law the 
Directors are required to prepare the 
consolidated financial statements in 
accordance with International Financial 
Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted 
by the European Union and have elected 
to prepare the parent company financial 
statements in accordance with United 
Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting 
Practice (United Kingdom Accounting 
Standards and applicable law, including 
FRS 102 The Financial Reporting 
Standard applicable in the UK and 
Republic of Ireland). Under company 
law the Directors must not approve the 
financial statements unless they give a 
true and fair view of the state of affairs 
and profit or loss of the Company and 
Group for that period. In preparing 
these financial statements, the 
Directors are required to:

•  select suitable accounting policies 
and then apply them consistently;

•  make judgments and estimates that 

are reasonable and prudent;

•  state whether applicable IFRSs 

as adopted by the European Union 
have been followed, subject to any 
material departures disclosed and 
explained in the consolidated 
financial statements;

•  state whether applicable UK 

Accounting Standards have been 
followed, subject to any material 
departures disclosed and explained 
in the Company financial 
statements; and

•  prepare the financial statements on 
the going concern basis unless it is 
inappropriate to presume that the 
Company will continue in business.

43

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Independent auditor’s report
to the members of IQGeo Group plc

Opinion

Our opinion on the financial statements is unmodified
We have audited the financial statements of IQGeo Group plc (the ‘parent company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘Group’) 
for the year ended 31 December 2018 which comprise the Consolidated Income Statement, the Consolidated Statement of 
Comprehensive Income, the Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity, the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position, 
the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows, Company balance sheet, Company statement of changes in equity and notes to 
the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has 
been applied in the preparation of the Group financial statements is applicable law and International Financial Reporting 
Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in the 
preparation of the parent company financial statements is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, 
including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’ 
(United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). 

In our opinion: 

• 

• 

• 

the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the Group’s and of the parent company’s affairs as at 
31 December 2018 and of the Group’s profit for the year then ended;

the Group financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union;

the parent company financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally 
Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• 

the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. 
Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the ‘Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial 
statements’ section of our report. We are independent of the Group and the parent company in accordance with the ethical 
requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard as applied 
to listed entities, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe 
that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. 

Conclusions relating to going concern
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the ISAs (UK) require us to report to you where: 

• 

• 

the directors’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not 
appropriate; or

the directors have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast significant 
doubt about the Group’s or the parent company’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting for 
a period of at least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Overview of our audit approach

•  Overall materiality: £330,000, which represents 1.3% of the Group’s revenues, including that 

relating to discontinued activities

•  We performed full scope procedures at IQGeo Group plc and Ubisense Limited; targeted 

procedures on IQGeo America Inc., IQGeo Solutions Canada Inc, Ubisense GmbH, Ubisense Inc 
(Japan) and Ubisense Japan K.K. and analytical procedures were performed for all other components

•  Key audit matters were identified as:

• 

improper recognition of revenue due to fraud;

•  capitalisation of intangible development costs may not be appropriate; 

•  carrying value of capitalised development costs may not be appropriate; and 

• 

the disposal of discontinued operations.

44

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Key audit matters
The graph below depicts the audit risks identified and their relative significance based on the extent of the financial 
statement impact and the extent of management judgment. 

Potential 
financial 
statement 
impact

h
g
H

i

w
o
L

2

1

8

7

5

3

4

6

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Inventory

Trade receivables

Investments

Deferred and 
accrued income

Revenue

Management override 
of controls

Intangible assets

Discontinued 
operations

Low 

High

Extent of management judgment

Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgment, were of most significance in our audit of the financial 
statements of the current period and include the most significant assessed risks of material misstatement (whether or not 
due to fraud) that we identified. These matters included those that had the greatest effect on: the overall audit strategy, the 
allocation of resources in the audit; and directing the efforts of the engagement team. These matters were addressed in the 
context of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a 
separate opinion on these matters.

Key Audit Matter – Group 

How the matter was addressed in the audit – Group 

Risk 1 – Improper recognition of revenue due to fraud 
Under International Standard on Auditing (UK) 240 
‘The Auditor’s Responsibilities Relating to Fraud in an 
Audit of Financial Statements’, there is a rebuttable 
presumed risk that revenue may be misstated due to 
the improper recognition of revenue due to fraud. 

The Group has recognised revenues of £25.5m (2017: £27.3m) 
in the year including discontinued operations. During the year 
the Group was organised into two divisions (RTLS SmartSpace 
and Geospatial). The nature of the Group’s revenue includes 
sales of hardware, software, maintenance and support, labour 
and installation services. Revenue recognition is therefore 
dependent upon identifying the relevant distinct performance 
obligation and ensuring the correct revenue is allocated. 
Contractual agreements with existing customers will generally 
be to provide one of the elements on a standalone basis but 
new deployments also include a combination of the above 
elements. The Group has applied IFRS 15 ‘Revenue from 
Contracts with Customers’ for the first time within the 2018 
financial statements which has required consideration 
of the detail within contracts. 

As the Group’s revenue is material to the financial 
statements and comprises distinct performance obligations, 
revenue recognition is considered to be a significant risk 
of material misstatement. 

We completed an assessment of revenue recognition policies 
for consistency and compliance with IFRS 15 ‘Revenue from 
Contracts with Customers’. 

We performed substantive testing on each of the revenue 
streams within the two divisions, RTLS SmartSpace and 
Geospatial: for a sample of transactions we obtained 
contract and sales order details and our testing over 
each performance obligation was as noted below: 

Hardware – agreeing to signed contracts and shipping 
documentation to ensure occurrence. 

Software – agreeing to customer confirmation of receipt 
of access to new licences, or purchase orders for 
renewed licences. 

Maintenance and support – obtaining purchase orders, 
recalculating revenue recognised and checking the 
appropriateness of any deferred income at the year end. 

Labour and installation services – agreeing to signed 
contracts or purchase orders; tracing a sample of time 
booked to revenue to timesheets, subcontractor invoices 
or other supporting documentation. 

Recalculation of any deferred or accrued income balances 
recognised and comparison against invoices and other 
supporting documentation. 

45

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
 
 
Independent auditor’s report continued
to the members of IQGeo Group plc

Key Audit Matter – Group 

How the matter was addressed in the audit – Group 

Risk 1 – Improper recognition of revenue due to fraud 
continued

Risk 2 – Capitalisation of intangible development costs may 
not be appropriate 
Under IAS 38 ‘Intangible Assets’, development costs must 
be capitalised if the recognition criteria are met, including 
determining whether the project provides a future economic 
benefit to the Group. 

During the year, the Group capitalised £1.7m (2017: £1.6m) 
of development costs in relation to various projects. 

The capitalisation of these costs includes judgments and 
assumptions in determining whether the projects will provide 
future economic benefit to the Group and be financially 
viable. The level of judgment involved leads to a risk that 
these criteria may not be met. 

Due to the judgments and the materiality of the balance, 
the capitalisation of intangible development costs has been 
identified as a significant risk, which was one of the most 
significant assessed risks of material misstatement. 

Other audit work included, but was not restricted to: 

•  analytical procedures over revenue in total disaggregated 
by revenue stream, operating segment, location and month 
(month by month analysis of current year against prior 
year revenue) to identify and analyse key movements and 
significant transactions which have occurred in the year;

•  obtaining explanations and corroborating evidence for 
key movements and significant transactions identified.

The Group’s accounting policy on revenue recognition is 
disclosed in note 3 to the financial statements and related 
disclosures are included in note 5. 

Key observations 
We did not identify any issues in the application of IFRS 15. 

Our audit work did not identify any material misstatements in 
the occurrence of revenue recognised during the year or any 
instances of revenue not being recognised in accordance with 
stated accounting policies. 

Our audit work included, but was not restricted to: 

•  assessing product development activities alongside 

the qualifying nature of the projects, including obtaining 
an understanding from management of the details of 
projects capitalised and assessing whether they relate to 
additional functionality, to ensure that capitalisation is in 
accordance with the recognition criteria under IAS 38;

•  recalculating the mathematical accuracy of recording 

of capitalised amounts;

•  agreeing amounts capitalised to supporting evidence 

including timesheets.

The Group’s accounting policy on intangible assets is shown 
in note 3 to the financial statements and related disclosures 
are included in note 12. 

Key observations
Our testing did not identify any material misstatements in 
capitalisation of intangible development costs in accordance 
with IAS 38. Intangibles capitalised were found to be in 
accordance with stated accounting policies. 

46

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Key Audit Matter – Group 

How the matter was addressed in the audit – Group 

Risk 3 – Carrying value of capitalised development costs 
may not be appropriate 
There is a risk, given fast-moving technology, that the 
developed product could become obsolete and will not be 
supported by future cash flows so that development assets 
may be impaired. 

The net book value of capitalised development costs at 
the year end amounted to £1.2m (2017: £2.7m), including 
amortisation charged on capitalised development costs 
of £1.8m (2017: £2.2m). Intangibles with a carrying value of 
£1.5m were sold as part of the disposal of Ubisense Limited. 
Capitalised development costs are amortised by the Group to 
ensure the capitalised cost reflects the anticipated benefit of the 
development project to the Group over time. In accordance 
with IAS 36 ‘Impairment of Assets’ an annual review is 
required to assess whether there is any indication that assets 
may be impaired. Due to the financial performance of the 
Group, an impairment review has been performed by 
management to determine whether the carrying value 
of these assets is appropriate. 

The impairment review is based on identifiable assets for 
which future revenues and gross margins can be assigned 
to calculate a value in use based on a discounted cash flow 
model. Management’s assessment of the potential impairment 
of the Group’s development costs incorporates key assumptions 
over the timing and extent of future revenues, gross margin 
and the discount rate used. 

Due to the inherent uncertainty involved in forecasting 
and discounting future cash flows, we therefore identified the 
impairment of the carrying value of capitalised development 
costs as a significant risk, which was one of the most significant 
assessed risks of material misstatement. 

Risk 4 – Disposal of discontinued operations 
On 31 December 2018 the Group completed the sale 
of the RTLS SmartSpace business for consideration of up 
to £35 million. Due to the complexity and timing of the 
transaction there is a risk that this transaction and the 
associated discontinued operations are not appropriately 
reflected within the financial statements.

Due to the nature and amount involved we identified the 
disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business and the 
associated disclosures as one of the most significant 
assessed risks of material misstatement.

Our audit work included, but was not restricted to: 

•  assessing the amortisation policy applied against capitalised 
development costs for consistency with prior year and 
determination of the useful economic life;

•  comparing projects against which amounts are 

capitalised to the net present value calculations produced 
by management, based on future income generation the 
technology is expected to realise;

•  recalculating the mathematical accuracy of the 

impairment models;

• 

testing the accuracy of management’s estimates used in 
the net present value calculations by comparing the 2018 
budgeted sales and gross profit to the results achieved for 
the year and performing sensitivity analysis of expected 
revenue for 2019 onwards;

•  performing additional sensitivity analysis relating to the 
valuation of intangible assets, specifically around the 
discount rate;

•  evaluating of the information included in the impairment 
models to ensure consistent with our knowledge of the 
business through reviewing trading plans and discussions 
with Management.

The Group’s accounting policy on intangible assets is 
disclosed in note 3 to the financial statements and related 
disclosures are included in note 12. 

Key observations
Our testing did not identify any material misstatements in the 
carrying value of the capitalised development costs. There were 
no additional reasons for impairment of intangible assets or 
additional factors to consider that would impact the carrying 
value of intangible assets recognised within the financial 
statements. We found no material errors in the calculations.
Our audit work included, but was not restricted to:

• 

inspecting the sale agreement in order to identify key 
terms of the transaction and how they may impact the 
accounting treatment, in particular the profit recognised 
on disposal;

•  examining and challenging the judgments 
in determining the discontinued operations 
and recognition of earn out consideration;

•  evaluating the disclosures within the financial statements 

for consistency with accounting standards.

The Group’s accounting policy on the disposal is disclosed in 
note 3 to the financial statements and related disclosures are 
included in note 6. 

Key observations 
Our testing did not identify any material misstatements in the 
recognition of the RTLS SmartSpace disposal and we found 
no material errors in the calculations or disclosures.

We did not identify any Key Audit Matters relating to the audit of the financial statements of the parent company. 

47

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Independent auditor’s report continued
to the members of IQGeo Group plc

Our application of materiality
We define materiality as the magnitude of misstatement in the financial statements that makes it probable that the 
economic decisions of a reasonably knowledgeable person would be changed or influenced. We use materiality in 
determining the nature, timing and extent of our audit work and in evaluating the results of that work. 

Materiality was determined as follows:

Materiality measure
Financial statements as 
a whole

Performance materiality 
used to drive the extent 
of our testing
Specific materiality

Communication of 
misstatements to the 
audit committee

Group 
£330,000 which is 1.3% of total Group revenue, 
including revenue including that relating to 
discontinued activities, excluding rental income 
for the year. This benchmark is considered the 
most appropriate because the Group is a 
commercially focused organisation but 
generating an operating loss. 

Materiality for the current year is lower than 
the level that we determined for the year ended 
31 December 2017 using the same basis. 
75% of financial statement materiality.

Parent
£248,000 which is 0.5% of expected total 
assets restricted to Group performance 
materiality. This benchmark is considered 
the most appropriate because the Parent 
Company does not generate revenues or 
profits and holds investments in subsidiaries. 

Materiality for the current year is lower than 
the level that we determined for the year ended 
31 December 2017 using the same basis. 

75% of financial statement materiality.

We also determine a lower level of specific 
materiality for directors’ remuneration and 
related party transactions of £1,000 due to 
the inherent sensitivity of these transactions 
and related disclosures. 
£16,500 and misstatements below that 
threshold that, in our view, warrant reporting 
on qualitative grounds. 

We also determine a lower level of specific 
materiality for directors’ remuneration and 
related party transactions of £1,000 due to 
the inherent sensitivity of these transactions 
and related disclosures. 
£12,400 and misstatements below that 
threshold that, in our view, warrant reporting 
on qualitative grounds. 

The graph below illustrates how performance materiality interacts with our overall materiality and the tolerance for 
potential uncorrected misstatements. 

Overall materiality – Group

Overall materiality – Parent

25%

25%

75%

75%

Tolerance for potential 
uncorrected misstatements

Performance materiality

48

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018An overview of the scope of our audit
Our audit approach was a risk-based approach founded on a thorough understanding of the Group’s business, 
its environment and risk profile and in particular included the following considerations: 

•  evaluation by the Group audit team of identified components to assess the significance of that component and to determine 
the planned audit response based on a measure of materiality. Significance was determined as a percentage of the Group’s 
total assets, revenues and profit before taxation;

• 

full scope audit procedures were performed on IQGeo Group plc and Ubisense Limited; targeted procedures were performed 
on IQGeo America Inc., Ubisense GmbH, IQGeo Solutions Canada Inc, Ubisense Inc (Japan) and Ubisense Japan K.K., and 
analytical procedures performed for all other components;

•  component auditors were used to complete audit procedures for Ubisense GmbH, Ubisense Inc (Japan) and Ubisense 

Japan K.K. The Group audit team sent Group instructions to the component auditors as to the required procedures to be 
completed over the significant areas for Group purposes within each component. The Group audit team reviewed the 
underlying audit working papers for these significant areas;

• 

• 

the total percentage coverage of full-scope and targeted procedures over the Group’s revenue was 100%;

the total percentage coverage of full scope and targeted procedures over the Group’s total assets was 96%; and

•  our audit approach in the current year is consistent with the audit approach adopted for the year ended 31 December 2017 

being substantive in nature.

