Harvest Technology plc published a Stock Exchange update on its business performance outlook for the current financial year on Friday, indicating an overall mixed showing for 2022.

In the Company’s 2021 financial statements that were published in April of this year, the diverse challenges that will impact the current year’s performance were highlighted, particularly regulatory changes, supply chain issues, the Russia-Ukraine war as well as rising inflation.

In its Payment Processing Services segment, Harvest Technology’s revenue and profitability are both expected to be lower than the previous year, mainly as a result of increased scrutiny from a regulatory perspective.

This decrease also comes due to additional licensing requirements mandated on the operators in online gaming that is impacting partnering bank commissions receivable.

Contrastingly, the Retail and IT Services segment is expected to generate a better revenue performance due to new contracts, while its profitability is set to remain in line with the previous year.

However, the performance within the business is being affected by certain contracts that are experiencing delays due to global supply chain issues and in the awarding of certain tenders.

Harvest Technology is continuing to invest in the organic growth of different businesses, particularly in the expansion of the payment processing business in Greece and the internationalisation of its IT Services business.

The Company’s current forecast for the full year ending 31st December 2022 indicates that it is “expected to achieve higher revenue versus the prior year”, yet “profit before tax is expected to be around the €3 million mark”, significantly lower than the €4 million registered in 2021.

The Company also added that it is “currently in the process of interviewing candidates for the role of CEO”, following Godwin Caruana’s resignation in April.

Chris Fenech, who is also the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, is currently the CEO on an interim basis.

Harvest Technology is a highly diversified group of technology-based companies that seek to deliver systems, software engineering and security solutions among other services through their different entities.