55% revenue growth
NEXTMap USA 60% collected
NEXTMap Europe 63% collected
Product Partnership Agreements for Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs)
Calgary, Alberta (February 21, 2008): Intermap Technologies Corp. (“Intermap” or the “Company”), today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2007. A conference call will be held tomorrow at 10:00 am Eastern time to discuss the results.
Financial Review
All amounts in this news release are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
For 2007, Intermap™ reported a 55% increase in total revenue to $33.8 million, as compared $21.8 million in 2006. Intermap's contract services revenue component grew 86% to $28.2 million and multi-client data licenses (MCDL) contributed $5.6 million, compared to $6.7 million in 2006. Approximately 80% of the MCDL revenue was associated with the Company's NEXTMap® USA program. NEXTMap® Britain accounted for 14% of MCDL revenues.
“Contract services revenue during the year was driven by several mapping contracts in Southeast Asia and a $12.5 million governmental contract announced during the third quarter,” stated Brian Bullock, president & CEO of Intermap. “As of December 31, 2007, we had also received over $8.8 million in signed contract services work where revenue will be recognized throughout 2008. In addition, we expect to receive new contracts during the year from several government entities around the world. The cash generated from these contracts helps support our ongoing investment in the NEXTMap® databases which reached record collection levels in 2007. We have now collected 60% of the U.S. and 63% of our Western European program. Germany, England, Wales, and Scotland are now commercially available.”
NEXTMap USA sales during the year included two large county sales in California and additional federal government sales for specified areas in the mainland U.S. and Hawaii. Intermap also received a $1.3 million contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for NEXTMap USA data in the Gulf Coast areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. To date, the NGA has licensed $6.1 million of multi-client data licenses from the NEXTMap database.
Cost of services expense for the year was $8.3 million compared to $7.9 million in 2006, reflecting the costs associated with the increased contract services work and with record data collection levels during the year.
Sales, general and administrative expenses for 2007 were $23.9 million compared to $19.0 million in 2006. The majority of this increase was attributed to investment in the areas of business development, sales, and marketing in support of automotive, personal navigation device (PND), and insurance risk assessment initiatives for the NEXTMap USA and NEXTMap® Europe programs.
Amortization expense of the MCDL database increased to $4.5 million from $3.1 million in 2006, primarily due to an increase in amortization associated with the NEXTMap USA dataset, which had approximately $16.7 million of additional costs capitalized to the asset during the year ended December 31, 2007.
After interest income of $2.3 million and a foreign exchange gain of $0.9 million for the year, Intermap reported a reduced net loss of $8.9 million, or ($0.22) per share, as compared to a net loss of $11.0 million, or ($0.30) per share, in 2006.
For Intermap's fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007, total revenues were $6.2 million compared to $6.6 million for the same period in 2006. NEXTMap revenue totaled $0.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to $1.2 million for the same period in 2006.
Fourth-quarter cost of services totaled $1.4 million in 2007 compared with $2.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, reflecting a decrease in the costs to operate aircraft and in the processing requirements for data related to contract services work.
Intermap reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 of $4.4 million, or ($0.08) per share, as compared to a net loss of $3.7 million, or ($0.10) per share for the fourth quarter of 2006.
Cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2007 were $56.8 million as compared to $48.2 million at December 31, 2006. The Company's working capital was $65.0 million compared with $51.0 million at December 31, 2006. In the fourth quarter of 2007, outstanding warrants from a March 2005 private placement were exercised with proceeds to the Company totaling $10.6 million.
NEXTMap USA
NEXTMap USA is the Company's largest project that includes terrain elevation and imagery data accurate to one-meter or better, covering nearly eight million square kilometers of the United States. In 2007, Intermap collected a total of 2.7 million square kilometers of data for its NEXTMap USA project. Of the total amount collected in 2007, approximately 690,000 square kilometers was collected in the fourth quarter. The total collected since the inception of the project is 4.8 million square kilometers, or 60% of the continental United States and Hawaii.
At the end of 2007, the NEXTMap USA project had data available off the shelf for the entire states of California, Florida, Mississippi and Hawaii. Partial datasets are available for Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The Company expects to have the collection portion of the NEXTMap USA project completed by the end of the second quarter in 2009. Processing of the NEXTMap USA map data will take an additional two quarters following the collection of the data. Through December 31, 2007, total cumulative license revenue for NEXTMap USA data has grown to approximately $12.0 million. During the year, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) purchased NEXTMap datasets to support preliminary environmental planning and engineering work on the design of a high-speed rail system linking northern and southern California.
