Oracle-botherer Rimini Street throws off credit shackles, plans 'aggressive' sales drive

Software support biz Rimini Street said it planned an "aggressive" investment in sales and marketing as it posted a 20 per cent boost in both revenues and client numbers.

The thorn in Oracle’s side has previously complained that covenants in a refinancing deal had put a caps on its sales spending.

But the firm's latest quarterly results announcement said it had shed these shackles by entering into a $140m equity financing agreement, and was setting its sights on bigger revenue growth.

Rimini Street said the agreement, which closed on 19 July, had allowed repayment of all outstanding obligations under the credit facility – which totalled $132.8m – and that the facility had been terminated.

CEO Seth Ravin said this would remove the constraints on revenue growth by eliminating the covenants on sales and marketing spend set out by the facility.

"Completion of the refinancing allows us to aggressively invest in global sales, marketing and service delivery capacity and capabilities in order to drive future revenue,” he said.

“Based on our 13 year track record of sales performance, we expect these investments to lead to growth and improved operating leverage in 2019 and beyond."

The firm, which famously was ordered to pay Oracle $124m after a long-running copyright battle, has recently had a change in fortunes.

In January, it had $50m trimmed off its bill by a US appeals court and is currently trying to claw back another $12m through an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The business has also reported positive results since being listed on the NASDAQ, as it shakes off the negative effects of the legal wrangling.

In fiscal 2017, it reported a 33 per cent year-on-year boost in revenue, to $212.6m, and in Q1 2018, it posted revenues of $59.8m, up $10m on the previous year’s quarter.

The latest results are similar, with revenues coming in above guidance at $62.6m, which is 20 per cent up on the year-ago quarter. It failed to turn a profit, reporting operating losses of $6m – but this was lower than the $7.5m losses in Q2 2017.

Meanwhile, Rimini Street reported a 21 per cent increase in active clients, to 1,622. It will hope that this continues to rise, as it recently announced it had added support for Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud to its portfolio. ®