A guidance downgrade dominated tech trading as Celebrus Technologies warned on revenue and profit for the year ahead, sending its shares sharply lower. Elsewhere the news was more encouraging: Synectics confirmed earnings will land at the top of its forecast range, Bango struck a new Korean telecoms partnership that lifted its shares double digits, and Tekcapital flagged record quarterly sales at portfolio company Innovative Eyewear.
Celebrus slashes FY27 guidance after customer loss
Celebrus Technologies (AIM:CLBS), the AIM-listed data solutions provider, told investors that results for the year ending 31 March 2027 will fall well below market expectations, triggering a collapse in its shares to 57.5p, down 39.791% on the day. The company now expects full-year revenue of between $20 million and $20.5 million, down from $23.6 million in FY26, with software revenue of $19.0 million to $19.5 million against $20.3 million a year earlier. Instead of the adjusted profit it booked last year, Celebrus now expects an adjusted loss before tax of between $2.8 million and $3 million for FY27.
The company said it had understood market consensus for FY27 to be revenue of $23.7 million and an adjusted loss before tax of $0.9 million, a gap now exposed by slower deal closing and the loss of a customer that exercised a contractual break after the first year of a three-year agreement. Half-year figures to 30 September point to total revenue of approximately $9.2 million, down from $10.4 million, even as software revenue grew to roughly $8.9 million from $7.9 million. Annual recurring revenue slipped 2.0% over the period to $14.7 million, as $0.9 million of reductions tied largely to the lost customer outweighed $0.6 million of new wins and upsells. Cash fell to $22.3 million at the half-year end from $32.5 million at the end of March, partly reflecting $3.2 million returned to shareholders via a buyback and a final dividend.
"We lost this customer due to imperfect execution on our part and have taken several learnings from this loss to avoid making the same mistakes in future projects," said Celebrus.
The scale of the miss, consensus revenue overshot by nearly $3.5 million and the swing from profit to a multi-million-dollar loss, raises hard questions about sales execution and contract retention just as the company had been building momentum on recurring revenue. A single customer loss exposing this much of the growth story suggests concentration risk in the client base that management will need to address convincingly before confidence in the recurring-revenue model can be rebuilt.
Synectics sees earnings toward top of range
Synectics (LSE:SNX), the AIM-listed security and surveillance technology group, said revenue for the year to 30 November will land in line with market expectations, with adjusted EBITDA expected at the top end of the previously guided £3.7 million to £4.1 million range. Shares eased to 167.5p, down 4.286%, despite the broadly reassuring update. The company pointed to stronger margins and a resilient, diversified business, alongside early gains from its "5P" strategy covering simplified product deployment, strengthened partner account management and tighter commercial discipline.
Uncertainty flagged at the August interim results persists: timing on Energy-market opportunities, particularly in the Middle East, remains unresolved, with those prospects now expected to extend into FY27 rather than contribute this year. Synectics said it continues to hold a significant pipeline in the sector despite the slippage.
"We are pleased to announce expected adjusted EBITDA at the top end of the range communicated at our interim results, particularly given that some of the Energy opportunities we had expected to contribute in FY26 are now moving into the new financial year," said Amanda Larnder, chief executive. The repeated deferral of Middle East Energy contracts is becoming a recurring feature of Synectics' reporting, and while the core business is absorbing the delay without denting full-year numbers, the eventual conversion of that pipeline remains the key swing factor for FY27 earnings.
Bango lands LG U+ partnership to expand Korean platform
Bango (AIM:BGO) has signed LG U+, a major South Korean telecoms provider with over 30 million wireless subscriptions, as the latest customer for its Digital Vending Machine platform, sending shares up 17.073% to 72.0p. The deal will see LG U+ use the DVM to rapidly add global and local subscription services to Udok, its existing platform letting customers discover, bundle and manage subscriptions spanning streaming, lifestyle, AI and education.
Bango's DVM underpins subscription bundling for telcos, banks and retailers, managing the full customer lifecycle from onboarding through upgrades, downgrades, cancellations and promotional offers. The Cambridge-based company has been pushing the platform across East Asia, and the LG U+ agreement extends that strategy, giving the telco flexibility to deploy new bundles as consumer preferences shift while gathering engagement data to refine its offering. Active DVM subscriptions reached 25.6 million in the six months to 30 June.
"The Bango DVM provides LG U+ the flexibility to rapidly add high-demand global and local subscription services and create sophisticated bundles, while reducing the complexity of launching and managing them, another important step in the global expansion of the Bango DVM," said Paul Larbey, chief executive. "LG U+ is building a compelling subscription proposition with Udok, giving customers access to a wide range of services and offers through a single platform," said Yongsung Cho, head of partnership business at LG U+. The win adds another major East Asian telco to Bango's reference list, reinforcing the DVM's credibility as it chases further regional deployments.
Tekcapital's Innovative Eyewear posts record quarterly sales
Tekcapital (LSE:TEK) highlighted that portfolio company Innovative Eyewear, the NASDAQ-listed smart eyewear maker behind the Lucyd brand, reported preliminary unaudited net sales of approximately $1.04 million for the third quarter, up roughly 55% year-on-year and the highest quarterly figure in its history. Tekcapital shares nonetheless fell 15.517% to 2.45p. The growth builds on a 163% year-on-year jump in the same period last year, extending the company's run to thirteen consecutive quarters of year-on-year revenue growth.
Nine-month net sales reached approximately $2.8 million, up roughly 66% year-on-year, already surpassing the $2.66 million Innovative Eyewear recorded for the whole of 2025. Growth in the quarter included a 25% rise in direct-to-consumer and online marketplace sales alongside the first shipments under new wholesale programmes, which the company expects to have a more meaningful impact from the fourth quarter into 2027, with three new sales channels opened during the period.
"We delivered the highest quarterly net sales in our history while intentionally running promotional pricing on older models and conserving advertising and marketing spend," said Harrison Gross, chief executive of Innovative Eyewear. "Our preliminary third quarter results reflect continued progress in executing our growth strategy," he added. The disconnect between the portfolio company's record sales and Tekcapital's own share price decline underscores how the investment vehicle's valuation continues to trade on sentiment beyond any single holding's performance.