Other information
The directors are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the 
annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements 
does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any 
form of assurance conclusion thereon. 

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, 
consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in 
the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material 
misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a 
material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a 
material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. 

We have nothing to report in this regard. 

Our opinion on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006 is unmodified
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• 

the information given in the strategic report and the directors’ report for the financial year for which the financial 
statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• 

the strategic report and the directors’ report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report under the Companies Act 2006
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Group and the parent company and its environment obtained in the 
course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report or the directors’ report. 

Matters on which we are required to report by exception
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to 
report to you if, in our opinion: 

•  adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent company, or returns adequate for our audit have not 

been received from branches not visited by us; or

• 

the parent company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

•  certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

•  we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

49

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Independent auditor’s report continued
to the members of IQGeo Group plc

Responsibilities of directors for the financial statements
As explained more fully in the directors’ responsibilities statement on page 43, the directors are responsible for the preparation 
of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the 
directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, 
whether due to fraud or error. 

In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the Group’s and the parent company’s 
ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going 
concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the Group or the parent company or to cease 
operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so. 

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material 
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance 
is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a 
material misstatement when it exists.

Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could 
reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. 

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting 
Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report. 

Use of our report 
This report is made solely to the company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies 
Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company’s members those matters we are 
required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not 
accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company’s members as a body, for our audit 
work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. 

Alison Seekings
Senior Statutory Auditor
for and on behalf of Grant Thornton UK LLP 
Statutory Auditor, Chartered Accountants  
Cambridge

10 April 2019

50

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Consolidated income statement
for the year ended 31 December 2018

Revenue
Cost of revenues
Gross profit
Operating expenses
Operating (loss)/profit
Analysed as:
Gross profit
Other operating expenses
Adjusted EBITDA
Depreciation
Amortisation and impairment of other intangible assets
Share option expense
Unrealised foreign exchange gains/(losses) on intercompany 
trading balances
Non-recurring items
Operating (loss)/profit
Finance income
Finance costs
(Loss)/profit before tax
Income tax 
(Loss)/profit from continuing operations
Profit/(loss) from discontinued operations
Profit/(loss) for the year
Profit/(loss) attributable to:
Equity shareholders of the Company
Non-controlling interest
Profit/(loss) for the year
Profit/(loss) per share – continuing operations
Basic
Diluted

Notes

5

13, 14
12
24

9

8
8

10

6

11
11

2018
£’000

9,979
 (5,599)
4,380
(5,971)
(1,591)

4,380
(5,446)
(1,066)
(273)
(774)
(248)

151
619
(1,591)
1
(14)
(1,604)
(39)
(1,643)
21,485
19,842

19,842
—
19,842

(2.2p)
(2.2p)

The notes on pages 56 to 89 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

2017
£’000

16,459
(10,088)
6,371
(5,944)
427

6,371
(4,602)
1,769
(46)
(807)
(237)

(252)
—
427
3
—
430
31
461
(3,534)
(3,073)

(3,055)
(18)
(3,073)

0.8p
0.8p

51

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Consolidated statement of comprehensive income
for the year ended 31 December 2018

Profit/(loss) from continued operations
Profit/(loss) from discontinued operations
Profit/(loss) for the year
Other comprehensive income:
Items that may be reclassified subsequently to profit and loss
Exchange difference on retranslation of net assets and results of overseas subsidiaries
Reclassification to income statement for discontinued operations
Total comprehensive profit/(loss) for the year
Attributable to:
Equity shareholders of the Company
Non-controlling interest
Total comprehensive profit/(loss) for the year

The notes on pages 56 to 89 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

2018
£’000

(1,643)
21,485
19,842

(50)
216
20,008

20,008
—
20,008

2017
£’000

461
(3,534)
(3,073)

(33)
—
(3,106)

(3,067)
(39)
(3,106)

52

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Consolidated statement of changes in equity
for the year ended 31 December 2018

Balance at 1 January 2017
Loss for the year
Exchange difference on retranslation 
of net assets and results of 
overseas subsidiaries
Total comprehensive loss for the year
Reserve credit for equity-settled 
share-based payment
Issue of new share capital
Premium on new share capital
Share issue costs
Transactions with owners
Balance at 31 December 2017
IFRS 15 adjustment
Adjusted balance at 31 December 2017
Profit for the year
Recycled translation reserve
Exchange difference on retranslation of net 
assets and results of overseas subsidiaries
Total comprehensive profit for the year
Lapse of share options
Reserve credit for equity-settled 
share-based payment
Acquisition of non-controlling interest
Transactions with owners
Balance at 31 December 2018

Attributable to equity shareholders of the parent company

Share
capital
£’000

1,118
—

—
—

—
344
—
—
344
1,462
—
1,462
—
—

—
—
—

Share
premium
£’000

41,554
—

—
—

—
—
5,158
(337)
4,821
46,375
—
46,375
—
—

—
—
—

—
—
—
1,462

—
—
—
46,375

Share-based
payment
reserve
£’000

823
—

—
—

316
—
—
—
316
1,139
—
1,139
—
—

—
—
(725)

303
—
(422)
717

Translation
reserve
£’000

(2,025)
—

Retained
earnings
£’000

(32,192)
(3,055)

Sub-total
£’000

9,278
(3,055)

Non-controlling
interest
£’000

473
(18)

Total
£’000

9,751
(3,073)

(12)
(12)

—
(3,055)

(12)
(3,067)

(21)
(39)

(33)
(3,106)

—
—
—
—
—
(2,037)
—
(2,037)
—
216

—
—
—
—
—
(35,247)
(13)
(35,260)
19,842
—

316
344
5,158
(337)
5,481
11,692
(13)
11,679
19,842
216

(50)
166
—

—
19,842
725

(50)
20,008
—

—
—
—
(1,871)

—
282
1,007
(14,411)

303
282
585
32,272

—
—
—
—
—
434
—
434
—
—

—
—
—

—
(434)
(434)
—

316
344
5,158
(337)
5,481
12,126
(13)
12,113
19,842
216

(50)
20,008
—

303
(152)
151
32,272

The notes on pages 56 to 89 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

53

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Consolidated statement of financial position
for the year ended 31 December 2018

Assets
Intangible assets
Property, plant and equipment
Right-of-use assets
Investments
Total non-current assets
Current assets
Inventories 
Trade and other receivables
Cash and cash equivalents
Total current assets
Total assets 
Liabilities 
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables
Current tax liabilities
Lease obligation
Bank loans 
Total current liabilities
Non-current liabilities
Deferred income tax liabilities 
Trade and other payables
Lease obligation
Bank loans
Other payables
Total non-current liabilities
Total liabilities
Net assets
Equity attributable to owners of the parent company
Ordinary share capital
Share premium 
Share-based payment reserve
Translation reserve
Retained earnings
Equity attributable to shareholders of the Company
Non-controlling interests
Total equity

Notes

12
13
14
15

16
17
18

19

20
21

10

20
21
22

23
23
24

2018
£’000

1,235
84
304
2,000
3,623

—
3,586
30,915
34,501
38,124

(5,080)
(232)
(232)
—
(5,544)

(231)
—
(77)
—
—
(308)
(5,852)
32,272

1,462
46,375
717
(1,871)
(14,411)
32,272
—
32,272

2017
£’000

2,962
493
—
—
3,455

1,459
10,544
9,114
21,117
24,572

(9,110)
(101)
—
(750)
(9,961)

(516)
(40)
—
(1,750)
(179)
(2,485)
(12,446)
12,126

1,462
46,375
1,139
(2,037)
(35,247)
11,692
434
12,126

The notes on pages 56 to 89 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Directors on 10 April 2019 and signed on 
its behalf by:

Richard Petti 
Chief Executive Officer  Chief Financial Officer

Tim Gingell 

IQGeo Group plc 
Registered Number: 05589712

54

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018 
Consolidated statement of cash flows
for the year ended 31 December 2018

Operating activities 
(Loss)/gain before tax from continuing operations
Loss before tax from discontinued operations
Loss before tax from operating activities
Adjustments for:
Depreciation
Amortisation and impairment
Loss on the disposal of property, plant and equipment
Revaluation of intercompany balances
Share-based payment charge
Gain on sale of Japan business
Finance income
Finance costs
Operating cash flows before working capital movement
Change in inventories
Change in receivables
Change in payables
Cash generated from operations before tax
Net income taxes received/(paid)
Net cash flows from operating activities
Cash flows from investing activities
Payment of contingent consideration
Purchases of property, plant and equipment
Expenditure on intangible assets
Cash received on sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Cash in RTLS SmartSpace business unit at disposal
Disposal costs in relation to the RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Sale of Japan Geospatial third party services business
Interest received
Net cash flows from investing activities
Cash flows from financing activities
Repayment of borrowings
Interest paid
Payment of lease liability
Purchase of non-controlling interest
Proceeds from the issue of ordinary share capital
Net cash flows from financing activities
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents at start of period
Exchange differences on cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

Notes

13, 14
12

18

2018
£’000

(1,604)
(824)
(2,428)

1,081
2,025
14
(151)
303
(619)
(8)
156
373
198
2,012
(2,071)
512

407
919

—
(316)
(1,844)
28,882
(2,313)
(704)
569
8
24,282

(2,500)
(73)
(743)
(152)
—
(3,468)
21,733
9,114
68
30,915

The notes on pages 56 to 89 are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

2017
£’000

430
(3,564)
(3,134)

417
2,435
2
252
316
—
(8)
87
367
(395)
2,678
987
3,637
(14)
3,623

(197)
(140)
(1,813)
—
—
—
—
8
(2,142)

(750)
(110)
—
—
5,165
4,305
5,786
3,498
(170)
9,114

55

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements

1 General information
IQGeo Group plc (“the Company”) and its subsidiaries (together, “the Group”) delivers enterprise location intelligence solutions 
that enable our customers to create a real-time digital twin of their physical operations. The principal activity going forward 
will relate to the Geospatial business (presented as continuing operations within the consolidated income statement), following 
the sale of the Group’s RTLS SmartSpace business unit on 31 December 2018 (presented as discontinued operations within 
the consolidated income statement).

The Geospatial business delivers software solutions that integrate data from any source – geographic, real-time asset, GPS, 
location, corporate and external cloud-based sources – into a live geospatial common operating picture, empowering all 
users in the customer’s organisation to access, input and analyse operational intelligence to proactively manage their networks, 
respond quickly to emergency events and effectively manage day-to-day operations.

The Company is a public limited company which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock 
Exchange (IQG) and is incorporated and domiciled in the United Kingdom. The value of IQGeo Group plc shares, as quoted 
on the London Stock Exchange at 31 December 2018, was 67.5 pence per share (31 December 2017: 45.0 pence).

The Company was incorporated as Ubisense Trading Limited on 11 October 2005 and changed its name to Ubisense Group plc 
on 31 May 2011 ahead of its initial public offering and listing on AIM on 22 June 2011. Following the sale of its RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit the Company changed its name to IQGeo Group plc on 2 January 2019 with its subsidiaries also changing name 
to IQGeo. The address of its registered office is CB1 Business Centre, 20 Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2JD.

The Group has its main operations in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany and Japan and sells its products and services mainly 
in North America, Japan and Europe. The Group legally consists of six subsidiary companies headed by IQGeo Group plc. 
A full list of subsidiaries is given in note 26 of the financial statements.

The consolidated financial statements have been approved for issue by the Board of Directors on 10 April 2019.

2 New accounting standards
For the purposes of the preparation of the consolidated financial statements, the Group has applied all standards and 
interpretations as adopted in the European Union that are effective and applicable for accounting periods beginning on or before 
1 January 2018. There are no standards in issue and not yet adopted that will have a material impact on the financial statements.

New standards adopted as at 1 January 2018
The Group has adopted the following new accounting pronouncements as follows:

• 

• 

• 

IFRS 9 Financial Instruments (effective date financial year commencing on/after 1 January 2018);

IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers (effective date financial year commencing on/after 1 January 2018); and

IFRS 16 Leases (effective date financial year commencing on/after 1 January 2019). The Group have elected to adopt 
IFRS 16 ‘Leases’ from 1 January 2018.

IFRS 9
IFRS 9 Financial Instruments is the new accounting standard covering classification and measurement for financial 
instruments and introduces a new expected credit loss model for impairment of financial assets. 

The Group does not enter into hedging arrangements or hold bonds, debentures, or other complex financial assets.

For trade and other receivables, the Group applies a simplified model of recognising lifetime expected credit losses as these 
items do not have a significant financing component. 

In adopting IFRS 9, no differences in respect of the measurement and impairment of financial assets has been identified for 
prior periods and accordingly no restatement of prior periods or adjustments to retained earnings have been applied. 

Consideration received for the disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business on 31 December 2018 unit included £2 million 
equity investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited. As the investment was recognised at fair value on initial recognition as at 
the 31 December 2018, no further adjustment has been made to the value of the asset in preparing the financial statements. 
However, in future periods this investment will be measured at fair value through other comprehensive income as disclosed 
within note 3.

56

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20182 New accounting standards continued
New standards adopted as at 1 January 2018 continued
IFRS 15
IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers has replaced IAS 18 Revenue. 

The new standard is applicable from 1 January 2018. IFRS 15 introduces a number of new concepts and requirements relating 
to revenue recognition and also provides guidance and clarification on existing practice. The new standard has been applied 
retrospectively without restatement, with the cumulative effect of initial application recognised as an adjustment to the opening 
balance of retained earnings at 1 January 2018. In accordance with the transition guidance, IFRS 15 has only been applied to 
contracts that are incomplete as at 1 January 2018.

In applying IFRS 15, hardware and certain software revenues within the discontinued RTLS SmartSpace business unit are 
deferred until the customer is in control of both the hardware and software components provided by the Group.

The revenue recognition policies of the continuing Geospatial operations are largely unaffected by the adoption of IFRS 15.

The conclusion of management’s assessment of the adoption of IFRS15 on contracts which were incomplete as at 1 January 2018 
is as follows:

• 

In applying IFRS 15 to contracts which were incomplete as at 1 January 2018, revenue of £15,000 which had been 
previously reported within the 2017 financial year would have been deferred into the year ended 31 December 2018 
due to the timing of delivery of hardware within the RTLS SmartSpace division. 

•  Hardware costs of £3,000 associated with RTLS SmartSpace contracts which were incomplete as at 1 January 2018 would 

be deferred into the year ended 31 December 2018.

•  No adjustment has been made to defer the incremental costs of obtaining customer contracts, such as commission payments, 
as these costs would be amortised over a period of one year or less. Management has applied the practical expedient 
permitted under IFRS 15 in reaching this conclusion.

•  As a result of these adjustments, £12,000 has been recognised as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained 

earnings at 1 January 2018. Within the results for the year ended 31 December 2018, revenues have increased £15,000 
and the cost of revenues has increased by £3,000.

The Group’s revenue policies under IFRS 15 are presented within note 3 to the financial statements.

