via NewMediaWire --
NextPlay Technologies, Inc.
(NASDAQ: NXTP), a digital business ecosystem for
digital advertisers, consumers, video gamers and travelers,
reported results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 ended
February 28, 2022.
Fiscal 2022 Financial
Highlights
●
Achieved record annual revenue of $8.2 million, which compares very
favorably to no revenue in the last year.
●
Consolidated gross profit totaled $5.9 million, or 71%, of total
revenue compared to none in the last year.
● As of
February 28, 2022, and 2021, we had total assets of $99.8 million
and $11.5 million, respectively, primarily as a result of the
reverse merger and additional acquisitions of Reinhart Interactive
TV AG and Zappware N.V. and NextBank International.
● Cash and cash
equivalents as of February 28, 2022, were $6.6 million versus $0.4
million as of February 28, 2021.
Fiscal 2022 Operational
Highlights
●
Completed merger with HotPlay Enterprises and rebranded the company
as NextPlay Technologies.
● In
connection with the HotPlay Enterprises Merger, Nithinan “Jess”
Boonyawattanapisut, NextPlay’s Co-Chief Executive Officer, was
appointed as Principal Executive Officer of NextPlay.
●
Reinhart Interactive TV, a NextPlay-funded strategic partnership,
acquired award-winning Interactive TV provider, Zappware, founded
in 2001 by former employees of Philips Media.
●
Acquired controlling interest in International Financial Enterprise
Bank (IFEB), a global financial institution.
●
Received conditional approvals for insurance and reinsurance
licenses enabling NextPlay’s NextShield LTD business unit to
establish digital primary insurance and reinsurance operations and
to offer blockchain-delivered products, such as parametric
comprehensive travel insurance and bank deposit insurance.
●
Company’s licensed Longroot digital token offering platform engaged
to serve as the financial advisor and underwriter for Ample’s
proposed security token offering (STO).
●
Launched NextPlay X Soma Labs, an innovation and design platform
bringing together non-fungible tokens (NFTs), social games, and
Metaverse virtual worlds for major brands, creators, and
agencies.
●
Entered into agreement to acquire from Fighter Base Publishing the
assets and AI-powered video game development platform of its wholly
owned division, Make It Games™, which was closed
subsequent to the fiscal year end.
●
Appointed Mark Vange, an industry leader in video game development
and in-game advertising and former chief technology officer of
Electronic Arts Interactive, as chief technology officer of the
company.
● ABCC
- Signed a memorandum of understanding with Alphabit
Consulting Pte. Ltd. to provide NextBank International deposit
accounts and payment cards for members of its ABCC
cryptocurrency exchange.
Subsequent events
● Signed memorandum
of understanding with TruCash to launch NextBank Payments,
which is anticipated to include (but not be limited to) Mobile
Wallets, Mobile Payments, Credit cards, Debit Cards, and Prepaid
products. In addition, NextBank expects to have the opportunity to
offer NextBank's international banking services to TruCash's
millions of account holders worldwide.
●
Signed preliminary agreement with Decentralised
Investment Group (DIG), a leading global blockchain technology
company, to develop and operate an exclusive fiat payment platform
for DIG customers, and would initially include in-game assets from
Realms of Ethernity (RoE), the world’s first MMORPG (massively
multiplayer online role-playing games) NFT game.
● Acquired goPlay
assets, including a new-gen game publishing platform featuring a
tournament system, chat, payment, and 37 casual games ranging from
arcade to strategy. NextPlay plans to complete the integration of
its HotPlay in-game advertising (IGA) technology into the 37 goPlay
games by year-end. The Asset purchase also included a perpetual
license to goPay, a payment aggregator that offers game developers
multiple ways to more easily collect and process user payments
through carrier billing, over the counter, e-voucher, bank transfer
and e-wallet transfers.
