This month we are celebrating a year and a half in the MAB, eighteen months, so we have reached our stock market full age. A short but intense period of time when we, the people inside Lleida.net , have grown, learned, improved, and even suffered! Together with shareholders, customers, suppliers, banks, etc. who has trodden with us this path in our small large multinational company in our passion to grow and expand, with ideas, realities and with courage.
We remain committed to creating value for our shareholders, as we have demonstrated since the founding of the company in 1995. Our creation of value rests both on the leadership we have been gaining in our business lines and on the company’s human team. This leadership has gradually been imposed through the development of our in-house technology and, in the case of our certification software, with patents registered in almost all over the world.
This force in developing and growing new businesses can be partly explained by our strong commitment to participate in major world fairs and exhibitions. We have just come back from the Mobile World Congress with half of the workforce working hard to make our booth a success for the strategic and commercial development of Lleida.net. About half of our revenues have been generated by contacts and relationships established in this fair in Barcelona, in which we participated over the last 12 years . Barcelona is one hour train distance and with more than 100,000 visitors, the MWC represents a unique business opportunity.
The financial results backup our good job. The gross profit, which best reflects our volume of activity, grew 14% in 2015 and 29% in 2016 (and 4Q16 65%). We have also begun to generate positive cash flows during the second half of 2016 as the efforts in spending and investment of previous quarters are beginning to bear fruit. We are confident that 2017 will be even better.
To support our path, in 2011 we decided, that listing on the stock exchange would be the best option. Although we were not able to make it on the first attempt, we built momentum to become a limited company. By the end of 2013, we took a little run … and we went for it! We closed 2014 with very good result. It was the first push for being listed in 2015.
The process was complex and demanding. We had to adapt the board with independents, guide the team to the new situation, assume more transparency and even a due diligence! (We cannot sweep anything under the carpet). Finding out investors and learning that MAB was like going back to school, with a teacher, the registered advisor, to move forward without stumbling. Also, accompanied by the liquidity provider that ensures there are market shares and money, to sell or to buy our shares. Truth be told, the older we became in stock market the more we see the benefits of being good and dedicated students.
Over the last 18 months we have had swings in the markets, surprises, recoveries and harvesting of fruits. All this lead to an encouraged team, to some changes and to new blood. We have developed new markets, new products and obtained patents in all the markets in which we work and in some other too. Simply put it, we have grown up.
We have grown up as a business, as a team, we have expanded our products, and we have grown in enthusiasm. An enthusiasm that allows us to trace the patch according to our consciences and knowledge, always accompanied by Board of Directors.
We make the patch as we go, with results, to continue to win the confidence of our shareholders as we welcome new ones. We are one of the MAB companies with the highest trade volume this year, and so we are going to continue.