IFRS 16
IFRS 16 Leases will replace IAS 17 and three related interpretations. Leases will be recorded on the statement of financial 
position in the form of a right-of-use asset and a lease liability. The consolidated statement of comprehensive income will be 
impacted through reduced operating expenses, and higher depreciation and finance costs. The new standard is applicable 
from 1 January 2019 with an option to adopt it early.

The Group has early adopted IFRS 16 effective from 1 January 2018.

The Group’s accounting policies under IFRS 16 are as follows:

The policy applies to properties and cars where the Group has substantially all of the economic benefits from use of the 
asset. On adoption of the standard, a right-of-use asset and lease liability has been created.

The right-of-use asset is depreciated over the lease term and if necessary impaired in accordance with applicable standards. 
The lease liability is subsequently measured by increasing the carrying amount to reflect interest on the lease liability (application 
of the effective interest method) and by reducing the carrying amount to reflect the lease payments made.

In the event that lease incentives are received to enter into operating leases, such incentives are recognised as a liability. 
The aggregate benefit of incentives is recognised as a reduction of rental expense on a straight-line basis, except where 
another systematic basis is more representative of the time pattern in which economic benefits from the leased asset 
are consumed.

57

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20182 New accounting standards continued
New standards adopted as at 1 January 2018 continued
IFRS 16 continued
The standard allows two options for adoption – fully retrospective and modified retrospective. The Group has elected to 
take the modified retrospective approach. As a result of this the Group has:

•  recognised a lease liability at 1 January 2018 for leases previously classified as operating leases applying IAS 17. The Group 

has measured lease liabilities at the present value of the remaining lease payments, discounted using the Group’s 
incremental borrowing rate at the date of initial application; 

•  recognised a right-of-use asset at 1 January 2018 for leases previously classified as operating leases applying IAS 17. 

The Group has chosen to measure right-of-use assets at an amount equal to the lease liabilities, adjusted by the amount 
of any prepaid or accrued lease payments relating to those leases recognised in the statement of financial position as at 
31 December 2017; and

•  2017 comparatives are left unchanged, and any opening adjustment to net assets was recognised on 1 January 2018.

The modified retrospective approach also allows a number of practical expedients which the Group has made use of:

•  application of a single discount rate to a portfolio of leases with reasonably similar characteristics, being 3.5%; and

•  reliance on an assessment of whether a lease is onerous by applying IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and 

Contingent Assets immediately before the date of initial application as an alternative to performing an impairment 
review using the principles in IAS 36 Impairment of Assets.

As noted above, no comparatives are given for the adoption of IFRS 16. The Group has calculated that the right-of-use asset 
recognised and corresponding liability as at 1 January 2018 is £3.0 million. 

The lease commitments as at 1 January 2018 were as follows:

No later than one year
Less than one year and no later than five years
Later than five years
Total

Land and buildings
£’000

681
1,513
982
3,176

Other
£’000

94
10
—
104

The opening lease liability is reconciled to the table of lease commitments as follows:

Lease commitment as at 1 January 2018
Interest to be unwound over the lease term
Dilapidations liability recognised on adoption of IFRS 16
Opening lease liability and right-of-use asset at 1 January 2018

Total
£’000

775
1,523
982
3,280

Total
£’000

3,280
(381)
103
3,002

The impact on adoption within the results reported as continued operations for the twelve months ended 31 December 2018 
is as follows:

• 

finance costs have increased by £14,000 due to interest charges on the lease liability;

•  depreciation expense has increased by £0.2 million due to depreciation of the right-of-use asset;

•  EPS has not changed; and

•  adjusted EBITDA has improved by £0.2 million due to reduction of rental expense.

58

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued3 Summary of significant accounting policies
The principal accounting policies applied in the preparation of the consolidated financial statements are set out below. 
These policies have been consistently applied to all the years presented, unless otherwise stated. 

Basis of preparation
The consolidated financial statements of IQGeo Group plc have been prepared in accordance with International Financial 
Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union (IFRSs as adopted by the EU) and the Companies Act 2006 
applicable to companies reporting under IFRSs. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared under the historical 
cost convention. The consolidated financial statements are presented in GBP and all values are rounded to the nearest 
thousand pounds (£’000) except when otherwise indicated.

The preparation of these financial statements in conformity with IFRSs requires the Directors to make certain critical 
accounting estimates and judgments that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. 
The areas involving a higher degree of judgment or complexity, or areas where assumptions and estimates are significant 
to the consolidated financial statements, are disclosed in note 4.

Going concern basis
The Group’s business activities, together with factors likely to affect its future development, performance and position, 
are set out in the Strategic report and Directors’ report on pages 1 to 42.

In determining the basis for preparing the consolidated financial statements, the Directors are required to consider whether 
the Company can continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, being a period of not less than twelve months 
from the date of the approval of the consolidated financial statements. 

As part of the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit, the Group repaid its outstanding loan balance of £1.75 million on 
31 December 2018. The Group has no further loans. 

Management prepares detailed working capital forecasts which are reviewed by the Board on a regular basis. The forecasts 
include assumptions regarding the opportunity funnel from both existing and new clients, growth plans, risks and mitigating 
actions. In particular operating cash flow and profitability are highly sensitive to revenue mix and the positive contribution 
of continuing growth in software sales.

In reaching their going concern conclusion, the Directors have considered the following points:

• 

• 

the Group had cash of £30.9 million, with nil bank debt as at 31 December 2018 and has sufficient working capital to 
continue operations; and 

the Group’s forecasts and projections, taking account of reasonably possible changes in trading performance, support the 
conclusion that there is a reasonable expectation that the Company and the Group have adequate resources to continue 
in operational existence for the foreseeable future, a period of not less than twelve months from the date of this report. 
The Group, therefore, continues to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the consolidated financial statements.

Consolidation
The Group financial statements include the results, financial position and cash flows of the Company and all of its subsidiary 
undertakings. Subsidiary undertakings are those entities controlled directly or indirectly by the Company. Control arises when 
the Company has the power to govern the financial and operating policies of an entity, uses this power to affect the returns 
from that entity and has exposure to variable returns from its investment in the entity. 

Co-terminus financial statements of the subsidiaries are prepared for the same reporting year as the Company, using consistent 
accounting policies. Businesses acquired or disposed during the year are accounted for using acquisition method principles 
from, or up to, the date control passed. Intra-group transactions and balances are eliminated on consolidation. All subsidiaries 
use uniform accounting policies for like transactions and other events and similar circumstances. 

Non-controlling interests in the net assets of consolidated subsidiaries are identified separately from the Group’s equity 
therein. Non-controlling interests consist of the amount of those interests at the date of the original business combination 
and the non-controlling interest’s share of changes in equity since the date of combination. 

59

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20183 Summary of significant accounting policies continued
Foreign currencies
a. Functional and presentation currency 
The functional currency of each Group entity is the currency of the primary economic environment in which each entity operates. 
The consolidated financial statements are presented in GBP.

b. Transactions and balances
Foreign currency transactions are translated into the functional currency of each Group entity using the exchange rates prevailing 
at the dates of transactions. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are translated at rates ruling 
at the period-end date. Such exchange differences are included in the income statement within “operating expenses”. 
Non-monetary items that are measured in terms of historical cost in a foreign currency are translated using the exchange 
rates as at the dates of the initial transactions.

c. Consolidation
For the purpose of presenting consolidated financial statements, the results and financial position of all the Group entities 
(none of which have the currency of a hyperinflationary economy) that have a functional currency other than GBP are translated 
into GBP as follows:

•  assets and liabilities for each statement of financial position are translated at the exchange rate at the period-end date;

• 

income and expenses for each income statement are translated at the exchange rate ruling at the time of each period 
the transaction occurred; and

•  all resulting exchange differences are recognised in other comprehensive income.

Business reporting
IFRS 8 requires a “management approach” under which information in the financial statements is presented on the same 
basis as that used for internal management reporting purposes.

The Group is organised on a global basis for its Geospatial business following the sale of its RTLS SmartSpace business unit 
on 31 December 2018. The Directors believe that the Chief Operating Decision Maker (CODM) is the Chief Executive Officer 
of the Group. The CODM and the rest of the Board are provided with information on the Geospatial business to assess the 
financial performance of, and allocate resources to, the Geospatial business and central resources. 

The internal management accounting information is prepared on an IFRS basis but has a non-GAAP “adjusted EBITDA” 
as the primary measure of profit and this is reported on the face of the income statement.

Revenue recognition
Geospatial business unit – continuing operations
Software
Revenue earned from myWorld software sales under perpetual licence agreements with maintenance and support is recognised 
when the software is made available to the customer for use. Revenue earned from myWorld software sold as a subscription is 
recognised over the period of the contract, which is generally one year, commencing from when the software is available for use.

If contracts include performance obligations which result in software being customised or altered, the software cannot be 
considered distinct from the labour service. Revenue recognition is dependent on the contract terms and assessment of whether 
the performance obligation is satisfied over time. If the conditions of IFRS15 are not satisfied, revenue is deferred until the 
software is available for customer use.

Maintenance and support 
Maintenance and support is recognised on a straight-line basis over the term of the contract, which is typically one year. 
Revenue not recognised in the consolidated income statement is classified as deferred revenue on the consolidated statement 
of financial position.

Services 
Services revenue includes consultancy, installation of hardware and training. Services revenue from time and materials 
contracts is recognised in the period that the services are provided on the basis of time worked at agreed contractual rates 
and as direct expenses are incurred.

Revenue from fixed price, long-term customer specific contracts is recognised on the stage of completion of each assignment at 
the period-end date compared to the total estimated service to be provided over the entire contract where the outcome can be 
estimated reliably. If a contract outcome cannot be estimated reliably, revenues are recognised equal to costs incurred, to the 
extent that costs are expected to be recovered. An expected loss on a contract is recognised immediately in the income statement.

60

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued3 Summary of significant accounting policies continued
Revenue recognition continued
Geospatial business unit – continuing operations continued
Timing of payment
Maintenance and support income is invoiced annually in advance at the commencement of the contract period. Other revenue 
is invoiced based on the contract terms in accordance with performance obligations. Amounts recoverable in contracts (contract 
assets) relate to our conditional right to consideration for completed performance obligations under the contract prior to 
invoicing. Deferred income (contract liabilities) relate to amounts invoiced in advance of services performed under the contract.

RTLS SmartSpace business unit – discontinued operations
Software
SmartSpace operates as standalone software that can be used to identify and manage assets in real time through 
the collection of data. Smartspace integrates with our own hardware or can be used alongside third party products. 
Smartspace software is sold under a perpetual licence arrangement and is recognised when the software is made 
available to the customer for use. Additionally, the Group sells software that is required to allow our own hardware to 
operate. Accordingly, this software licence is only sold alongside hardware. Revenue is recognised at the point that the 
software has been made available to the customer and as the associated hardware becomes under the control of the 
customer, which is generally on delivery to the customer’s premises.

Maintenance and support
Maintenance and support is recognised on a straight-line basis over the term of the contract, which is typically one year. 
Revenue not recognised in the consolidated income statement is classified as deferred revenue on the consolidated statement 
of financial position. 

Hardware
Revenue is recognised at the point that the hardware supplied becomes under the control of the customer. This is generally 
on delivery to the customer’s premises.

Services
Services revenue includes consultancy, installation of hardware and training. Services revenue from time and materials 
contracts is recognised in the period that the services are provided on the basis of time worked at agreed contractual 
rates and as direct expenses are incurred. 

Revenue from fixed price, long-term customer specific contracts is recognised on the stage of completion of each assignment 
at the period-end date compared to the total estimated service to be provided over the entire contract where the outcome 
can be estimated reliably. If a contract outcome cannot be estimated reliably, revenues are recognised equal to costs incurred, 
to the extent that costs are expected to be recovered. An expected loss on a contract is recognised immediately in the 
income statement.

Timing of payment
Maintenance and support income is invoiced annually in advance at the commencement of the contract period. Other revenue 
is invoiced based on the contract terms in accordance with performance obligations. Amounts recoverable in contracts (contract 
assets) relate to our conditional right to consideration for completed performance obligations under the contract prior to invoicing. 
Deferred income (contract liabilities) relate to amounts invoiced in advance of services performed under the contract.

Employee benefits
a. Retirement benefits
The Group operates various defined contribution pension arrangements for its employees.

For defined contribution pension arrangements, the amount charged to the income statement represents the contributions 
payable in the period. Differences between contributions payable in the period and contributions actually paid are shown 
as either accruals or prepayments in the statement of financial position.

b. Share-based payments
The Group issues equity-settled share-based payments to certain employees. Vesting conditions are continuing employment 
and can include, for senior employees, a diluted EPS performance target or share price target. Equity-settled share-based 
payments are measured at fair value at the date of grant using an appropriate pricing model. The fair value is expensed on 
a straight-line basis over the vesting period, together with a corresponding increase in equity in the share-based payment 
reserve, based on the Group’s estimate of the number of shares that will eventually vest.

61

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20183 Summary of significant accounting policies continued
Non-recurring items
Non-recurring items are disclosed separately in the financial statements where it is necessary to do so to provide further 
understanding of the financial performance of the Group. They are material one-off items of income or expense that have 
been shown separately due to the significance of their nature or amount and do not reflect the ongoing cost base or 
revenue-generating ability of the Group.

Interest income and expense
Interest income and expense is included in the income statement on a time basis, using the effective interest method 
by reference to the principal outstanding.

Tax 
The tax charge or credit comprises current tax payable and deferred tax:

a. Current tax
The current tax charge represents an estimate of the amounts payable or receivable to or from tax authorities in respect of 
the Group’s taxable profits and is based on an interpretation of existing tax laws. Taxable profit differs from profit before tax 
as reported in the income statement because it excludes certain items of income and expense that are taxable or deductible 
in other years or are never taxable or deductible. Taxation received is recognised only when it is probable that the Group is 
entitled to the asset.

b. Deferred tax
Deferred income taxes are calculated using the liability method on temporary differences. This involves the comparison of 
the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities in the consolidated financial statements with their respective tax bases. In addition, 
tax losses available to be carried forward as well as other income tax credits to the Group are assessed for recognition as 
deferred tax assets. However, deferred tax is not provided on the initial recognition of goodwill, nor on the initial recognition 
of an asset or liability, unless the related transaction is a business combination or affects tax or accounting profit.

Deferred tax liabilities are always provided in full. Deferred tax assets are recognised to the extent that it is probable that the 
underlying deductible temporary differences will be able to be offset against future taxable income. Deferred tax assets and 
liabilities are calculated, without discounting, at tax rates that are expected to apply to their respective period of realisation, 
provided they are enacted or substantively enacted at the reporting date. Deferred tax is recognised as a component of tax 
expense in the income statement, except where it relates to items charged or credited directly to other comprehensive income 
or equity when it is recognised in other comprehensive income or equity.

Business combinations
The Group applies the acquisition method to account for business combinations. The consideration transferred for the acquisition 
of a subsidiary is the fair values of the assets transferred, the liabilities incurred to the former owners of the acquiree and the 
equity interests issued by the Group. The consideration transferred includes the fair value of any asset or liability resulting 
from a contingent consideration arrangement. Identifiable assets acquired and liabilities and contingent liabilities assumed 
in a business combination are measured initially at their provisional fair values at the acquisition date.

Fair values are reassessed during the measurement period and updated if required. The Group recognises any non-controlling 
interest in the acquiree on an acquisition-by-acquisition basis, either at fair value or at the non-controlling interest’s 
proportionate share of the recognised amounts of the acquiree’s identifiable net assets. 

