Cerillion H1 2026 interim results: record orders, lower profit, and a very back-end loaded year
Cerillion’s first-half numbers are a classic case of what the market sees on the surface versus what management says is building underneath. Reported revenue and profit went backwards, but new orders more than doubled and the back-order book hit a record. That is why the company is saying it remains on track for full-year expectations.
The headline point is simple: this was a weaker reported half, but potentially a stronger trading half than it first appears. For retail investors, the big question is whether Cerillion can turn that swelling order book into second-half revenue and profit as promised.
| Key metric | H1 2026 | H1 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| New orders | £39.6 million | £19.6 million | +102% |
| Back-order book | £82.1 million | £50.2 million | +64% |
| Revenue | £18.0 million | £20.9 million | -14% |
| Adjusted EBITDA | £6.2 million | £10.0 million | -38% |
| Adjusted profit before tax | £5.5 million | £9.3 million | -41% |
| Adjusted EPS | 14.1p | 23.9p | -41% |
| Net cash | £32.5 million | £31.2 million | +4% |
| Interim dividend | 5.5p | 4.8p | +15% |
Why Cerillion revenue and margins fell despite record new orders
The awkward bit of this update is the income statement. Revenue fell 14% to £18.0 million, adjusted EBITDA dropped 38% to £6.2 million, and adjusted profit before tax fell 41% to £5.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin also came down sharply to 34.5% from 47.7%.
Management says this is mainly about timing. Cerillion recognises software licence revenue in chunks when certain conditions are met, and in H1 there was minimal recognition of that high-margin revenue. That matters because licence sales are typically much more profitable than services work.
You can see it in the mix. Services revenue was £9.1 million, software revenue was £7.8 million, and other revenue was £1.1 million. Gross margin slipped to 75.8% from 80.6%, helped lower by both the lack of high-margin software licence revenue and lower day rates on key implementation projects.
In plain English, Cerillion sold a lot, but did not book enough of the juicy bits into this half’s revenue. That is not unusual for software businesses with lumpy contract timing, but it does raise execution pressure for the second half.
The £42.5 million Omantel contract is the main reason this RNS matters
The standout development is the Omantel deal, signed in January 2026 and worth about £42.5 million over a five-year subscription term. This is Cerillion’s largest contract win ever, comfortably above its previous biggest order of about £25 million. That is a proper step up in scale.
It also looks strategically important, not just financially important. Omantel is the main national telecoms operator in Oman, and the contract covers fixed, mobile, broadband and TV services. For a telecoms software supplier, landing a flagship reference customer like that can open doors with other operators in the region.
Implementation has already moved beyond the requirements phase into configuration and integration. Management says the project is progressing to plan, and even addressed the obvious concern around the current Middle East conflict, saying site travel is still possible and remote working would have minimal impact if needed.
My view: this is a genuinely strong commercial proof point. Big wins in enterprise software do more than add revenue – they tell future customers that the platform can handle larger, mission-critical deployments.
Cerillion back-order book and sales pipeline show stronger demand than the profit line suggests
The strongest numbers in this statement are below the revenue line, not above it. The back-order book rose to a record £82.1 million, made up of £72.6 million of contracted orders not yet recognised plus £9.5 million of annualised support and maintenance revenue. Cerillion expects around 40% of that £72.6 million to be recognised within 12 months from 31 March 2026.
New customer pipeline also hit a fresh high at £271 million, up 4%, and that is after closing the £42.5 million Omantel win. That matters because it suggests demand has not been exhausted by one big contract. Existing customer pipeline is described as robust, but the figure is not disclosed.
Annualised recurring revenue – basically the yearly value of repeatable contracted revenue streams – increased 5% to £19.1 million. That is not explosive growth, but it does add stability.
For me, this is the part of the RNS that supports management’s confidence. A software business can survive a lumpy half if the order book is fat enough and conversion remains solid.
Cerillion cash, dividend and balance sheet still look like a strength
One thing Cerillion continues to have is financial resilience. Net cash rose slightly to £32.5 million, and net assets increased 18% to £60.6 million. That gives the company room to invest, pay dividends, and absorb timing swings without looking stretched.
That said, cash generation was softer. Net cash generated from operations fell to £1.7 million from £7.0 million, and free cash generation dropped to £0.5 million from £5.9 million. That is the downside of lower profitability in the half.
Even so, the board lifted the interim dividend by 15% to 5.5p. That is a confident signal. Companies do not usually increase payouts if they are seriously worried about the year ahead.
Product development, AI messaging and the Ucom rollout add useful support
There were a couple of other encouraging operational points. The Ucom project in Armenia, originally agreed in January 2025 and worth $11.4 million, is progressing well, with cutover scheduled for the autumn. Another successful delivery here would give Cerillion a second useful regional reference site.
The latest software release, Cerillion 26.1, introduced Agent2Agent capabilities. In simple terms, that means AI agents can coordinate multi-step tasks across systems instead of working in isolation. It is interesting product development, although I would treat it as supportive rather than a near-term financial game changer.
Management also pushed back on the idea that AI could make established telecoms software vendors obsolete. That feels fair enough. Billing and operational platforms for telecoms are mission-critical, rules-heavy systems, and customers usually want reliability over experimentation.
What investors should watch in H2 2026 after Cerillion’s interim results
- Whether the expected software licence revenue actually lands in H2.
- Whether margins recover as the revenue mix improves.
- Progress on Omantel implementation and any signs of project slippage.
- Further extensions and renewals from existing customers, which management is counting on.
- Cash conversion, which was notably weaker in H1.
My verdict on Cerillion PLC’s H1 2026 results for retail investors
This is a good news and bad news update. The bad news is obvious: revenue, margins, profit and earnings per share all fell sharply in the half. If you only read those figures, you would come away disappointed.
The good news is more important, in my opinion. Cerillion has landed its biggest contract ever, doubled new orders, built a record back-order book, kept net cash strong, raised the dividend, and said full-year expectations remain intact. The exact consensus market expectation is not disclosed, but the board is clearly sticking its neck out.
So the market debate now becomes very clear. Is H1 just a timing dip, or the first sign that growth is getting more uneven? Based on this RNS alone, I would lean towards the timing-dip argument – but with one condition. Cerillion now needs to deliver a strong H2, because the company has told investors pretty directly that most of the year depends on it.
That makes the next set of results especially important. For now, this looks like a solid trading story with a lumpy accounting profile, rather than a broken one.