Management Commentary
“The significant increase in our gross margin
expansion demonstrates how we continue to more efficiently utilize
and better leverage all of the components we brought into our
ecosystem via several synergistic acquisitions that we did last
year. During the fourth quarter, a lot more effort was allocated to
actual platform development to leverage the foundation we have laid
out in the last quarter further in order to increase the array of
services we will be offering to our customers. Separately, we
reached agreements with several key partners for product rollout
collaboration and cross-selling products to their existing
customers,” commented NextPlay Co-CEO and Principal Executive
Officer, Nithinan “Jess” Boonyawattanapisut.
“During our fiscal 4th quarter, 2022, our digital
interactive media division, NextMedia, delivered an updated version
of Blockbuster 2048, its first in-house casual game and the first
of the 16 games currently in the pipeline, including Evergreen
Forest, Rolly Loops, Skyline Stack, Hook’n Hop, Booster Maths, that
are also expected to be released in fiscal 2023 to iOS and Android
app stores. All of these games will come with cross-platform
capability. In conjunction, we have now released HotPlay 2.0, with
advertising and real-world rewards delivery technology for
businesses, with significantly enhanced integration and
deep-linking support into Unity games, via a generational update of
its Unity SDK for iOS, Android, Android TV and HTML5.
“HotPlay 2.0 is being incrementally opened to
selected partners while it continues its steady progression towards
the delivery of a global platform for all actors via its connected
ecosystem of back-office tools for advertisers (with Advertiser
Portal), game publishers (with Publisher Portal and its Unity Game
SDK), and apps for consumers and players (including its HotPlay
Reward Redemption native mobile app for iOS and Android).
“With the continued development of the HotPlay
platform and integration of the MakeItGames AI animation platform,
we anticipate the platform will introduce disruptive and
game-changing capabilities to game, virtual reality, Metaverse and
other immersive experiences for partners.
“Our Fintech division comprises our insurance,
reinsurance, online banking, and crypto portal operations.
The division has been our most active division in terms of new
business development and revenue generation. NextBank’s revenue
grew more than 206% compared to Q3 of FY 2022. The team continues
to bring forth a diversified set of Fintech solutions to the market
that are expected to offer asset banking, asset management, mobile
payment, and a range of retail banking services to customers around
the world. Our online banking platform with a new and more robust
core banking system is scheduled to be available by the 1st half of
fiscal 2023. Once implemented, we expect to see a significant
acceleration, and multiple folds of growth, in the number of
customers, amounts of deposits, and revenue generation. We expect
NextBank profitability this year.
“NextBank welcomes blockchain industry
participants and is focused on providing enabling capabilities to
clients in the DeFi, NFT, and exchange verticals. We also plan to
issue our own digital insurance tokens, which are expected to allow
customers to purchase any of our insurance products, as well as a
series of stable coins to facilitate remittance services that
NextBank will provide. We expect the Fintech division to contribute
significantly to earnings in FY 2023 whereby NextPlay as a whole
would turn a profit, driven initially by NextBank’s results.
“Our travel division achieved several milestones
in the 4th quarter of FY 2022, to position the company for growth.
We have recently completed integrations on ConNextions, NextTrip’s
alternative lodging rental booking engine, with several key
distribution partners. We released several new features for
NextTrip Business, our corporate travel management and booking
solution for small and medium-sized businesses, including travel
delegate, which allows a traveler to assign someone to book on
their behalf. Additionally, with the travel industry recovery
continuing to be driven by leisure travel, we have accelerated the
development of new leisure products under the NextTrip Journeys
brand, which we expect will better position NextTrip in several
travel categories to capture increased bookings.
“The $30 million equity offering we completed in
November 2021 fortified our balance sheet and supported our many
growth initiatives, as well as allowed us to significantly
deleverage the company; we paid back a significant portion of the
high-interest loans. We continue to put an ongoing effort towards
eliminating redundant systems and processes due to recent
acquisitions. Our goal is to reduce our monthly burn by at least
30% by third quarter. We are focused on reductions in SG&A
expenses and progression to positive cash flow by the end of the
second half of fiscal 2023.