If the business combination is achieved in stages, the acquisition date fair value of the acquirer’s previously held equity interest 
in the acquiree is remeasured to fair value at the acquisition date through profit or loss.

Any contingent consideration to be transferred by the Group is recognised at fair value at the acquisition date. Subsequent 
changes to the fair value of the contingent consideration that is deemed to be an asset or liability is recognised in accordance 
with IAS 39 either in profit or loss or as a change to other comprehensive income. Contingent consideration that is classified 
as equity is not remeasured and its subsequent settlement is accounted for within equity.

Goodwill
Goodwill is initially measured as the excess of the aggregate of the consideration transferred and the fair value of non-controlling 
interest over the net identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed. If this consideration is lower than the fair value of the 
net assets of the subsidiary acquired, the difference is recognised in profit or loss.

Goodwill arising on an acquisition of a business is the difference between the fair value of the consideration paid and the 
net fair value of the assets and liabilities acquired. Goodwill is carried at cost less accumulated impairment losses.

62

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued3 Summary of significant accounting policies continued
Research and development
Expenditure on research activities is recognised as an expense in the period in which it is incurred.

Development activities involve a plan or design for the production of new or substantially improved products and processes. 
Development expenditure is only capitalised if all of the following conditions are met:

•  completion of the intangible asset is technically feasible so that it will be available for use or sale;

• 

• 

• 

• 

the Group intends to complete the intangible asset and use or sell it;

the Group has the ability to use or sell the intangible asset;

the intangible asset will generate probable future economic benefits. Among other things, this requires that there is a 
market for the output from the intangible asset or for the intangible asset itself, or, if it is to be used internally, the asset 
will be used in generating such benefits;

there are adequate technical, financial and other resources to complete the development and to use or sell the intangible 
asset; and

• 

the expenditure attributable to the intangible asset during its development can be measured reliably.

Internally-generated intangible assets, consisting mainly of direct labour costs, are amortised on a straight-line basis over 
their useful economic lives. Amortisation is shown within administrative expenses in the income statement. The estimated 
useful lives of current development projects are three years. Upon completion the assets are subject to impairment testing. 

Where no internally-generated intangible asset can be recognised, development expenditure is recognised as an expense 
in the period in which it is incurred.

Other intangible assets
Intangible assets that are purchased separately, such as software licences that do not form an integral part of related 
hardware, are capitalised at cost and amortised on a straight-line basis over their useful economic life which is typically 
three years. 

Acquired intangible assets
Intangible assets acquired through a business combination are initially measured at fair value and amortised on a straight-line 
basis over their useful economic lives. Amortisation is shown within operating expenses in the income statement. All acquired 
intangibles were fully amortised or impaired as at 31 December 2017 and 2018.

Property, plant and equipment
Property, plant and equipment are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation and any recognised impairment loss. 
Depreciation is charged to the income statement so as to write off the cost or valuation less estimated residual values 
over their expected useful lives on a straight-line basis over the following periods:

•  Fixtures and fittings: three to ten years or period of the lease if shorter.

•  Computer equipment: three years.

Residual values and useful economic lives are assessed annually. The gain or loss on the disposal or retirement of an asset 
is determined as the difference between the sales proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset and is recognised in 
operating expenses.

Impairment of non-financial assets
Assets that have an indefinite useful life – for example, goodwill or intangible assets not ready to use – are not subject to 
amortisation and are tested at least annually for impairment and whenever there is an indication that the asset may be impaired. 
Assets that are subject to amortisation are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate 
that the carrying amount may not be recoverable.

An impairment loss is recognised for the amount by which the asset’s carrying amount exceeds its recoverable amount. 
The recoverable amount is the higher of an asset’s fair value less costs to sell and value in use. For the purposes of assessing 
impairment, assets are grouped at the lowest levels for which there are separately identifiable cash flows (cash-generating units). 
Impairment losses are recognised immediately in profit or loss.

Non-financial assets other than goodwill that suffered an impairment are reviewed for possible reversal of the impairment 
at each reporting date. Where an impairment loss is reversed, it is reversed to the extent that the increased carrying amount 
does not exceed the carrying amount that would have been determined had no impairment loss been recognised in prior 
years. A reversal of an impairment loss is recognised immediately in profit or loss.

63

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20183 Summary of significant accounting policies continued
Financial instruments
Recognition and derecognition 
Financial assets and financial liabilities are recognised when the Group becomes a party to the contractual provisions of the 
financial instrument.

Financial assets are derecognised when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the financial asset expire, or when the 
financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards are transferred. A financial liability is derecognised when it is extinguished, 
discharged, cancelled or expires.

Classification and initial measurement of financial assets 
Except for those trade receivables that do not contain a significant financing component and are measured at the transaction 
price in accordance with IFRS 15, all financial assets are initially measured at fair value adjusted for transaction costs 
(where applicable). 

Financial assets, other than those designated and effective as hedging instruments, are classified into the following categories:

•  amortised cost; 

• 

• 

fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL); and

fair value through other comprehensive income (FVOCI).

The classification is determined by both: 

• 

• 

the entity’s business model for managing the financial asset; and

the contractual cash flow characteristics of the financial asset.

All income and expenses relating to financial assets that are recognised in profit or loss are presented within finance costs, 
finance income or other financial items, except for impairment of trade receivables which is presented within other expenses.

Subsequent measurement of financial assets 
Financial assets at amortised cost 
Financial assets are measured at amortised cost if the assets meet the following conditions (and are not designated as FVTPL): 

• 

• 

they are held within a business model whose objective is to hold the financial assets and collect its contractual 
cash flows; and 

the contractual terms of the financial assets give rise to cash flows that are solely payments of principal and interest on 
the principal amount outstanding.

After initial recognition, these are measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method. Discounting is omitted 
where the effect of discounting is immaterial. The Group’s cash and cash equivalents, trade and most other receivables fall 
into this category of financial instruments.

Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income (FVOCI) 
Assets in this category are measured at fair value with gains or losses recognised directly in equity. The cumulative gain 
or loss arising from changes in fair value, impairment or sale is not recycled to the consolidated income statement. The fair 
values of financial assets in this category are determined by reference to active market transactions or using a valuation 
technique where no active market exists.

Investments
As part of the sale transaction of the RTLS business unit on 31 December 2018, the Group holds a rollover equity investment 
in Abyssinian Topco Limited (registered number: 11649721) which following the transaction, is the parent company of the 
RTLS SmartSpace business unit.

The Group has made the irrevocable election to account for the investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited at fair value through 
other comprehensive income (FVOCI). In the current financial year, the fair value was determined in line with the requirements 
of IFRS 9, which does not allow for measurement at cost.

64

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued3 Summary of significant accounting policies continued
Trade receivables
Trade receivables are amounts due from customers for products sold or services performed in the ordinary course of business. 
If collection is expected in one year or less, they are classified as current assets. If not, they are presented as non-current assets.

The Group makes use of a simplified approach in accounting for trade and other receivables as well as contract assets 
and records the loss allowance as lifetime expected credit losses. These are the expected shortfalls in contractual cash flows, 
considering the potential for default at any point during the life of the financial instrument. In calculating, the Group uses its 
historical experience, external indicators and forward-looking information to calculate the expected credit losses using a 
provision matrix.

The Group assess impairment of trade receivables on a collective basis as they possess shared credit risk characteristics 
they have been grouped based on the days past due.

Inventories
Inventories are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Cost is the actual cost of third party components and 
labour, and is applied on a first in, first out basis. Net realisable value is based on estimated selling price less additional 
cost to completion and disposal. Provision is made for obsolete, slow moving or defective items where appropriate and 
are recognised as an expense in the period in which the write-down or loss occurs.

Classification and measurement of financial liabilities
As the accounting for financial liabilities remains largely the same under IFRS 9 compared to IAS 39, the Group’s financial 
liabilities were not impacted by the adoption of IFRS 9. However, for completeness, the accounting policy is disclosed below.

The Group’s financial liabilities include borrowings, trade and other payables and derivative financial instruments.

Financial liabilities are initially measured at fair value, and, where applicable, adjusted for transaction costs unless the 
Group designated a financial liability at fair value through profit or loss. 

Subsequently, financial liabilities are measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method except for derivatives 
and financial liabilities designated at FVTPL, which are carried subsequently at fair value with gains or losses recognised in 
the profit or loss (other than derivative financial instruments that are designated and effective as hedging instruments).

Trade payables
Trade payables are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from 
suppliers. Accounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are 
presented as non-current liabilities.

Trade payables are recognised initially at fair value and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective 
interest method.

Cash and cash equivalents
In the consolidated statement of cash flows, cash and cash equivalents includes cash in hand, deposits held at call with 
banks and other short-term highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less.

Borrowings
Borrowings are recognised initially at fair value, net of transaction costs incurred. Borrowings are subsequently carried at 
amortised cost; any difference between the proceeds (net of transaction costs) and the redemption value is recognised in 
the income statement over the period of the borrowings using the effective interest method.

All borrowing costs are recognised in the income statement in the period they are incurred.

Share capital and share premium
Ordinary shares are classified as equity. Incremental costs directly attributable to the issue of new shares or options are shown 
in equity as a deduction, net of tax, from the proceeds. The nominal value of shares issued is classified as share capital and 
the amounts paid over the nominal value in respect of share issues, net of related costs, is classified as share premium.

Share-based payment reserve
The share-based payment reserve relates to a cumulative charge made in respect of share options granted by the 
Company to the Group’s employees under its employee share option plans.

65

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20183 Summary of significant accounting policies continued
Translation reserve
Exchange differences relating to the translation of the results and net assets of the Group’s foreign operations from their 
functional currencies to the Group’s presentation currency of GBP are recognised directly in other comprehensive income 
and accumulated in the translation reserve.

Retained earnings
Retained earnings include all current and prior period retained profits/losses. 

Non-controlling interests
Non-controlling interests, presented as part of equity, represent a proportion of a subsidiary’s profit or loss and net assets 
that is not held by the Group. The Group attributes total comprehensive income or loss of subsidiaries between the assets 
of the parent and the non-controlling interests based on their respective ownership interests. 

4 Critical accounting judgments and key sources of estimation and uncertainty
When preparing the financial statements, management makes a number of judgments, estimates and assumptions about 
the recognition and measurement of assets, liabilities, income and expenses.

Significant management judgments
The following are the judgments made by management in applying the accounting policies of the Group that have the most 
significant effect on the financial statements.

Capitalisation of development costs
The point at which development costs meet the criteria for capitalisation is critically dependent on management’s judgment 
of the point at which technical and commercial feasibility is demonstrable. The carrying amount of capitalised development 
costs at 31 December 2018 is £1.2 million (2017: £2.7 million). After capitalisation, management monitors whether the recognition 
requirements continue to be met and whether there are any indicators that capitalised costs may be impaired.

Revenue recognition
Significant management judgment is applied in determining the distinct performance obligations included within contracts 
involving multiple deliverables. Additionally, for each identified significant performance obligation management are required 
to determine which obligations meet the criteria to recognise revenue over time.

Deferred tax
A deferred tax asset is recognised where the Group considers it probable that future tax profits will be available against which 
the tax credit will be utilised in the future. This specifically applies to tax losses and to outstanding vested share options at the 
statement of financial position date. In estimating the amount of the deferred tax asset that should be recognised, the Directors 
make judgments based on current budgets and forecasts about the amount of future taxable profits and the timings of when 
these will be realised. No deferred tax asset is currently recognised.

Recognition of earn-out consideration
On 31 December 2018 the Group disposed of its RTLS SmartSpace business unit for a consideration of up to £35.0 million 
with £30.0 million paid in cash on completion (subject to adjustments for net debt and net working capital) in addition to a 
£2 million roll over investment and further £3.0 million earn-out consideration. 

The earn-out consideration of £3.0 million is subject to the RTLS SmartSpace business unit meeting the following milestones: 

•  £1.5 million is payable if revenue achieved for the year ended 31 December 2018 is £16.4 million. This milestone was not met.

•  £1.5 million is payable if revenue achieved for the year ended 31 December 2019 is £22.0 million.

• 

If the first milestone is not met, the full £3.0 million will be paid if the revenue for the 2019 period meets the 2019 target 
plus the shortfall of the target of the 2018 period. Accordingly, the full £3.0 million earn-out would be achieved if the 2019 
revenue for the RTLS SmartSpace business exceeds £22.9 million. 

While the achievement of an additional £3.0 million earn-out cash consideration remains possible, no contingent asset has 
been recognised within statement of financial position as at 31 December 2018. Management believe that this is appropriate 
as achievement of the milestones is dependent on the new management team’s strategy and performance, over which IQGeo 
have no influence as a minority shareholder.

66

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued4 Critical accounting judgments and key sources of estimation and uncertainty continued
Estimating uncertainty
The Group makes estimates and assumptions concerning the future. The resulting accounting estimates will, by definition, 
seldom equal the related actual results. The estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material 
adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are addressed below.

Amortisation and impairment of development costs
Capitalised development costs are amortised over a three years period which is management’s estimate of the useful lives 
of current development projects. In reaching this conclusion, management have made assumptions in respect of future 
customer requirements and developments within the industry. These estimates have a high level of uncertainty and are 
in respect of matters outside of managements control. 

The Group tests capitalised development costs for impairment annually in accordance with the accounting policy stated 
in note 3. In performing the impairment review, management is required to make assumptions of the future cash flows 
generated from the myWorld products. This includes consideration of both the current business pipeline and estimations 
beyond the existing pipeline. Estimation uncertainty relates to assumptions about future operating results and the 
determination of a suitable discount rate.

Revenue recognition
As revenue from fixed price services agreements is recognised over time, the amount of revenue recognised in a reporting 
period depends on the extent to which the performance obligation has been satisfied. This requires an estimate of the 
quantity of the services to be provided, based on historical experience with similar contracts. In a similar way, recognising 
revenue requires the estimated number of hours required to complete the promised work.

5 Segment information
5.1 Operating segments
Management provides information reported to the Chief Operating Decision Maker (CODM) for the purpose of assessing 
performance and allocating resources. The CODM is the Chief Executive Officer. 

The continuing Geospatial business delivers software solutions that integrate data from any source – geographic,  
real-time asset, GPS, location, corporate and external cloud-based sources – into a live geospatial common operating 
picture, empowering all users in the customer’s organisation to access, input and analyse operational intelligence to 
proactively manage their networks, respond quickly to emergency events and effectively manage day-to-day operations. 
The continuing geospatial operations are reported to the CODM as a single business unit.

The performance of the discontinued RTLS SmartSpace business unit is disclosed within note 6.

5.2 Revenue by type of the continuing operations
The following table presents the different revenue streams of the Geospatial business unit:

2018

2017

Revenue of continuing Geospatial operations

Software
Maintenance and support
Services
Total revenue generated from 
myWorld products
Geospatial services from 
third-party products
Total revenue

£’000

1,395
918
2,424

4,737

5,242
9,979

% of total revenue

14%
9%
24%

47%

53%
100%

£’000

2,575
750
2,459

5,784

10,675
16,459

% of total revenue

16%
5%
15%

35%

65%
100%

Software includes £1.2 million (2017: £2.4 million) from perpetual software licences recognised at a point in time. All other 
revenue is recognised as services are transferred over time.