NEXTMap Europe
NEXTMap Europe calls for the mapping of 17 European countries including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Irish Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, and Wales. Once completed, these datasets will be the most accurate 3D digital maps of Europe in existence.
Data collection for the NEXTMap Europe project in 2007 was 840,000 square kilometers and includes 241,000 square kilometers collected in the fourth quarter. This brings the total data collected since the inception of the project to approximately 1.5 million square kilometers or 63% of the total project. NEXTMap Europe now includes the entire countries of England, Germany, Scotland, and Wales. The entire NEXTMap Europe dataset is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2009.
NEXTMap Europe - Germany
Following commercial availability of Germany, Intermap signed an agreement to allow GAF AG, an international geo-information technology company located in Munich, to distribute NEXTMap data throughout Germany and the rest of Europe. GAF is one of the most important one-stop-shops in Germany for commercial remote sensing data and a variety of geospatial products.
In addition, in early 2008, E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH, Germany's third-largest wireless network provider, purchased NEXTMap Germany datasets to determine precise mobile phone tower placements, accurate predictions of field strength and coverage, and optimized antennae locations and characteristics using Intermap's 3D digital mapping data. This application of NEXTMap data results in a higher level of service for mobile phone customers. “As individual countries are completed in Europe, we expect further revenue opportunities to close,” stated Mr. Bullock.
Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs)
In the third quarter of 2007, Intermap launched AccuTerra™, a product that provides existing outdoor GPS and personal navigation device (PND) products with detailed maps, land coverage, digital terrain data and off-road points-of-interest (POI). The Company has no plans to build a PND or GPS device; rather it will offer AccuTerra recreational content under license to manufacturers of these devices.
Intermap has entered into relationships with two of the top three crossover PND OEMs, announcing in February 2008 an agreement to offer Magellan customers access to Intermap's AccuTerra recreational content — including clear markings for public and private property − for a new line of Magellan GPS devices. AccuTerra will be available for purchase directly from the Magellan Web site. “Our customers can now transform their recreational experience with the most feature-rich map data available on the market today — all in one powerful device,” said Christian Bubenheim, vice president of product marketing for Magellan.
Intermap has also announced a similar relationship with Bushnell Outdoor Products. Bushnell users will be able to access Intermap's AccuTerra recreational map data for the contiguous 48 states and Hawaii.
Both companies are expected to release devices that leverage AccuTerra data in 2008.
Intermap is developing a 3D version of AccuTerra to allow users to visualize trails and other features in the context of the natural terrain where they exist — all in three dimensions. “We are excited about our new PND relationships and optimistic about the increasing interest in our data,” said Mr. Bullock. “Market acceptance of AccuTerra has exceeded our expectations. Intermap is in discussions with other PND manufacturers also looking to enter the GPS crossover and 3D PND segment. The evolution of PNDs to 3D will improve the user experience for off-road vehicles, hikers, hunters, fishermen, skiers, and mountaineers. Rapidly increasing development in 3D visualization is driving consumer awareness and market adoption.”
3D Visualization for the Web and Computer Games
Map and location-related searches on the Web are some of the most frequent searches requested today. In 2007, Microsoft launched an enhanced Virtual Earth™ 3D Web-based viewing platform based on Intermap Technologies' data for all of Great Britain. The resulting product delivers a more seamless and accurate 3D experience for all Internet users visiting Microsoft's Live Search Maps for England, Scotland, and Wales.
“The relationship with Microsoft paves the way for the delivery of additional value-added products for the business and consumer markets within Great Britain, Europe, and the U.S.,” said Mr. Bullock. “Every feature of the landscape has a GPS location that is known to an accuracy of less than two meters. The number of potential applications is enormous.”
Intermap's data recently entered the computer games industry when it signed an agreement with FS Dreamscapes for the creation of highly detailed 3D terrain of the United States and Europe called “NEXTMap®ProMesh™” for Microsoft Flight Simulator X. With a vertical accuracy of better than one meter, the data will provide users with a uniquely realistic viewing experience. “The terrain detail we're able to achieve on such a large scale is unprecedented,” said Dean Mountford, FS Dreamscape's president and CEO. “For the user, it will be like looking out the window of an actual aircraft in flight.”
