In a tough year for global stock and bond markets against a backdrop of rising interest rates, only a couple language service providers (LSPs) were able to buck the downtrend.
Zoo Digital tops the list again in 2022. The multimedia localization company started the year with a 5% stock price increase and was up by 14% as January ended. Stocks continued their steady climb past the end of Q2, ending with a share price of USD 178 (+33%). The company boldly announced in September that it expects a revenue increase of 89% from the same period in 2023.
In a year that saw global markets tumble across the board, it is no surprise that LSPs except Zoo Digital and, notably, Honyaku Center, shed value in 2022. Japan’s largest LSP came in at a second place, rising a mere 8% over the year.
2022 Performance of Listed LSPs
Game localizer Keywords Studios had a good year, with five new acquisitions (59 to date) and a revenue increase of 36.7%. The company’s Globalize division accounted for approximately half of the total revenue. Despite overall positive results, the company’s stock lost value during the first three quarters but was up 1% at the end of the calendar year.
Star7, a Star Group company with 22 years in business, has spent only one-year trading publicly. The company’s shares performed comparatively better than nine other LSPs, ending at a value of –6,44% for the year.
Shares in Japan’s MetaReal Group, Rozetta Corporation’s parent company, greatly fluctuated and ended on the negative end at –16%. The language technology company ended the fiscal year with an increase in revenues of 4% to JPY 4.16Bn (USD 32.2m).
Australia’s Straker Translations shared positive news in November 2022 about getting an extension on the company’s contract with IBM. The markets reacted favorably, but the news was not enough to defy the broader market forces and the stock ended the year down –21%.
RWS saw its shares tumble during 2022 as investors reassessed its exposure to big tech companies, which for the first time in over a decade are making cuts to staff and budgets. RWS shares shed over half of their value by October but have since regained some ground, ending the year at –46%.
Despite closing FY23 with a positive cash flow and some wins on the sales front, revenues were down 5% year on year at multilingual captioning company Ai-Media. Stocks had lost half their value by 52% as the year ended.
Slator 2022 Language Industry Market Report
The big loser this year was data annotation company Appen, whose stock continued its free fall throughout 2022, down –74.5% for the year. Once valued at USD 4bn, Appen’s market cap now stands at about USD 300m.
Keeping Appen company at the bottom of the performance scale is Canada’s VIQ Solutions, which started the year with a stock price above USD 2 and then ended at penny stock, USD 0.25.
Check out Slator’s Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs for an up-to-the minute look at the current performance of listed language and related tech companies.
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