AMA: New strategic direction to accelerate innovation and boost growth

Press release

Rennes, France – May 29, 2024 -7:30pm CET

New strategic direction to accelerate innovation  and boost growth

Putting AI to work for frontline workers

Renewed governance and streamlined leadership

AMA CORPORATION PLC (“AMA") (ISIN GB00BNKGC5 - ticker ALAMA), a publisher and integrator of secure productivity applications designed for connected mobile workers, today announced the rollout of its strategic action plan to seize on new opportunities in the assisted Reality market and boost its growth. This plan is builds on the company’s robust fundamentals and expertise in artificial intelligence (AI). It will be financed by the support of the main shareholder, Guillemot Brothers SAS, for €4m (non-dilutive) and will generate annual savings of at least €2m.

Putting AI to work for frontline workers

AMA is capitalizing on its AI know-how and the work accomplished with ARIANN over the past 14 months to offer new high value-added services for its clients. Specifically, they will improve efficiency, traceability, process compliance and the sharing of expertise between frontline workers, leveraging XpertEye’s data collection and generation capabilities. Over the past few months, this R&D priority has already been reflected in the launch of new features, which have firmly anchored XpertEye in artificial intelligence (Data Locker API and AI Report, early 2024), while work is underway to finalize new computer vision features.

To roll out and capitalize on this transformation over a planned timeframe of 12 to 18 months, AMA’s main shareholder, Guillemot Brothers SAS, will allocate €4m in current account, which will be combined with a savings plan of at least €2m annually. The plan is based on reducing the workforce by around 30 people, with approximately one third concerning international positions and external contractors. In France, it is combined with a job protection plan and various measures to reduce overheads. Internationally, it is based mainly on the closure of the subsidiary in China. The terms of the shareholder loan provide for progressive repayment of 20% of AMA’s net profits when profitability is achieved.

Streamlined leadership and renewed governance 

To generate fresh momentum, AMA is making a number of changes to its leadership team and further strengthening the cross-functional nature of its teams. Etienne Guillemot, previously Strategy Director, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to implement the strategic plan. He is accompanied by a renewed Management Committee, to which is added the position of a Chief Data Officer (CDO), reflecting the growing importance of data security for AMA. Christian Guillemot remains as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Etienne Guillemot, one of Christian Guillemot’s children, began his career at AMA in 2015. A Regent's University London graduate, he has a seasoned knowledge of AMA, where he progressed from product manager to subsidiary director, before taking charge of strategy in June 2022.

Etienne Guillemot, AMA CEO, concludes: “AMA has the ability to adapt to changes in its market building on its innovative DNA to make XpertEye a customizable AI companion that helps create, visualize and use contextual data. We have already propelled our solutions in the vast field of artificial intelligence, and the expertise we have built up, reinforced by our proximity to our major clients and our streamlined leadership team, gives us confidence in the success of this new step forward. The support of Guillemot Brothers SAS and the commitment of AMA’s teams to this strategic plan gives us the means to seize these new opportunities and relaunch growth, while steering the Group towards a trajectory of profitability, as we announced at the end of April 2024”.

Next financial press release

2024 second-quarter revenues: July 26, 2024 (before start of trading) 

About AMA 

AMA is a global provider of powerful productivity applications, designed for the connected frontline workforce. We use cutting-edge technologies such as assisted Reality (aR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enable remote support and digitized work instructions and inspections, transforming how organizations operate. Our XpertEye suite of secure applications empowers customers to improve productivity, speed up resolution time, retain knowledge, and reduce their carbon footprint.   

We are B Corp certified, affirming our dedication to meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.  

We have a global presence with offices in Europe, APAC, and the USA, enabling us to reach customers across all time zones and geographic locations. 

AMA is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (GB00BNKGZC51 - ALAMA). More information on www.amaxperteye.com   

Disclaimer: This press release contains statements that are not historical facts, including, but not limited to, statements regarding future results and other future events. These statements are based on the current vision and assumptions of AMA Corporation PLC's management. They involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, profitability or events to differ materially from those anticipated. In addition, AMA Corporation PLC, its shareholders and its respective affiliates, directors, officers, advisors and employees have not verified the accuracy of, and make no representations or warranties regarding, any statistica l information or forward-looking information contained in this release that originates or is derived from third-party sources or industry publications. Such statistical data and forward-looking information are used in this press release for information purposes only.

Contacts  

Investor relations and financial media                                                                 Corporate press

Perrine Fromont, CFO - +33 223 441 339 – investors@ama.bzh                               Esther Duval - +33 689 182 343

Marie Calleux, Calyptus - +33 609 685 538 - ama@calyptus.net                            esther.duval@ama.bzh  

2