FS Dreamscapes will first bring to market the flight simulator product for Hawaii, quickly followed by California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. Data for Germany, Italy and France is scheduled for delivery by the end of 2008. The remainder of the contiguous United States will be available in 2009.
Insurance Market
Intermap is developing a version of its successful flood modeling application pioneered in Great Britain for other European countries. During the third quarter, Intermap reached an agreement with SwissRe for use of their flood modeling algorithms within the application and for SwissRe quality assurance support for all of Europe.
Intermap is marketing its easy-to-use 3D visualization tool that's currently being used for flood risk applications in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The Company has recently completed a demonstration model of certain sections of Germany and Switzerland for the insurance market.
Insurance companies can use NEXTMap's superior flood risk information to better define possible risks, and thus can better manage portfolios and their own purchase of reinsurance coverage. The result can be a net reduction of annual costs and much better management of risk. Intermap is also in discussions with U.S. insurers for commercial insurance applications.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)
To enable automotive safety applications, Intermap is creating road centerlines for all classes of roads in the U.S. and Europe. During 2007, Intermap announced demonstrator agreements with several industry partners in support of emerging Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications with Intermap's 3D road vector data. The NEXTMap database provides a reliable source of information that allows an automobile's electronic system to anticipate the road ahead. Awareness of pending road geometry provides a tremendous input to visualization, performance, and advanced driver assistance applications.
Intermap has provisioned a grant to Auburn University to investigate and evaluate ways to save fuel using the Company's GIS 3D road geometries. The project's initial focus was on achieving simulation results and designing a predictive cruise controller and automatic gear shifting algorithm to calculate optimal vehicle speed and gear selection that improves fuel economy and operating costs for large trucks. Initial simulation results have led to a continuation of this collaborative study with not only Auburn University, but also with commercial partners in the trucking industry. Intermap has also commissioned a project at Clemson University to conduct the same investigations for hybrid vehicles.
Detailed financial results for the quarter and management's discussion and analysis can be found on SEDAR at: www.sedar.com.
A pdf copy of this release, along with financial details, is available by clicking here.
Conference Call February 22, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. EST (8:00 a.m. MST)
A slide presentation accompanies Intermap's conference call on February 22, 2008 at 10 a.m. EST (8 a.m. MST, 3 p.m. GMT). To link to the slide presentation, visithttp://events.snwebcastcenter.com/intermap/20080222/
To participate in the call, please dial 416-850-9144 or 1-866-400-3310 approximately 10 minutes prior to the conference call. A recording of the conference call will be available through March 2, 2008. Please dial 416-915-1035 or 1-866-245-6755 and provide the password 439034 to listen to the rebroadcast. An audio Webcast of the teleconference will also be available on Intermap's Website.
About Intermap Technologies
Intermap (TSX: IMP.TO, AIM: IMAP.L) is a preeminent digital mapping company creating uniform high-resolution 3D digital models of the earth's surface. The Company is proactively remapping entire countries and building uniform national databases, called NEXTMap®, consisting of affordably priced elevation data and geometric images of unprecedented accuracy. Demand for NEXTMap data is growing as new commercial applications emerge within the GIS, engineering, automotive, personal navigation device, insurance risk assessment, oil and gas, hydrology, environmental planning, wireless communications, transportation, aviation and 3D visualization markets.
Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap employs more than 660 people worldwide, with additional offices in Calgary, Detroit, Jakarta, London, Munich, Ottawa, Prague, and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.intermap.com.
NEXTMap® is a registered trademark of Intermap Technologies Corporation.
For more information, please contact:
Intermap Technologies
Richard Mohr, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
(303) 708-0955
Canada — Financial
Corbet Pala, Investor Relations
E-vestor Communications Inc.
(416) 657-2400
United States — Financial
Budd Zuckerman, Investor Relations
Genesis Select Corporation
(303) 415-0200
United Kingdom — AIM, Nominated Advisor
Canaccord Adams Limited
Andrew Chubb
Clayton Bush
+44 (0) 207 050 6500
Intermap Reader Advisory
Certain information provided in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You can find a discussion of such risks and uncertainties in our Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law.