MobileActive, Motopia report 1H losses

Mobile content and marketing companies MobileActive (ASX:MBA) and Motopia (ASX:MOT) have both posted losses for the first half.

MobileActive blamed its $530,000 net loss – from a $132,000 profit in 1H10 – on start-up expenses, a difficult trading environment, and increased regulatory compliance costs.

Revenue fell 25.9% to $4.9 million, and the company recorded an ebitda loss of $496,000, of which $396,000 was accrued by its 50.1% owned mobile gambling startups 12Follow and TopBetta.

“Cautious consumer sentiment and increased regulatory costs and market changes impacted our premium SMS businesses,” MobileActive CEO Chris Thorpe said.

But he added that the the two start-ups were progressing well, and that its investment in 12Follow has recently moved into cashflow positive territory.

MobileActive also has consumer and business-to-business marketing units, as well as content division RingRing studios.

Motopia meanwhile reported a 1H loss of $4 million, from $751,000 in 1H10, from impairment charges and one-off costs.

The company recorded revenue of $761,000 for the half-year.

In 1H10 Motopia was still trading as e-health company MedicVision, so a year-on-year revenue comparison is irrelevant, the company said in its financial report.

It added that the acquisition of the mConnect group which saw it enter the mobile marketing game has increased its net asset position to $11.5 million from $2.4 million. But the company booked a goodwill impairment charge of $3 million on this acquisition.

Excluding this charge and some one-off, costs, the loss attributable to operations for the half-year was $630,000 – an improvement on 1H10.

MOT shares grew 1.01% to $0.100 in Tuesday's trading, while MBA shares were flat at $0.022.