67

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20185 Segment information continued
5.3 Geographical areas of continuing and discontinued operations
The Board and management team also review the revenues on a geographical basis, based around the regions where the 
Group has its significant subsidiaries or markets.

The Group’s revenue from external customers in the Group’s domicile, the UK, and its major worldwide markets have been 
identified on the basis of the customers’ geographical location. Non-current assets are allocated based on their physical location.

The following table represents the group’s continuing operational revenue and non-current assets by geographical region:

Revenue

Non-current assets

UK
Germany
Europe other
USA
Canada
Japan
Asia Pacific other
Rest of world

2018
£’000

—
14
3
7,041
1,596
1,302
—
23
9,979

2017
£’000

1
2,842
7
8,300
2,783
2,496
18
12
16,459

2018
£’000

3,252
1
—
364
4
2
—
—
3,623

2017
£’000

1,142
—
—
66
3
33
—
—
1,244

2018 revenues include £1.4 million from income deferred at the beginning of the period (2017: £1.9 million) relating 
to performance obligations satisfied overtime.

The following table represents the group’s discontinued operational revenue and non-current assets by geographical region:

Revenue

Non-current assets

UK
Germany
Europe other
USA
Canada
Japan
Asia Pacific other
Rest of world

2018
£’000

426
4,571
1,640
7,313
137
956
455
21
15,519

2017
£’000

271
5,350
850
2,783
71
1,049
168
254
10,796

2018
£’000

3,268
411
2
122
—
147
—
—
3,950

2017
£’000

1,991
29
5
114
—
72
—
—
2,211

2018 revenues include £1.0 million from income deferred at the beginning of the period (2017: £0.4 million) relating 
to performance obligations satisfied overtime.

5.4 Information about major customers of the continuing operations
During 2018, the Group had one customer who generated revenues of greater than 10% of total Geospatial revenue. 
£3.1 million was generated from one US customer.

During 2017, the Group had three customers who generated revenues of greater than 10% of total Geospatial revenue. £3.2 million 
was generated from one US customer, £2.8 million was generated from one European customer, and £2.4 million was 
generated from one Canadian customer.

68

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued6 Discontinued operations
On 31 December 2018 the Group disposed of its RTLS SmartSpace business unit for a consideration of up to £35.0 million 
with £30.0 million paid in cash on completion (subject to adjustments for net debt and net working capital) in addition to 
a £2 million roll over investment and further £3.0 million earn-out consideration. 

The disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business followed reorganisation involving the creation of new legal entities within the 
UK, USA, Canada, Germany and Japan regions. The Group completed a reorganisation whereby the trade and assets of the 
RTLS SmartSpace and Geospatial business units were separated into different legal entities in each country. The restructured 
RTLS SmartSpace group of legal entities, headed by Ubisense Limited, was disposed of on 31 December 2018. Central functions 
such as finance and IT were allocated between the RTLS SmartSpace and Geospatial legal entities so that both divisions 
could continue trading post-disposal. This was supported through a transition services agreement between IQGeo and the 
discontinued business.

The earn-out consideration of £3.0 million is subject to the RTLS SmartSpace business unit meeting the following milestones: 

•  £1.5 million is payable if revenue achieved for the year ended 31 December 2018 is £16.4 million. This milestone was not met.

•  £1.5 million is payable if revenue achieved for the year ended 31 December 2019 is £22.0 million.

• 

If the first milestone is not met, the full £3.0 million will be paid if the revenue for the 2019 period meets the 2019 target 
plus the shortfall of the target of the 2018 period. Accordingly, the full £3.0 million earn-out would be achieved if the 2019 
revenue for the RTLS SmartSpace business exceeds £22.9 million. 

While the achievement of an additional £3.0 million earn-out cash consideration remains possible, no contingent asset has 
been recognised within statement of financial position as at 31 December 2018. Management believe that this is appropriate 
as achievement of the milestones is dependent on the new management team’s strategy and performance, over which IQGeo 
have no influence as a non-controlling shareholder.

The following information is attributable to the RTLS SmartSpace business unit.

6.1 Income statement for the year ended 31 December 2018

Revenue
Cost of revenues
Gross profit
Operating expenses
Operating profit/(loss)
Analysed as:
Gross profit
Other operating expenses
Adjusted EBITDA
Depreciation
Amortisation and impairment of other intangible assets
Share option expense
Reorganisation costs
Operating loss
Finance income
Finance costs
Loss before tax
Income tax 
Loss from discontinued operations prior to gain on disposal
Gain on disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Profit/(loss) from discontinued operations

2018
£’000

15,519
 (7,402)
8,117
(8,804)
(687)

8,117
(6,204)
1,913
(808)
(1,251)
(55)
(486)
(687)
7
(144)
(824)
(57)
(881)
22,366
21,485

2017
£’000

10,796
(6,310)
4,486
(7,968)
(3,482)

4,486
(5,890)
(1,404)
(371)
(1,628)
(79)
—
(3,482)
5
(87)
(3,564)
30
(3,534)
—
(3,534)

69

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20186 Discontinued operations continued
6.1 Income statement for the year ended 31 December 2018 continued
The gain on disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit discontinued operations is summarised as follows:

Consideration received or receivable:
Cash received on 31 December 2018 (as presented within the statement of consolidated cash flows)
Roll over investment in RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Amounts receivable on finalisation of completion accounts
Total disposal consideration
Consideration used to settle HSBC debt on 31 December 2018
Carrying value of net assets sold 
Transaction costs incurred
Accrued bonuses in respect of the transaction completion
Gain on sale before income tax and reclassification of foreign currency reserve 
Reclassification of foreign currency reserve
Gain on disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit

6.2 Cash flows from discontinued operations

Net cash (outflow)/inflow from operating activities
Net cash inflow/(outflow) from investing activities:
Purchase of property, plant and equipment
Expenditure on intangible assets
Cash received on sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Cash in RTLS SmartSpace business unit at disposal
Disposal costs in relation to the RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Interest received
Total net cash outflow from investing activities:
Net cash inflow/(outflow) from financing activities:
Repayment of bank debt
Repayment of lease liability
Interest paid
Total net cash outflow from financing activities:

2018
£’000

(599)

(245)
(985)
28,882
(2,313)
(704)
7
24,642

(2,500)
(518)
(71)
(3,089)

2018
£’000

28,882
2,000
846
31,728
(1,753)
(4,804)
(1,888)
(701)
22,582
(216)
22,366

2017
£’000

2,037

(116)
(1,064)
—
—
—
5
(1,175)

(750)
—
(110)
(860)

70

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued6 Discontinued operations continued
6.3 Effect of the disposal on the consolidated statement of financial position
The carrying amount of the assets and liabilities of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit as at 31 December 2018 was as follows:

Statement of financial position of the discontinued operations

Assets
Intangible assets
Property, plant and equipment
Right-of-use assets
Inventories 
Trade and other receivables
Amounts recoverable on contracts
Cash and cash equivalents
Total assets
Liabilities
Trade and other payables
Deferred income
Lease obligation
Current tax liability
Deferred income tax liabilities 
Other payables
Total liabilities
Net assets

7 Employee information
7.1 Employee numbers
The number of employees at the end of the period was as follows:

Continuing operations
Discontinued operations

Actual number of people as at 31 December

Average monthly number of people

2018
Number

59

61
120

2017
Number

83
55
138

2018
Number

67
62
129

Employee numbers continuing operations
The average monthly number of people, including Executive Directors, employed by the Group during the year was:

Actual number of people as at 31 December

Average monthly number of people

2018
£’000

1,525
510
1,915
1,261
3,932
1,697
2,313
13,153

(5,078)
(350)
(2,132)
(405)
(249)
(135)
(8,349)
4,804

2017
Number

78
61
139

By activity 

Technical consultants
Sales and marketing
Research and development
Administration

By geography

United Kingdom
Europe
Americas
Asia 

2018
Number

24
18
7
10
59

2018
Number

15
1
40
3
59

2017
Number

44
22
7
10
83

2018
Number

2017
Number

30
20
7
10
67

45
18
6
9
78

2017
Number

2018
Number

2017
Number

16
2
44
21
83

16
1
41
9
67

14
2
41
21
78

71

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20187 Employee information continued
7.1 Employee numbers continued
Employee numbers discontinued operations
The average monthly number of people employed by the Group during the year was:

By activity 

Technical consultants
Sales & marketing
Research & development
Administration

By geography

United Kingdom
Europe
Americas
Asia 

Actual number of people as at 31 December

Average monthly number of people

2018
Number

2017
Number

2018
Number

2017
Number

17
20
13
11
61

11
19
13
12
55

17
19
13
13
62

14
20
14
13
61

2018
Number

2017
Number

2018
Number

2017
Number

25
17
11
8
61

23
18
6
8
55

26
18
10
8
62

2018
£’000

6,395
482
288
248
7,413

2018
£’000

5,636
518
401
55
6,610

2018
£’000

1
1
(14)
(14)
(13)

26
19
8
8
61

2017
£’000

7,052
575
270
237
8,134

2017
£’000

4,539
551
314
79
5,483

2017
£’000

3
3
—
—
3

7.2 Employee benefits
Employee benefits of continuing operations 
The aggregate employee benefit expense, including Executive Directors, comprised:

Notes

24

Notes

24

Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Contributions to defined contribution pension arrangements
Share-based payments
Total aggregate employee benefits

Employee benefits of discontinued operations 
The aggregate employee benefit expense comprised:

Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Contributions to defined contribution pension arrangements
Share-based payments
Total aggregate employee benefits

8 Finance income and costs

Continued operations only

Interest income from cash and cash equivalents
Finance income
Interest expense for lease arrangements
Finance costs
Net finance costs

72

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued9 Loss before tax: analysis of expenses by nature
9.1 Expenses by nature of continuing operations
The following items have been charged/(credited) to the income statement in arriving at a gain before tax:

Amortisation and impairment of other intangible assets
Depreciation of owned property, plant and equipment
Depreciation of right-of-use assets
Operating lease rental charges – land and buildings
Research & development costs expensed
Net foreign currency (gains)/losses
Unrealised foreign exchange (gains)/losses on intercompany trading balances
Non-recurring items

Notes

9.2

2018
£’000

774
57
216
—
95
(89)
(151)
619

2017
£’000

807
46
 —
219
47
(102)
252
—

9.2 Non-recurring items from continuing operations
The following item is associated with the sale on 30 March 2018 of the Group’s Japan third party geospatial services including 
the Geoplan brand name for a gross consideration of JPY 100 million (£0.7 million). This has been credited to the income 
statement in arriving at a gain before tax.

Alongside this transaction, the 23% non-controlling interest of Geoplan Company Limited was acquired. The acquisition of this 
non-controlling interest gave the Group 100% ownership of its remaining Japanese operations. Geoplan Company Limited 
has been renamed IQGeo Japan K.K.

Sale of Japan Geospatial third party services business
Total non-recurring items

2018
£’000

619
619

2017
£’000

—
—

The sale of the Japan Geospatial third party services business has not been presented as a discontinued operation 
because these Geospatial services will be provided to customers based in other regions of the Group’s continuing 
operations. Additionally, the Japan Geospatial operations will continue, albeit solely focused on selling IQGeo products 
and related services. The sold Geospatial business did not represent a significant part of the global business. 

9.3 Auditors’ remuneration 
During the year the Group (including its overseas subsidiaries) obtained the following services from the Company’s auditor 
and its associates:

Fees payable to the Group’s auditor for the audit of:
Parent company and consolidated financial statements
Financial statements of subsidiaries, pursuant to legislation
Total audit fees
Fees payable to the Group’s auditor for other services:
Tax compliance
Tax advisory associated with the group reorganisation 
Audit related assurance services
Other services
Total non-audit fees
Total auditor’s remuneration

2018
£’000

59
70
129

7
179
14
—
200
329

The auditor of IQGeo Group plc is Grant Thornton UK LLP, covering both continuing and discontinued operations.

2017
£’000

39
72
111

30
—
14
2
46
157

73

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201810 Income tax
10.1 Income tax recognised in the income statement

Current tax – continuing operations
Corporation tax
Adjustment in respect of prior year
Foreign tax
Total current tax charge
Deferred tax – continuing operations
Origination and reversal of temporary differences
Total deferred tax charge/(credit)
Total income tax charge/(credit) for the year – continuing operations

Current tax – discontinued operations
Corporation tax
Adjustment in respect of prior year
Foreign tax
Total current tax charge
Deferred tax – discontinued operations
Origination and reversal of temporary differences
Total deferred tax credit
Total income tax charge/(credit) for the year – discontinued operations

Total income tax charge/(credit) for the year

2018
£’000

—
(213)
238
25

14
14
39

2018
£’000

—
(300)
407
107

(50)
(50)
57

96

2017
£’000

—
—
12
12

(43)
(43)
(31)

2017
£’000

—
—
93
93

(123)
(123)
(30)

(61)

The tax credit differs from the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK for the year of 19% (2017: 19.3%) for the following reasons:

Loss before tax – continuing operations
Gain before tax from discontinued operations
Total gain before tax
Loss before tax multiplied by the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK of 19.0% 
(2017: 19.3%)
Tax effects of:
Expenses not deductible for tax purposes
Income not subject to income tax
Utilisation of previously unrecognised tax losses
Unrecognised deferred tax movements
Tax unprovided in prior years
Research and development tax credits – prior years
Difference on tax treatment of share options – unrecognised
Differential on overseas tax rates
Total income tax debit/(credit)

2018
£’000

(1,604)
21,542
19,938

3,788

75
(2,138)
(1,987)
256
15
(513)
57
543
96

2017
£’000

430
(3,564)
(3,134)

(605)

131
—
(82)
429
106
—
60
(100)
(61)

74

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued10 Income tax continued
10.2 Factors that may affect future tax charges
The Group has tax losses of £8.7 million (2017: £24.5 million) that are available for offset against future taxable profits of 
those subsidiary companies in which the tax losses arose. Deferred tax assets have not been recognised in respect of these 
losses as they may not be used to offset taxable profits elsewhere in the Group, and they have arisen in subsidiaries whose 
future taxable profits are uncertain. No deferred tax has been recognised on the unremitted earnings of overseas subsidiaries, 
because the earnings are continually reinvested by the Group and no tax is expected to be payable on them in the 
foreseeable future.

The deferred tax balances have been measured at the local rate of realisation expected, which in the UK is 19%.

