Tuesday's technology news flow centred on resilience amid pockets of weakness, with GBG (GBG) reaffirming its full-year outlook even as its Americas Identity business continued to struggle, while Shearwater Group landed a seven-figure government cybersecurity contract and XP Power pointed to record order intake as grounds for raising its guidance.
GBG confirms FY27 outlook despite Americas Identity drag
GBG (GBG), the global identity and location technology business, expects first-half revenue of £139.5m for the six months to 30 September, up 1.4% on a constant currency basis, with growth concentrated in the Location and Identity divisions that together make up around 95% of group revenue. The update, delivered against a backdrop of a previously flagged weak spot in the Americas, lands as the shares trade at 156.6p, down 0.886% on the day, with investors weighing continued softness in one division against broader signs of stability elsewhere in the business.
Location revenue rose 8.9% on a constant currency basis, driven by enterprise channel partnerships and strength in the APAC region, while Identity grew 2.4%, with double-digit growth outside the Americas led by EMEA gaming and financial services and the ramp-up of new GBG Go customers. Americas Identity remained the soft underbelly of the results, with attrition among a small number of material direct customers continuing to weigh on the division, and further detail on recovery actions promised at the interim results. The non-core Global Fraud Solutions unit, around 5% of revenue, declined more sharply than expected on the timing of licence renewals, higher churn and fewer new wins, though GBG said it remains profitable and cash generative while strategic options are reviewed. First-half adjusted operating profit is expected at £27m, down from £29.5m a year earlier, reflecting continued investment in GBG Go, alongside around £4.5m of exceptional costs tied to accelerated cost efficiency actions and an anticipated non-cash goodwill impairment linked to the Americas Identity business.
"Our resilient performance, led by strong growth in Location, EMEA Identity and the momentum behind GBG Go, demonstrates that the business fundamentals are strong and that our capabilities are highly trusted by customers across attractive, structurally growing markets," said Dev Dhiman, Chief Executive.
The reaffirmed guidance, FY27 revenue growth of 1-3% and adjusted operating profit in line with current market expectations, suggests management believes the Americas Identity problem is contained rather than spreading, with cost efficiency measures doing the heavy lifting to protect margins while GBG Go investment continues toward its planned conclusion by year-end. The goodwill impairment, though non-cash and excluded from adjusted profit, is a tacit acknowledgment that the Americas business is worth less than once assumed, and the strategic review of Global Fraud Solutions leaves open the possibility of further portfolio simplification. For now, the market's muted reaction suggests confidence that Location and EMEA Identity can keep offsetting the drag, but the interim results will be the real test of whether the recovery actions in the Americas are gaining traction or merely buying time.
Shearwater's Brookcourt wins £1.7m government threat intelligence deal
Shearwater Group (AIM:SWG), the AIM-listed cybersecurity, advisory and managed security services group, said subsidiary Brookcourt Solutions has secured a £1.7m contract with an existing Central Government customer to supply advanced threat intelligence capabilities over a two-year term. The shares rose 2.88% to 71.5p on the news, which replaces a prior agreement following its expiry and broadens the scope of services to include additional platform capabilities and a larger number of users.
Brookcourt secured the renewed and expanded deal through the G-Cloud 15 framework, following an earlier expansion of its offering under that procurement route. The platform is designed to give the department intelligence to identify and respond to cyber threats early, with the stated aim of protecting GOV.UK sites and services, UK citizens and the government's wider supply chain from attacks and fraud.
"We are delighted to have secured this contract, building on our existing relationship with the department and expanding the capabilities and user coverage we support," said Phil Higgins, Chief Executive of Shearwater Group. The deal underscores the value of Brookcourt's incumbency in government cybersecurity procurement, where expanding an existing relationship tends to be easier than winning fresh business, and gives Shearwater a further two years of visible, recurring revenue from the public sector at a time when government cyber spending remains a relative bright spot.
XP Power guides FY27 slightly ahead on record order intake
XP Power (LSE:XPP) has guided for full-year 2027 performance slightly ahead of current market expectations, as record third-quarter order intake lifted confidence despite the shares slipping 0.905% to 1752.0p. The London-listed designer and manufacturer of power control solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing equipment, healthcare and industrial technology sectors reported third-quarter order intake of £106.8m for the period to 30 September, up 93% in constant currency year-on-year and 22% ahead of the second quarter.
Revenue rose 10% in constant currency to £63.8m, which the company said was in line with expectations; stripping out a £3.7m reduction tied to a one-off US tariff refund, revenue was £67.5m, consistent with its £135m guidance for the second half. The book-to-bill ratio reached 1.67x, up sharply from 0.96x a year earlier and the strongest level in the recent run of quarterly disclosures, with the order book closing the quarter at £216.9m.
The scale of the order intake jump, nearly doubling year-on-year, points to a genuine inflection in demand across XP Power's end markets rather than a one-off bump, with the book-to-bill ratio comfortably above parity signalling that revenue growth should continue building through next year. The modestly upgraded FY27 outlook looks conservative set against the order book's trajectory, leaving scope for further guidance upgrades if the semiconductor equipment and industrial technology markets that underpin demand continue to recover.