By Noor Zainab Hussain
Sep 15 (Reuters) - Monitise Plc (L:MONI), a mobile banking technology company, said full-year group EBITDA loss widened 63 percent due to investment in product and sales particularly in the second half of the year.
Shares in the company fell as much as 7 percent in early trade on Monday.
The company, which provides payment solutions to 350 financial institutions, said loss before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization widened to 31.4 million pounds ($51 million) for the year ended June 30. Revenue rose 31 percent to 95.1 million pounds.
Monitise had in July lowered its revenue growth estimate to a range of 31-33 percent from 50 percent, citing a shift in its revenue model.
The company reiterated its outlook for revenue growth of at least 25 percent in 2015 and that it would be EBITDA profitable in 2016. Monitise derives about 50 percent of its revenue from the UK and 40 percent from the United States.
"A lot of our systems integration resources are moving to IBM ... At the same time that we are increasing our subscription revenue and reaching more consumers through our clients, we will also have a cost base that is more scaleable," co-Chief Executive Elizabeth Buse told Reuters.
Monitise said it expanded its partnership with International Business Machines Corp (N:IBM) into a multi-year global alliance to deliver cloud-based mobile money solutions.
"We expect these actions to drive a rebound in operating metrics and financial performance, but not until H2 FY15." Canaccord Genuity analysts said in a note to clients.
The company also said it signed a strategic partnership with Santander [SOVBAN.UL] to develop and deploy a series of mobile banking solutions.
Monitise's registered customers in the year were 30 million, compared with 23 million a year earlier. Live transactions rose 67 percent to 4 billion.
Founded in 2003, Monitise processes payments to the value of $88 billion annually. Its customers include Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (L:RBS) and Visa Inc (N:V).
Monitise, which also operates in Turkey, India, Hong Kong and Indonesia, said revenue from Britain rose 54 percent to 57.7 million pounds, while the Americas saw a 9.3 percent fall.
Shares in the AIM-listed company were down 4.2 percent at 44.5275 pence at 0850 GMT.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)