10.3 Deferred tax
The movement in deferred tax in the consolidated statement of financial position during the year is as follows:

Deferred income tax assets

Deferred income tax liabilities

At 1 January
Deferred tax credited to the 
income statement
Deferred tax charged to the 
income statement
Disposal of RTLS SmartSpace business unit
At 31 December

2018
£’000

—

—

—
—
—

2017
£’000

—

—

—
—
—

2018
£’000

(516)

349

(313)
249
(231)

The components of deferred tax included in the consolidated statement of financial position are as follows:

Development costs capitalised
Total deferred income tax liabilities

2018
£’000

(231)
(231)

2017
£’000

(683)

403

(236)
—
(516)

2017
£’000

(516)
(516)

Deferred tax assets have not been recognised in respect of the following items because it is not probable that future taxable 
profits will be available against which the Group can utilise the benefits:

Tax losses carried forward
Equity-settled share options temporary differences
Total unrecognised deferred tax assets

2018
£’000

1,549
33
1,582

2017
£’000

5,637
19
5,656

75

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201811 Earnings per share (EPS)

Earnings attributable to Ordinary Shareholders
Gain/(loss) from continuing operations 
Gain/(loss) from discontinued operations 
Gain/(loss) from continuing and discontinued operations
Number of shares
Weighted average number of ordinary shares for the purposes of basic EPS (’000)
Effect of dilutive potential ordinary shares: 
– Share options (’000)
Weighted average number of ordinary shares for the purposes of diluted EPS (’000)
Continuing operations EPS
Basic and diluted EPS (pence) 
Discontinued operations EPS
Basic and diluted EPS (pence)
Continuing and discontinued operations EPS
Basic and diluted EPS (pence)

2018 

2017 

(1,643)
21,485
19,842

73,088

257
73,345

(2.2)

29.4

27.1

461
(3,516)
(3,055)

58,479

215
58,694

0.8

(6.0)

(5.2)

Basic earnings per share is calculated by dividing profit/(loss) for the period attributable to ordinary shareholders of the 
Company by the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the period. For diluted earnings per share, 
the weighted average number of shares is adjusted to allow for the effects of all dilutive share options and warrants outstanding 
at the end of the year. Options have no dilutive effect in loss-making years or in respect of discontinued operations.

The Group also presents an adjusted diluted earnings per share figure which excludes share-based payments charge, 
unrealised foreign exchange gains/(losses) on intercompany trading balances and non-recurring items from the measurement 
of profit for the period.

Continuing operations

Notes

2018

Continued earnings for the purposes of diluted EPS, being net loss 
attributable to equity holders of the parent company (£’000)
Adjustments: 
Reversal of share-based payments charge (£’000)
Unrealised foreign exchange gains/(losses) on intercompany 
trading balances
Reversal of non-recurring items (£’000)
Net adjustments (£’000)
Adjusted earnings (£’000)
Adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations (pence)

24

9

(1,643)

248

(151)
(619)
522
(2,165)
(3.0)

2017

461

237

252
—
489
950
1.6

The adjusted EPS information is considered to provide a fairer representation of the Group’s trading performance. Options have 
no dilutive effect in loss-making years.

76

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued12 Intangible assets

Cost 
At 1 January 2017
Exchange difference
Additions
At 31 December 2017
Exchange difference
Additions
Disposal of RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Disposal of Japan Geospatial services business
Disposal – other
At 31 December 2018
Accumulated amortisation
At 1 January 2017
Effects of movement in exchange rates
Charge for the year
At 31 December 2017
Effects of movement in exchange rates
Charge for the year
Disposal of SmartSpace business unit
Disposal of Japan Geospatial services business
Disposal – other
At 31 December 2018
Net book amount
At 31 December 2018
At 31 December 2017

Acquired
customer
relationships
and order
backlog
£’000

Acquired
software
products
£’000

Capitalised
product
development
costs
£’000

Software
£’000

Total
£’000

2,240
—
—
2,240
—
—
—
(2,240)
—
—

(2,240)
—
—
(2,240)
—
—
—
2,240
—
—

650
—
—
650
—
—
—
(650)
—
—

(650)
—
—
(650)
—
—
—
650
—
—

14,353
—
1,583
15,936
—
1,650
(11,139)
—
—
6,447

(11,010)
—
(2,210)
(13,220)
—
(1,839)
9,825
—
—
(5,234)

1,246
(69)
230
1,407
85
194
(355)
(403)
(906)
22

(973)
37
(225)
(1,161)
(79)
(186)
144
376
906
—

27,294
(69)
1,813
29,038
85
1,844
(14,750)
(5,872)
(906)
9,439

(23,678)
37
(2,435)
(26,076)
(79)
(2,025)
13,225
5,845
906
(8,204)

Goodwill
£’000

8,805
—
—
8,805
—
—
(3,256)
(2,579)
—
2,970

(8,805)
—
—
(8,805)
—
—
3,256
2,579
—
(2,970)

—
—

—
—

—
—

1,213
2,716

22
246

1,235
2,962

Capitalised product development costs relate to expenditure that can be applied to a plan or design for the production of 
new or substantial improvements to RTLS SmartSpace and myWorld products. On 31 December 2018 the RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit was disposed of and the remaining capitalised product development costs relate entirely to the myWorld products. 
The Group is loss making and this is an indicator for potential impairment of development costs. Management has completed 
impairment reviews through estimating the future discounted cash flows to be generated from these assets and concluded 
that no impairment is required as the cash flows exceeded the carrying value of the asset.

On 30 March 2018, the Group concluded the sale of its Japanese third party geospatial services business including the 
Geoplan brand name. The disposal of the business included historic and fully written down goodwill, acquired customer 
relationships and acquired software products.

The remaining average amortisation period for capitalised product development costs is two years.

The software assets represent assets purchased from third parties.

77

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201813 Property, plant and equipment

Cost 
At 1 January 2017
Effect of movements in exchange rates
Additions
Disposals
At 31 December 2017
Effect of movements in exchange rates
Additions
Disposal of RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Disposals – other
At 31 December 2018
Accumulated depreciation
At 1 January 2017
Effect of movements in exchange rates
Charge for the year
Elimination on disposals
At 31 December 2017
Effect of movements in exchange rates
Charge for the year
Disposal of RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Disposals – other
At 31 December 2018
Net book amount
At 31 December 2018
At 31 December 2017

Fixtures and fittings
£’000

Computer equipment
£’000

834
(9)
30
(122)
733
19
214
(760)
—
206

(295)
3
(221)
122
(391)
(15)
(117)
343
—
(180)

26
342

1,216
(19)
110
(15)
1,292
29
102
(864)
(383)
176

(1,010)
52
(196)
13
(1,141)
(35)
(95)
771
382
(118)

58
151

Total
£’000

2,050
(28)
140
(137)
2,025
48
316
(1,624)
(383)
382

(1,305)
55
(417)
135
(1,532)
(50)
(212)
1,114
382
(298)

84
493

14 Right-of-use assets 
The Group has early adopted IFRS 16 effective from 1 January 2018 and has recognised a right-of-use assets for leases 
previously classified as operating leases applying IAS 17.

Details of the Group’s right-of-use assets and their carrying amount are as follows:

Cost
Opening right-of-use asset recognised on adoption of IFRS 16
Effect of movements in exchange rates
Additions
Disposal of RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Cost at 31 December 2018
Depreciation
Effect of movements in exchange rates
Charge for the year
Disposal of RTLS SmartSpace business unit
Depreciation at 31 December 2018
Net book amount
At 31 December 2018

78

2018
£’000

3,002
—
63
(2,563)
502

23
(869)
648
(198)

304

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued15 Investments
At 31 December 2018, the Groups holds a rollover investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited as part of the consideration for 
the sale transaction of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit. Abyssinian Topco Limited is a UK registered company (company 
number 11649721) and is the parent company of Ubisense Limited which along with its subsidiary companies, comprise the 
RTLS SmartSpace business unit.

Investment as at 31 December 2017
Investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited
Investment as 31 December 2018

IQGeo Group plc holds approximately 5.6% of the ordinary share capital of Abyssinian Topco Limited.

16 Inventories

Raw materials
Finished goods
Total inventories

2018
£’000

—
—
—

£’000

—
2,000
2,000

2017
£’000

414
1,045
1,459

Inventory recognised as an expense was £2.8 million in 2018 (2017: £2.4 million) and is included within discontinued operations.

At 31 December 2017 the balance included £0.6 million impairment provision. As at 31 December 2018 the inventory was 
disposed of within the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business. 

17 Trade and other receivables

Trade receivables, gross
Allowances for expected credit losses
Trade receivables, net
Amounts recoverable on contracts
Other receivables
Prepayments
Corporation tax recoverable
VAT and taxation receivable
Total trade and other receivables

Notes

17.1
17.2

2018
£’000

1,535

—
1,535
610
915
485
—
41
3,586

2017
£’000

7,663
(1,460)
6,203
2,666
275
933
4
463
10,544

All amounts disclosed are short term. The carrying value of trade receivables is considered a reasonable approximation 
of fair value. 

The above comparative for impairment provisions refers to the IAS 39 measurement basis which applied an incurred loss 
model, whereas the current year applies IFRS 9 which is an expected loss model.

Amounts recoverable on contracts as at 31 December 2018 has reduced from the prior period due to the disposal of 
the RTLS SmartSpace business unit on 31 December 2018. The disposal balance sheet of the RTLS SmartSpace business 
unit includes £1.7 million relating to amounts recoverable on contracts as disclosed within note 6.3.

The following disclosures are in respect of trade receivables that are either impaired or past due. The individually impaired 
receivables mainly relate to customers who are in unexpectedly difficult economic situations, and are assessed on a 
customer-by-customer basis following detailed review of the particular circumstances. To the extent they have not been 
specifically provided against, the trade receivables are considered to be of sound credit rating.

79

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201817 Trade and other receivables continued
17.1 Movement in allowance for expected credit losses

At 1 January
Exchange differences
Amounts recovered in the year
Amounts written off in the year
Allowance released
Provided debts disposed of on 31 December 2018
Allowance made
At 31 December

2018
£’000

(1,460)
(25)
204
—
42
1,239
—
—

2017
£’000

(2,151)
50
519
217
30
—
(125)
(1,460)

As at 31 December 2017, the allowance includes £1,326,000 in respect of amounts owed by two entities in the Asia Pacific region. 
These debts were disposed of as part of the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit on 31 December 2018.

17.2 Ageing of past due but not impaired receivables

Neither past due nor impaired
Past due but not impaired:
0 to 90 days overdue
More than 90 days overdue
Total

18 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash at bank and in hand
Cash and cash equivalents

2018
£’000

1,533

2
—
1,535

2018
£’000

30,915
30,915

2017
£’000

4,784

1,084
335
6,203

2017
£’000

9,114
9,114

Included in the above figure is an amount of £27.1 million held on account with the Company’s lawyers following the 
completion of the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit. The funds meet the IAS 7 definition of cash being short-term, 
highly liquid investments and readily convertible into known amounts of cash. Cash held on account with the Company’s 
lawyers was transferred to the IQGeo GBP bank account on 2 January 2019.

Cash at bank earns interest at floating rates based on daily bank overnight deposit rates. Short-term cash deposits earn 
interest at fixed rates for the term of the deposit.

The composition of cash and cash equivalents by currency is as follows:

2018
£’000

29,076
—
1,030
5
804
30,915

2017
£’000

4,474
1,829
1,693
480
638
9,114

By currency

British Pound (GBP)
Euro (EUR)
US Dollar (USD)
Japanese Yen (JPY)
Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Cash and cash equivalents

80

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued19 Trade and other payables

Deferred income
Trade payables
Trade accruals
Other taxation and social security
Other payables
Total trade and other payables

2018
£’000

913
2,175
1,734
214
44
5,080

2017
£’000

2,386
3,040
2,840
768
76
9,110

All amounts disclosed are short term. The carrying value of trade payables is considered a reasonable approximation 
of fair value.

Deferred income as at 31 December 2018 has reduced from the prior period partially due to the disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace 
business unit on 31 December 2018. The disposal balance sheet of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit includes £0.4 million 
relating to deferred income as disclosed within note 6.3.

20 Lease obligation
The Group has early adopted IFRS 16 effective from 1 January 2018 and has recognised a lease liability at 1 January 2018 for 
leases previously classified as operating leases applying IAS 17. The Group has measured lease liabilities at the present value 
of the remaining lease payments, discounted using the Group’s incremental borrowing rate at the date of initial application.

Details of the Group’s liability in respect of right-of-use assets and their carrying amount are as follows:

Opening lease liability recognised on adoption of IFRS 16
Effect of movements in exchange rates
New leases entered into during the year
Finance costs incurred
Payments made during the year
Disposal of RTLS SmartSpace business unit
At 31 December 2018

Presented as:
Lease liability payable within 1 year
Lease liability payable in more than 1 year
At 31 December 2018

2018
£’000

3,002
23
63
96
(743)
(2,132)
309

232
77
309

21 Bank loans
In October 2016, an £8.0 million HSBC working capital facility was restructured, becoming a £4.0 million repayment loan 
with £0.75 million repayable each year. £0.75 million of this facility was repaid in each of December 2016, December 2017 
and 1 January 2018.

This loan was secured on the fixed and floating assets of the Group, attracted an interest charge of LIBOR + 3% and was subject 
to an operating covenant linked to “operating cash flow” performance (profit or loss before tax adding back any non-recurring 
items, finance costs, foreign exchange costs, share-based payments, depreciation, amortisation or capitalisation of product 
development). Following the placing in November 2017, the terms of the operating covenant were amended as follows: 2017 
– from nil to £2 million negative; 2018 – from £1 million positive to £2 million negative; 2019 – from £1 million positive to £1 million 
negative, 2020 and beyond – remained at £1 million positive.

On 31 December 2018, the debt and all outstanding interest in respect of the debt was fully settled and the bank’s security 
was released. The Group has no other bank debt.

81

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201822 Other payables

Property provisions
Total other payables

2018
£’000

—
—

2017
£’000

179
179

The property provision is a dilapidation provision to restore the UK offices to their original state. On 31 December 2018, the UK 
lease was held by the RTLS SmartSpace business and so the provision is no longer required following the sale of that business. 

23 Share capital and premium

Balance at 1 January 2017
Issued under share-based payment plans
Issued on placing to institutional shareholders
Change in year
Balance at 31 December 2017 
and 31 December 2018

Number of
ordinary shares
of £0.02 each

55,883,154
17,250
17,187,500
17,204,750

Share capital
£’000

Share premium
£’000

1,118
—
344
344

41,554
2
4,819
4,821

73,087,904

1,462

46,375

The Company has one class of ordinary shares which carry no right to fixed income.

Total
£’000

42,672
2
5,163
5,165

47,837

24 Share-based payments: options 
24.1 Equity-settled share-based payment arrangements
The Group operates a number of plans to award options over shares in the Company to incentivise high performing key 
employees of the Group periodically. 

Other than the December 2016 share option award set out in note 24.4, the options generally vest evenly over three years on 
the anniversary from the date of the grant or entirely on the third anniversary from the date of grant, depending on continuing 
service during the vesting period. The contractual life of the options is ten years from the date of grant after which they expire 
if unexercised.

