Bravura Solutions Reveals Revenue Decline and New CEO

Financial software provider reports a "difficult year", issues in the UK market and a new face.

It’s probably not a week for saying ‘bravo!’ as financial software provider Bravura Solutions has reported a poor financial performance and announced a new CEO.

The company is headquartered in Australia, but has offices in New Zealand, the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia. Bravura works in the wealth management, life insurance and funds administration industries – and offers on-premise, managed, hosted and cloud solutions.

In Bravura’s financial results for FY 21 it revealed that net profit after tax was AU$34.6 million (£18.3 million), a decrease in 14% compared to the same period last year.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation (EBIDTA) was down 15% to AU$49.3 million (£26 million), while revenue stood at AU$243 million (£128.5 million), which is a drop of 11% to FY20. Operating cash flow was AU$52.7 million (£27.8 million).

Neil Broekhuizen, Bravura’s Chairman, says there was “significant market volatility stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic” and called FY 21 a “difficult year”.

He adds that this “brought market uncertainty and a lengthening of Bravura’s sales cycle across the board, and temporary hesitancy around new contracts and project work, primarily in the UK”.

Broekhuizen pointed out more issues in the UK market, as there was “reduced interest in big bang implementations, as well as an underserviced middle tier of potential clients”.

However, there were some positives as Bravura’s contracted recurring revenue increased by 15% in FY21. As at 30 June 2021, it’s in a “solid financial position”, with cash of AU$73.6 million (£38.9 million).

The firm says it has in excess of AU$5.6 trillion (£3 trillion) in assets held in accounts on its systems.

Bravura has got plenty of rivals in the financial software space around the world. Names include Objectway (based in Milan), SS&C Advent (San Francisco), Temenos (Geneva), Avaloq (Zürich) and Redi2 (Massachusetts). GBST (Sydney) is another one and is a very long story. FNZ (London) bought GBST for £150 million in 2019 but the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority slowly reassessed the deal and so FNZ now has to sell it off.

In October 2020, Bravura bought UK-based Delta Financial Systems for AU$42 million (£22.2 million). Delta provides technology for pensions administration in the UK market, such as for SIPPs (self-invested personal pensions) and SSASs (small self-administered schemes). It has around 30 clients in the UK.

According to Bravura, the acquisition broadened its product suite and called the Delta products a “natural extension” to its core Sonata offering. Delta was founded in 1996 and is based in Birmingham. Testimonials on its website include HSBC and Legal & General.

Meet the New Boss

Not long after the financial results were made public, Bravura announced a new CEO. The company made no mention about the timing. Bravo? No.

London-based Nick Parsons will step up to become CEO, with Tony Klim stepping down, effective 3 September 2021. Parsons joined Bravura as its Chief Technology Officer in 2007 and did other roles. Klim spent 13 years at Bravura, including 10 years as CEO.

Bravura has about 350 direct and indirect blue-chip clients including Fidelity International, Prudential, Scottish Friendly, Legal & General and Lloyds.

To add to the information on the aforementioned Sonata product, it provides wealth management functionality; and is an integrated platform that supports pensions, superannuation and KiwiSaver, life insurance, and wrap and investment products.

There are other Bravura products – including for wealth management systems, life and protection systems, transfer agency systems, financial messaging and umbrella funds. For example, Garradin is a private wealth and portfolio solution for the administration of investment products.

Bravura was founded in 2004 and has a team of more than 1,400 people in 12 offices.

Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton is the Editor of eWeek UK. He has 18 years' journalism and writing experience. His career has taken him to China, Japan and the UK - covering tech, fintech and business. Follow on Twitter @TonyFintech.
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