“With the support of our shareholders, we have
completed our previously announced acquisition of certain
game-industry intellectual property from Fighter Base Publishing
Inc. and certain distributed ledger intellectual property from
Token IQ Inc. Both entities were majority-owned by NextPlay’s Chief
Technology Officer, Mark Vange, who is a visionary leader in both
industries.
“We have already begun to implement Token
IQ’s technology to our products and services, from our
Longroot asset-based cryptocurrencies, our digital insurance tokens
and HotPlay in-game tokens, to future NextBank fintech
services. Fighter Base Publishing’s AI-driven animation
technology has been adopted to accelerate the game production
cycle, and we have separately established a dedicated team to
further develop this AI technology to cover the appearance of the
advertising content within the virtual world, cross-platform games
and Metaverses, to ensure proper presentation of the advertising
content in the right place at the right time and, most importantly,
in the right form, i.e. in 2D, 3D and/or animated
objects.
“This coming fiscal 2023, we expect to be
exceptionally well-positioned for growth across our ecosystem. We
see near-term revenue growth and margin expansion being further
fueled by new HotPlay and NextBank deployments, and we believe that
these developments should steadily advance us toward strong cash
flow and profitability.”
Fiscal Q4 2022 Financial
Summary
Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022
totaled $1.4 million, a decrease of 67% from $4.2 million in the
previous quarter and compares very favorably to no revenue in the
same year-ago quarter. The quarter over quarter decrease was
primarily due to certain reclassification from revenue to other
operating income.
NextMedia, the company’s digital interactive media
division, contributed revenue of $0.5 million, driven by organic
growth of digital media globally. The company’s NextFinTech
division contributed revenue of $0.9 million, and the NextTrip
travel division contributed revenue of $38,000.
Operating expenses totaled $8.7 million, compared
to $0.6 million in the same year-ago period. The increase was
primarily due to legal, consulting, and professional fees related
to certain pre-operating activities and employee expenses in the
period.
Net loss attributable to the Company was $19.7
million, or $(0.27) per basic and diluted share, as compared to a
net loss of $0.5 million, or $(3.70) per basic and diluted share,
in the same year-ago period, which only represented HotPlay’s
financials per accounting standard.
Fiscal Year 2022 Financial
Summary
Revenue for the full year of fiscal 2022 totaled
$8.2 million compared to no revenue in fiscal 2021.
NextMedia, the company’s digital interactive media
division, contributed revenue of $6.5 million. The company’s
NextFinTech division contributed revenue of $1.6 million, and the
NextTrip travel division contributed revenue of $0.2
million.
Consolidated gross profit totaled $5.9 million, or
71% of revenue, as compared to none in the same period a year
ago.
Operating expenses totaled $26.5 million, compared
to $1.0 million in the same year-ago period, which only represented
HotPlay’s financials per accounting standard. The increase was
primarily due to business acquisitions, legal, consulting, and
professional fees related to certain pre-operating activities and
employee expenses in this fiscal year.
Net loss before tax and share of non-controlling
interest is $40.4 million, of which $19.7 million are other
expenses primarily related to asset impairments, valuation/credit
losses, and interest. Net loss attributable to the Company was
$38.0 million, or $(0.40) per basic and diluted share, as compared
to a net loss of $1.2 million, or $(0.02) per basic and diluted
share in the same year-ago period, which only represented HotPlay’s
financials per accounting standard.
Cash and cash equivalents as of February 28, 2022,
totaled $6.6 million.
The company’s annual report for the year ended
February 28, 2022, and other reports the company files with the
SEC, including reports on Forms 10-Q, 10-K and 8-K, can be accessed
at sec.gov and on NextPlay’s website in the IR
section.