24.2 Analysis of amounts recognised in the financial statements
(a) Analysis of amounts recognised in the consolidated income statement

Total share-based payments charge recognised in operating profit

The allocation between continuing and discontinued operations is as follows:

Share-based payments charge presented as continuing operations
Share-based payments charge presented as discontinued operations
Total share-based payments charge recognised in operating profit

(b) Analysis of amounts recognised in the consolidated statement of changes in equity in the year

Net share-based payments credit recognised in equity

(c) Cumulative amounts included within equity in the consolidated statement of financial position

Cumulative reserve credit for share-based payments

2018
£’000

303

2018
£’000

248
55
303

2018
£’000

303

2018
£’000

717

2017
£’000

316

2017
£’000

237
79
316

2017
£’000

316

2017
£’000

1,139

82

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued24 Share-based payments: options continued
24.3 Reconciliation of movements in equity-settled share-based payment arrangements in the year

Arrangement

Options

Award
date
Year

2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2016
2018

Vests
Years

2011–13
2012–14
2013–15
2014–16
2015–17
2017–19
2019–21

Expires
Year

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2026
2028

Total
Weighted average exercise price (£)

Exercise
price
£

Awards
outstanding
at 1 Jan 2018
Number

Granted
during
the year
Number

Exercised
during the
year
Number

Forfeited
during the
year
Number

Awards
outstanding
at 31 Dec 2018
Number

Awards
exercisable
at 31 Dec 2018
Number

322,672
0.140
108,700
1.050
75,500
2.125
93,600
2.055
2.250
65,000
0.020 5,600,000
0.555

—
—
—
—
—
—
— 350,000
6,265,472 350,000
0.555

0.123

2,500
8,500
5,000
15,750
20,000

320,172
—
100,200
—
70,500
—
77,850
—
—
45,000
— 350,000 5,250,000
350,000
—
—
6,213,722
— 401,750
0.138
0.260
—

320,172
100,200
70,500
77,850
45,000
—
—
613,722
0.914

24.4 Principal assumptions 
2016 granted share options
On 14 December 2016 IQGeo Group plc implemented a new long-term incentive share option plan for Executive Directors 
and key management. IQGeo Group plc granted 5,600,000 options of two pence each in the Company with an exercise price 
set at the nominal value. The options vest if the Company’s share price exceeds 70 pence for 60 consecutive calendar days 
between the second and third anniversary of issue and the period of employment continues for over three years.

The share options were valued using a Monte Carlo valuation model during 2017. The expected life is the expected period 
from grant to exercise based on management’s best estimate of the effects of non-transferability, exercise restrictions and 
behavioural considerations. The risk-free return is an average yield on the zero-coupon UK Government bond in issue at the 
date of grant with a similar life to the option. Volatility is estimated at the grant date based on the historical daily share price 
movements of the Company over a four-year period.

Within the 2018 financial statements a charge of £291,000 (2017: £316,000) has been recognised in respect of share options 
granted on 14 December 2016.

2018 granted share options
On 24 May 2018, 350,000 share options were issued at market value. The new share options were valued using a Black Scholes 
valuation model. The expected life is the expected period from grant to exercise based on management’s best estimate of the 
effects of non-transferability, exercise restrictions and behavioural considerations. The risk-free return is an average yield on 
the zero-coupon UK Government Bond in issue at the date of grant with a similar life to the option.

One third of the options will vest each anniversary of the grant date with 350,000 options being fully vested on 24 May 2021. 
The vesting conditions are that the individual must remain an employee of the Group on each vesting date.

The following assumptions were used in the model for options granted:

Instrument

Number granted
Grant date
Share price at grant date (£)
Exercise price (£)
Fair value per option (£)
Expected life (years)
Expected volatility (%)
Risk-free interest rate (%)
Expected dividends expressed as a dividend yield (%)

Option

350,000
24 May 2018
0.57
0.56
0.17
3
43.00
0.92
—

Within the 2018 financial statements a charge of £12,000 has been recognised in respect of share options granted on 
24 May 2018.

83

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201825 Operating lease commitments
Leases as lessee
The Group signed new short-term office rental agreements within Germany, Japan and the UK during November and 
December 2018. Pre-existing office premises within these regions were exited as part of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit 
disposal. The new leases entered into are 12 months or less and the Group will elect to not apply IFRS 16 to these leases due 
to their short-term nature. The 2019 operating expense presented within the consolidated income statement will include 
£191,000 of rent expense in respect of these leases. The obligations for the new short-term leases are reported within the 
table below.

The Group enters into these arrangements as these are a cost-efficient way of obtaining the short-term benefits of these assets.

IFRS 16 was adopted on 1 January 2018. The 2017 comparatives include operating lease commitments which have been 
classified as a lease liability within the consolidated statement of financial position during the 2018 period.

The Group’s future aggregate minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows:

No later than one year
Later than one year and no later than five years
Later than five years
Total

Land and
buildings
2018
£’000

Land and
buildings
2017
£’000

183
8
—
191

681
1,513
982
3,176

Other
2018
£’000

—
—
—
—

Other
2017
£’000

94

10

—

104

The above table reflects the committed cash payments under operating leases, rather than the expected charge to the 
income statement in the relevant periods.

26 Subsidiaries 
The Group consists of the parent company, IQGeo Group plc, incorporated in the UK, and a number of subsidiary companies 
which operate and are incorporated around the world. Information about the composition at the end of the reporting 
period is as follows:

Subsidiary

IQGeo UK Limited

Country of
incorporation

Principal activity

UK

Geospatial solutions

IQGeo Germany GmbH

Germany

Geospatial solutions

IQGeo America Inc.

US

Geospatial solutions

IQGeo Solutions Canada Inc.

Canada

Geospatial solutions

IQGeo Systems Limited

UK

Non-trading

IQGeo Japan K.K.

Japan

Geospatial solutions

Proportion
of ordinary
shares held
by Group
(%)

100

100

100

100

100

100

Registered office

CB1 Business Centre, 20 Station Road
Cambridge CB1 2JD, UK
Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 49, 60308 
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
999 18th Street, Suite 901, Denver,
CO 80202, United States
250 Howe Street, Suite 1400,
Vancouver, BC V6C3S7, Canada
CB1 Business Centre, 20 Station Road
Cambridge CB1 2JD, UK
Level 20 Marunouchi Trust Tower 
– Main 1-8-3 Marunouchi Chiyoda-ku, 
Tokyo, 100-005, Japan

All subsidiaries are directly held by IQGeo Group plc. All subsidiaries are 100% owned by the Group.

All subsidiaries prepare local statutory accounts up to 31 December each year. For subsidiaries which have a different 
financial year end to the Group, additional co-terminus accounts are prepared reflecting the same financial reporting 
as the Group for the purposes of consolidation.

84

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued26 Subsidiaries continued
Following the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business, the following entities were renamed to form part of the IQGeo group 
of companies: 

Entity name

IQGeo Group plc
IQGeo Systems Ltd
IQGeo Group Ltd
IQGeo America Inc.
IQGeo Solutions Canada Inc

Entity former name

Ubisense Group plc
IQGeo Group Ltd
Geospatial Systems Ltd
Ubisense Inc
Ubisense Solutions Inc

Effective date

2 January 2019
2 January 2019
4 December 2018
1 January 2019
30 November 2018

Disposed subsidiaries
The below table represents the list of group entities that were disposed of on 31 December 2018 as part of the sale of the 
RTLS SmartSpace business unit.

Subsidiary

Ubisense SAS

Country of
incorporation

Principal activity

France

Location solutions

Ubisense GmbH

Germany

Location solutions

Ubisense Limited

Ubisense America LLC

UK

US

Location solutions
 and Holding 
Company
Location solutions

Ubisense Canada Inc

Canada

Locations solutions

Ubisense Inc

Ubisense Japan K.K.  
(previously Geoplan Company Ltd)

Japan

Japan

Intermediate 
holding company
Location solutions

Proportion
of ordinary
shares held
prior to
disposal 
(%)

Registered office

100

100

100

52 Boulevard de Sébastopol,
75003 Paris, France
Franz-Rennefeld-Weg 6,
40472 Düsseldorf, Germany
90 St Andrews House, St Andrews Street
Cambridge CB4 1DL, UK

100

100

999 18th Street, Suite 901, Denver,
CO 80202, United States
250 Howe Street, Suite 1400,
Vancouver, BC V6C3S7, Canada
100 2nd Floor, Hongo TK Bldg. 1-28-10 Hongo
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
100 2nd Floor, Hongo TK Bldg. 1-28-10 Hongo
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

Binary Star Developments K.K.

Japan

Non-trading

100 2nd Floor, Hongo TK Bldg. 1-28-10 Hongo
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

On 30 March 2018, the Group concluded the sale of its Japanese third party geospatial services business including the Geoplan 
brand name for a gross consideration of JPY £100 million (£0.7 million). Alongside this transaction, the Group acquired the 23% 
minority interest of Ubisense Japan K.K. in March 2018. The acquisition of this non-controlling interest gave the Group 100% 
ownership of its remaining Japanese operations prior to its inclusion as part of the sale of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit.

Prior to the disposal, the Group owned 100% of all subsidiaries sold.

85

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201827 Related party transactions
27.1 Remuneration of key personnel
The key management has been assessed to be the Directors of the Group (Executive and Non-Executive) during the 2018 
and 2017 period.

During the year, there was an average number of seven key management personnel (2017: seven) and seven key management 
personnel at 31 December 2018 (2017: seven). The compensation paid or payable to key management for employee services 
is shown below:

Short-term employee benefits
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Performance payments
Other benefits

Post-employment benefits
Contributions to defined contribution pension arrangements
Share-based payments
Equity-settled share-based payments
Total key management compensation

2018
£’000

519
72
247

5
843

53

175
1,071

2017
£’000

565
71
70
4
710

56

178
944

27.2 Transactions with the Group related parties
There were no other related party transactions with Directors of the Company during 2018 or 2017 other than acquisition 
and disposal of shares described within the Directors’ report.

28 Financial risk management
28.1 Risk management objectives and policies
The Group is exposed to various risks in relation to financial instruments. The Group’s financial assets and liabilities by category 
are summarised within note 28.7. The main types of risks are market risk (including foreign currency risk), credit risk and liquidity 
risk. Interest rate risk is no longer considered a risk following the repayment of the HSBC loan on 31 December 2018. 

The Group’s risk management is co-ordinated at its headquarters, in close co-operation with the Board of Directors, 
and focuses on actively securing the Group’s short to medium-term cash flows. The Group does not actively engage in the 
trading of financial assets for speculative purposes. The most significant financial risks to which the Group is exposed are 
described below. 

28.2 Foreign currency risk management
The Group operates globally and undertakes certain transactions denominated in foreign currencies, predominantly in 
US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR) and Japanese Yen (JPY), exposing the Group to foreign currency risk. The Group’s risk management 
policy is to maintain natural hedges where possible, by matching foreign currency revenue and expenditure. The Group does 
not enter into forward exchange contracts to mitigate the exposure to foreign currency risk as the Group’s currency transactions 
are not considered significant enough to warrant this. 

Foreign currency denominated monetary assets and liabilities which expose the Group to currency risk are disclosed below. 
The amounts shown are those denominated in the local functional currency, translated into GBP at the closing rate.

Assets
Liabilities

Japanese Yen

US Dollars

Euros

2018
£’000

—
(19)

2017
£’000

—
—

2018
£’000

53
(7)

2017
£’000

142
—

2018
£’000

—
(9)

2017
£’000

194
(2)

All foreign currency financial assets and liabilities are classified as current.

86

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued28 Financial risk management continued
28.3 Foreign currency sensitivity analysis
The following table illustrates the sensitivity of profit and equity in regards to the Group’s financial assets and financial liabilities 
and the USD/GBP, EUR/GBP and JPY/GBP exchange rates “all other things being equal”. It assumes a +/-5% change in the 
GBP exchange rate against the relevant foreign currencies.

The sensitivity analysis includes only outstanding foreign currency denominated monetary items and adjusts their translation 
at the period end. A positive number indicates an increase in profit and equity.

Effect of a 5% appreciation of the local currency: 
Income statement
Equity
Effect of a 5% depreciation of the local currency:
Income statement
Equity

Japanese Yen

US Dollars

2018
£’000

2017
£’000

3
3

(3)
(3)

41
41

(37)
(37)

2018
£’000

181
181

(144)
(144)

2017
£’000

179
179

(162)
(162)

Euros

2018
£’000

—
—

—
—

2017
£’000

164
164

(148)
(148)

Exposure to foreign currency exchange rates varies during the year, depending on the volume of transactions. Nonetheless, the 
analysis above is considered to be representative of the Group’s exposure to currency risk.

28.4 Credit risk analysis
Credit risk is the risk that a counterparty fails to discharge a contractual obligation resulting in financial loss to the Group. 
The Group’s maximum exposure to credit risk is limited to the carrying amount of financial assets recognised at the reporting 
date, as summarised in note 28.7, which are principally cash and cash equivalents and trade receivables.

Cash and cash equivalents are held at banks with good independent credit ratings in accordance with the Group Treasury 
policy. The Group continuously monitors defaults of customers and other counterparties, identified either individually or by 
the Group, and incorporates this information into its credit risk controls. Where available at reasonable cost, external credit 
ratings and/or reports on customers and other counterparties are obtained and used. The Group’s policy is to deal only 
with creditworthy counterparties.

The Group’s management considers that its financial assets that are not impaired or past due for each of the reporting 
dates under review are of good credit quality. All receivables are subject to regular review to ensure that they are recoverable 
and any issues identified as early as possible. In order to manage credit risk the Directors set limits for customers based on 
a combination of payment history and third party credit references. Credit limits are reviewed by the credit controller on 
a regular basis in conjunction with debt ageing and collection history. In addition many of the Group’s customers, and 
approximately 80% by balance at any given time, are large utility companies and other blue-chip companies that would 
be considered a low credit risk. As a consequence management have determined that there is no expected credit loss in 
respect of trade receivables at 31 December 2018.

The amount of exposure to any single counterparty or a group of counterparties having similar characteristics is subject to a 
limit, which is reassessed periodically by management. At 31 December 2018, one customer individually accounted for more 
than 51% of the gross trade receivables balance which has been collected during 2019 (31 December 2017: more than 14%).

None of the Group’s financial assets are secured by collateral or other credit enhancements.

Details of certain trade receivables at 31 December 2018 that have not been settled by the contractual due date but are not 
considered to be impaired are included in note 17.2.

87

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 201828 Financial risk management continued
28.5 Liquidity risk analysis
Liquidity risk is the risk arising from the Group not being able to meet its obligations as they fall due. The Group seeks to 
manage this risk by regularly reviewing forecast inflows and outflows due in day-to-day business and investing cash assets 
safely and profitably. The data used for analysing these cash flows is consistent with that used in the contractual maturity 
analysis below.

Cash flow forecasting is performed at the subsidiary level and aggregated by Group finance. Rolling cash flow forecasts are 
used by the Group to monitor liquidity requirements to ensure it has sufficient cash to meet operational needs. The Group policy 
throughout the year has been to remit surplus working capital balances at the subsidiary level to Group treasury and place 
on short-term deposit or interest bearing reserve accounts and to draw down on borrowing facilities and distribute funds 
locally when required. As disclosed in note 21, the Group has no bank loan facilities as at 31 December 2018 (2017: £2.5 million 
facility, £2.5 million drawn down).

The Group considers expected cash flows from financial assets, predominantly cash and trade receivables, in assessing 
and managing liquidity risk. The Group’s cash and trade receivable resources at 31 December 2018 (see note 17) exceed the 
current cash outflow requirements.

As at 31 December 2018, the Group’s financial liabilities, including interest payments where applicable, have contractual 
maturities as summarised below:

As at 31 December 2018
Trade and other payables
Lease obligations
Other payables
As at 31 December 2017
Trade and other payables
Bank loan
Other payables

Current

Within
6 months
£’000

Between 6 and
12 months
£’000

Non-current

Between
1 and 5 years
£’000

Later than
5 years
£’000

5,312
 119
—

9,211
750
—

—
119
—

—
—
—

—
79
—

40
1,750
—

—
—
—

—
—
179

Financial assets used for managing liquidity risk
Cash flows from trade and other receivables are contractually due within three months in the majority of cases. Cash is 
generally held in accounts with immediate notice. Where surplus cash deposits are identified these are placed in accounts 
with access terms of no more than three months.

