Pinewood Technologies H1 profits rise, new mid-term guidance set

(Sharecast News) - Pinewood Technologies posted a rise in first-half profit and revenue on Wednesday as it set new medium-term guidance, but shares fell as the company pointed to a one-time accounting impact and the delay of an implementation with automotive dealer Marshall. Pinewood is a pure-play cloud-based software business providing retail solutions to the automotive industry.

In the six months to 30 June, underlying pre-tax profit rose 10% on the same period a year earlier to £4.4m, with underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation 14.5% higher at £7.9m.

Revenue grew 21.7% to £19.6m. Pinewood - which joined the FTSE 250 last week - said this was driven by increased client spend and the successful integration of the Seez AI solution.

Pinewood said its priority in the UK in the second half remains to continue the system implementations with Lookers and to begin the Marshall Motor Group implementation in the first quarter of 2026.

It said Pinewood.AI continues to look to add more Top 100 dealer groups to its customer base in the future.

"In agreement with Marshall, so that we can align the timing of a rollout of a number of IT projects in Marshall's systems, and therefore the Pinewood integration of systems, we have moved the start date for their implementation from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026," it said.

The company also said that following Pinewood.AI's buyout of Lithia's stake in Pinewood North America, there is expected to be a short-term accounting impact of about £1.3m for FY25, relating to income previously recognised on development work undertaken for the North American market.

With the timing change of the Marshall implementation, Pinewood now expects FY25 underlying EBITDA to be between £15.5m and £16m.

The group also introduced new medium-term FY28 guidance, targeting underlying EBITDA of £58m to £62m. It said this was underpinned by strong visibility from existing contracts and a significant pipeline of opportunities.

Chief executive Bill Berman said: "This has been another half of great progress for Pinewood.AI, delivering on our strategic objectives and positioning the business for continued accelerated growth. Our strong year-on-year performance reflects the onboarding of major new customers and increased spend across our existing customer base.

"During the period, we launched a new modern user experience which landed well with customers, and we are fully integrating Seez's impressive AI tools into the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence Platform. Taking full ownership of Pinewood North America LLC and the contract signed with Lithia marked major achievements in our growth strategy for this key market. Preparations for the US roll-out continue at pace, and we remain on track to pilot the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence platform later this year."

At 0935 BST, the shares were down 7.4% at 490p.

Berenberg, which rates the stock at 'buy', lifted the price target to 700p from 590p after the results.

It said that while there are temporary impacts to near-term numbers, the new guidance "represents a material upwards revision of medium-term market expectations".

Berenberg said Pinewood delivered "another period of excellent top-line growth, strong profitability and further strategic progress" and that the new outlook shows growth potential.

Jefferies said the results were "solid".

"While a roll-out delay will impact FY25 EBITDA, ambitious new FY28 guidance demonstrates the scale of the opportunity for the group," it said. "Having been restricted, we resume coverage at buy."