About NextPlay
Technologies
NextPlay Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTP) is a
technology solutions company offering games, in-game advertising,
crypto-banking, connected TV and travel booking services to
consumers and corporations within a growing worldwide digital
ecosystem. NextPlay’s engaging products and services utilize
innovative AdTech, Artificial Intelligence and Fintech solutions to
leverage the strengths and channels of its existing and acquired
technologies. For more information about NextPlay Technologies,
visitwww.nextplaytechnologies.com and follow us
on Twitter @NextPlayTech andLinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of, and within the safe harbor
provided by the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of
1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements give our current
expectations, opinions, belief or forecasts of future events and
performance. A statement identified by the use of forward-looking
words including “will,” “may,” “expects,” “projects,”
“anticipates,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimate,” “should,” and
certain of the other foregoing statements may be deemed
forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the
expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are
reasonable, these statements involve risks and uncertainties that
may cause actual future activities and results to be materially
different from those suggested or described in this news release.
Factors that may cause such a difference include risks and
uncertainties including, and not limited to, our need for
additional capital which may not be available on commercially
acceptable terms, if at all, which raises questions about our
ability to continue as a going concern; the fact that the COVID-19
pandemic has had, and is expected to continue to have, a
significant material adverse impact on the travel industry and our
business, operating results and liquidity; amounts owed to us by
fourth parties which may not be paid timely, if at all; certain
amounts we owe under outstanding indebtedness which are secured by
substantially all of our assets and penalties we may incur in
connection therewith; the fact that we have significant
indebtedness, which could adversely affect our business and
financial condition; our revenues and results of operations being
subject to the ability of our distributors and partners to
integrate our alternative lodging rental (ALR) properties with
their websites, and the timing of such integrations; uncertainty
and illiquidity in credit and capital markets which may impair our
ability to obtain credit and financing on acceptable terms and may
adversely affect the financial strength of our business partners;
the officers and directors of the Company have the ability to
exercise significant influence over the Company; stockholders may
be diluted significantly through our efforts to obtain financing,
satisfy obligations and complete acquisitions through the issuance
of additional shares of our common or preferred stock; if we are
unable to adapt to changes in technology, our business could be
harmed; our travel business depends substantially on property
owners and managers renewing their listings; if we do not
adequately protect our intellectual property, our ability to
compete could be impaired; our long-term success depends, in part,
on our ability to expand our property owner, manager and traveler
bases outside of the United States and, as a result, our business
is susceptible to risks associated with international operations;
unfavorable changes in, or interpretations of, government
regulations or taxation of the evolving ALR, Internet and
e-commerce industries which could harm our operating results; risks
associated with the operations of, the business of, and the
regulation of, Longroot and NextBank International (formerly IFEB);
the market in which we participate being highly competitive, and
because of that we may be unable to compete successfully with our
current or future competitors; our potential inability to adapt to
changes in technology, which could harm our business; the
volatility of our stock price; the fact that we may be subject to
liability for the activities of our property owners and managers,
which could harm our reputation and increase our operating costs;
and that we have incurred significant losses to date and require
additional capital which may not be available on commercially
acceptable terms, if at all. More information about the risks and
uncertainties faced by NextPlay are detailed from time to time in
NextPlay’s periodic reports filed with the SEC, including its most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q, under the headings “Risk Factors”. These reports are
available at www.sec.gov. Other unknown or unpredictable factors
also could have material adverse effects on the Company’s future
results and/or could cause our actual results and financial
condition to differ materially from those indicated in the
forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance
and actual results or developments may differ materially from those
projected. The forward-looking statements in this press release are
made only as of the date hereof. The Company takes no obligation to
update or correct its own forward-looking statements, except as
required by law, or those prepared by fourth parties that are not
paid for by the Company. If we update one or more forward-looking
statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make
additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking
statements.
SOURCE: NextPlay Technologies, Inc.
Company Contacts:
Richard Marshall
Director of Corporate Development
NextPlay Technologies, Inc.
Tel (954) 888-9779
Email: richard.marshall@nextplaytechnologies.com
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