28.6 Capital risk management
The Group manages its capital to ensure that entities in the Group will be able to continue as a going concern while 
maximising the return to stakeholders and to maintain an optimal capital structure to reduce the long-term cost of capital. 
The capital structure of the Group consists of cash and cash equivalents and capital and reserves attributable to the owners 
of the Company, and the Group’s borrowing facilities.

In order to maintain or adjust the capital structure, the Group may issue shares, take on debt, sell assets to raise cash, adjust 
the amount of dividends payable to shareholders or return capital to shareholders.

The capital structure is continually monitored by the Group. The Group’s strategy is to have a capital structure that allows 
investment in long-term profitable growth, takes into account prevailing trading conditions and seeks to improve balance 
sheet efficiency over time. The Group is not subject to externally imposed capital requirements.

The Group has no bank facilities at 31 December 2018 (31 December 2017: £2.5 million).

88

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the consolidated financial statements continued28 Financial risk management continued
28.7 Categories of financial instruments
Details of the significant accounting policies and methods adopted, including the criteria for recognition, the basis of measurement 
and the basis on which income and expenses are recognised in respect of each class of financial asset, financial liability 
and equity instrument, are disclosed in the accounting policies in note 3. The carrying amounts presented in the consolidated 
statement of financial position relate to the following categories of financial instrument:

Financial assets
Fair value through other comprehensive income:
– Investments
Amortised cost: Loans and receivables:
– Trade receivables
– Amounts recoverable on contracts
– Other receivables
– Cash and cash equivalents
Total financial assets
Financial liabilities
Amortised cost:
– Trade payables
– Trade accruals
– Other payables
– Lease obligation
– Provisions
– Bank loans
Total financial liabilities

Notes

15

17
17
17
18

19
19
19
20
22
21

2018
£’000

2,000

1,535
610
915
30,915
35,975

2,175
1,734
44
309
—
—
4,262

2017
£’000

—

6,203
2,666
275
9,114
18,258

3,040
2,840
116
—
179
2,500
8,675

29 Post-balance sheet events
On 13 February 2019 Peter Harverson, Chairman and non-executive director, resigned as a director of the business. On the 
same day Paul Taylor was appointed as Chairman. 

IQGeo Group plc (AIM: IQG) announced that an application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for an extension 
to its block listing scheme in respect of 174,073 ordinary shares of 2p each (“Ordinary Shares”) to be admitted to trading on 
AIM. The admission became effective on 21 February 2019.

Under the Company’s block listing scheme, new Ordinary Shares are issued from time to time in order to satisfy the grant 
of awards under the Company’s 2006 Employers’ Share Option Scheme, Unapproved Options Agreement and US Incentive 
Stock Option Agreement.

30 Reconciliation of liabilities arising from financing activities

1 January 2018
Cash flows:
– Repayment
Non-cash
– Recognition on adoption of IFRS 16
– Additions
– Effect of moving exchange rates
– Interest applied to principle
– Disposal of the RTLS SmartSpace business

HSBC loan
£’000

2,500

(2,500)

—
—
—
—
—
—

Lease liability
£’000

—

(743)

3,002
63
23
96
(2,132)
309

Total
£’000

2,500

(3,243)

3,002
63
23
96
(2,132)
309

89

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Company balance sheet
for the year ended 31 December 2018

Fixed assets
Investments 
Current assets
Debtors falling due within one year
Debtors falling due after one year
Cash at bank and in hand

Creditors – amounts falling due within one year
Net current assets
Total assets less current liabilities
Net assets
Capital and reserves
Called-up share capital
Share premium account
Share-based payment reserve
Profit and loss reserve
Equity shareholders’ funds

Notes

3

4
4

5

6
7
7
7

2018
£’000

2,110

14,027
9,715
28,948
52,690
(6,207)
46,483
48,593
48,593

1,462
46,375
717
39
48,593

2017
£’000

9,808

10,189
1,059
10
11,258
(557)
10,701
20,509
20,509

1,462
46,375
1,139
(28,467)
20,509

The notes on pages 92 to 95 are an integral part of the Company financial statements.

As permitted by Section 408 of the Companies Act 2006, the Company has elected not to present its own profit and loss 
account for the year. IQGeo Group plc reported a gain for the financial year ended 31 December 2018 of £27,781,000 
(2017: £556,000 loss).

The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Directors on 10 April 2019 and signed on 
its behalf by:

Richard Petti 
Chief Executive Officer 

Tim Gingell 
Chief Financial Officer

IQGeo Group plc 
Registered Number: 05589712

90

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Company statement of changes in equity
for the year ended 31 December 2018

Balance at 1 January 2017
Total comprehensive loss for the year
Reserve credit for equity-settled share-based payment
Issue of new share capital
Premium on new share capital
Share issue costs
Transactions with owners
Balance at 31 December 2017
Total comprehensive profit for the year
Lapse of share options
Reserve credit for equity-settled share-based payment
Transactions with owners
Balance at 31 December 2018

Attributable to equity shareholders

Share
capital
£’000

1,118
—
—
344
—
—
344
1,462
—
—
—
—
1,462

Share
premium
£’000

41,554
—
—
—
5,158
(337)
4,821
46,375
—
—
—
—
46,375

Share-based
payment
reserve
£’000

823
—
316
—
—
—
316
1,139
—
(725)
303
(422)
717

Retained
earnings
£’000

(27,911)
(556)
—
—
—
—
(556)
(28,467)
27,781
725
—
28,506
39

Total
£’000

15,584
(556)
316
344
5,158
(337)
4,925
20,509
27,781
—
303
28,084
48,593

The notes on pages 92 to 95 are an integral part of the Company financial statements.

91

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the Company financial statements

1 Principal accounting policies
Basis of preparation
The financial statements of IQGeo Group plc have been prepared in compliance with United Kingdom accounting standards, 
including Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006. A summary of the significant accounting 
policies which have been reviewed by the Board of Directors is set out below.

The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention. 

The Company has taken advantage of the following disclosure exemptions in preparing these financial statements, as 
permitted by FRS 102, as it is a qualifying entity and its financial statements are included in the consolidated financial 
statements of IQGeo Group plc:

• 

• 

• 

• 

the requirements of Section 4 Statement of Financial Position 4.12(a)(iv);

the requirements of Section 7 Statement of Cash Flows;

the requirements of Section 3 Financial Statement Presentation, paragraph 3;

the requirements of financial instruments paragraphs 11.41(b), 11.41(c), 11.41(e), 11.41(f), 11.42, 11.44, 11.47, 11.48(a)(iii), 11.48(iv), 
11.48(b) and 11.48(c); and

• 

the requirements of Section 33 Related Party Disclosures, paragraph 33.7.

The Company has taken advantage of the exemption under FRS 102 paragraph 1.12(b), from preparing a statement of cash flows, 
on the basis that it is a qualifying entity and the consolidated financial statements of IQGeo Group includes the Company’s 
cash flows.

Share-based payments
The Company issues equity-settled share-based payments to certain employees of its subsidiaries. Vesting conditions 
are continuing employment and can include, for senior employees, a diluted EPS performance target or share price target. 
Equity-settled share-based payments are measured at fair value at the date of grant using an appropriate pricing model. 
The share-based payment is accounted for as a capital contribution to the subsidiaries. Investments in subsidiaries are 
increased by the aggregate amount of share-based payment with a corresponding increase in equity for the same 
amount. Information on share options which have been granted to Directors and employees are given in note 24 to 
the consolidated financial statements.

Investment in subsidiary companies
Fixed asset investments in subsidiary companies are stated at historical cost less provision for impairment. The Company 
assesses subsidiary investments for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying 
value of an investment may not be recoverable. If any such indication of impairment exists, the Company makes an estimate 
of the recoverable amount. If the recoverable amount of the cash-generating unit is less than the value of the investment, 
the investment is considered to be impaired and is written down to its recoverable amount. An impairment loss is recognised 
immediately in the profit and loss account.

Other investments
As part of the sale transaction of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit on 31 December 2018, the Group holds a rollover equity 
investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited (registered number: 11649721) which following the transaction, is the parent company 
of the RTLS SmartSpace business unit.

The Group has made the irrevocable election to account for the investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited at fair value through 
other comprehensive income (FVOCI). In the current financial year, the fair value was determined in line with the requirements 
of IFRS 9, which does not allow for measurement at cost.

Gains and losses arising from changes in fair value are recognised directly in equity. The cumulative gain or loss arising from 
changes in fair value, impairment or sale is not recycled to profit and loss.

Debtors
Short-term debtors are measured at transaction price, less impairment. Financial assets are measured subsequently at 
amortised cost using the effective interest method less any impairment.

Creditors
Short-term trade creditors are measured at transaction price. Other financial liabilities, including bank loans, are measured 
initially at fair value, net of transaction costs, and are measured subsequently at amortised cost using the effective interest rate.

92

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20181 Principal accounting policies continued
Deferred taxation
Deferred tax is provided in full on timing differences that result in an obligation at the balance sheet date to pay more tax, 
or a right to pay less tax, at a future date, at rates expected to apply when they crystallise based on current tax rates and 
law. Timing differences arise from the inclusion of items of income and expenditure in taxation computations in periods 
different from those in which they are included in financial statements. Deferred tax assets are recognised to the extent 
that it is regarded as more likely than not that they will be recovered. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are not discounted.

Critical accounting judgments and key sources of estimation and uncertainty
The Group makes estimates and assumptions concerning the future. The resulting accounting estimates will, by definition, 
seldom equal the related actual results. The estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material 
adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are addressed below.

The Group is loss making and this is an indicator for potential impairment of the investments in the trading subsidiaries 
of IQGeo Group plc. In undertaking impairment reviews, management is required to make assumptions of the future cash 
flows generated from its subsidiaries. This includes consideration of both the current business pipeline and estimations 
beyond the existing pipeline.

2 Profit and loss account
The Company does not have any employees (2017: nil). Directors’ emoluments are disclosed in note 27 of the consolidated 
financial statements. The Directors were not remunerated by the parent company.

Auditor’s remuneration attributable to the Company is as follows:

Audit fee – statutory audit
Other services

3 Investments

Cost and net book amount
At 1 January 2018
Additions to subsidiaries
Investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited
Capital contribution relating to share-based payments
Disposal
At 31 December 2018

2018
£’000

59
—
59

Investments in
subsidiaries
£’000

Other
investments
£’000

9,808
1,474
—
252
(11,424)
110

—
—
2,000
—
—
2,000

2017
£’000

39
2
41

Total
£’000

9,808
1,474
2,000
252
(11,424)
2,110

Capital contribution and impairment
The 2018 additions of £1.5 million relate to compensation of Ubisense GmbH for losses incurred during the year ended 
31 December 2017 under a domination agreement. Direct ownership of Ubisense GmbH was transferred to Ubisense Limited 
on 7 December 2018 as part of a group reorganisation. Ubisense Limited and its subsidiaries were sold as part of the RTLS 
SmartSpace business unit disposal on 31 December 2018.

As part of the sale transaction of the RTLS business unit, the Group holds a rollover investment in Abyssinian Topco Limited.

Capital contributions relating to share-based payments arise because the Company has granted share options to the 
employees of its various subsidiaries.

The Group is loss making and this is an indicator for potential impairment of its investments. Management has completed 
impairment reviews through estimating the future discounted cash flows to be generated from these assets and concluded 
that no further impairment is required as the cash flows exceed the value of the investment.

Further information about subsidiaries is provided in note 26 of the consolidated financial statements.

93

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Notes to the Company financial statements continued

4 Debtors

Debtors falling due within one year:
Amounts owed by subsidiary undertakings
Other debtors

Debtors falling due after one year:
Amounts owed by subsidiary undertakings

Total debtors

Interest is charged on debtors falling due after one year at a rate of 3% on the balance owed. 

Amounts owed by subsidiary undertakings are unsecured.

5 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Trade accruals
Amounts owed to subsidiary undertakings

6 Share capital

Allotted, called up and fully paid
Ordinary shares of £0.02 each

2018
Number

2017
Number

73,087,904

73,087,904

There have been no movements in share capital during the year.

2018
£’000

13,180
847
14,027

9,715
9,715
23,742

2018
£’000

1,431
4,776

6,207

2018
£’000

1,462

2017
£’000

10,189
—
10,189

1,059
1,059
11,248

2017
£’000

24
533
557

2017
£’000

1,462

7 Reserves
Share capital and share premium
Ordinary shares are classified as equity. Incremental costs directly attributable to the issue of new shares are shown in 
equity as a deduction, net of tax, from the proceeds. The nominal value of shares issued is classified as share capital and 
the amounts paid over the nominal value in respect of share issues, net of related costs, is classified as share premium.

Share-based payment reserve
The share-based payment reserve relates to a cumulative charge made in respect of share options granted by the 
Company to the Group’s employees under its employee share option plans.

Retained earnings
Retained earnings include all current and prior period retained profits/losses.

94

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 20188 Related party transactions
The Company takes advantage of the exemption under FRS 102 for transactions with wholly owned Group companies. 
There were no other related party transactions, other than the disposal of shares detailed within the Directors’ report. 

9 Post-balance sheet events 
On 13 February 2019 Peter Harverson, Chairman and Non-Executive Director, resigned as a director of the business. On the 
same day Paul Taylor was appointed Chairman.

IQGeo Group plc (AIM: IQG) announced that an application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for an extension 
to its block listing scheme in respect of 174,073 ordinary shares of 2p each (“Ordinary Shares”) to be admitted to trading on AIM. 
The admission became effective on 21 February 2019.

Under the Company’s block listing scheme, new Ordinary Shares are issued from time to time in order to satisfy the grant 
of awards under the Company’s 2006 Employers’ Share Option Scheme, Unapproved Options Agreement and US Incentive 
Stock Option Agreement.

95

STRATEGIC REPORTCORPORATE GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSIQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018Advisers

Registered office 
IQGeo Group plc
20 Station Road 
Cambridge CB1 2JD

Tel: +44 1223 606 655 
Website: www.iqgeo.com 

Nominated advisers and brokers 
finnCap 
60 New Broad Street 
London EC2M 1JJ

Lawyers 
Mills & Reeve LLP 
Cambridge Office 
Botanic House  
98-100 Hills Road  
Cambridge CB2 1PH 

Auditor 
Grant Thornton UK LLP
Cambridge Office  
101 Cambridge Science Park 
Milton Road  
Cambridge CB4 0FY 

Registrar 
Computershare Investor Services PLC
The Pavilions 
Bridgwater Road 
Bristol BS13 8AE 

Banker 
HSBC Bank plc
Vitrum 
St John’s Innovation Park 
Cowley Road 
Cambridge CB4 0DS

96

IQGeo Group plc Annual Report 2018IQGeo’s commitment to environmental issues is reflected in this annual report which has been 
printed on Novatech Silk, made from an FSC® certified and ECF (Process Chlorine Free) material. 
Printed in the UK by Proco using their environmental printing technology. Both manufacturing 
mill and the printer are registered to the Environmental Management System ISO14001 and are 
Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) chain-of-custody certified.

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IQGeo Group plc 
20 Station Road 
Cambridge CB1 2JD

www.iqgeo.com