Next Fifteen Communications Plc
Trading update
Next Fifteen Communications Group plc ("Next Fifteen" or the "Group"), the
international public relations consultancy group is issuing a pre-close trading
update ahead of its preliminary results for the year ended 31 July 2007.
Next Fifteen is pleased to report that progress has continued in both revenue
generation and profitability levels, which are in line with expectations that
were raised when the Group announced record interim results on 17 April 2007.
Trading remains healthy in all the Group's major markets, with Next Fifteen
expecting to post strong full-year figures in October 2007.
Accelerated Investment
During the last quarter the Group has invested in the launch of Redshift
Research, a UK based market research agency and has introduced its Bite business
into Mainland China. While these investments were unbudgeted they are not
expected to have a material impact on the Group's results for the current year.
Redshift Research has already secured work from seven clients including QAS,
Kimberley Clark, Mitsubishi and ARM. Bite's entry in to China was originally
planned for the next financial year but a key recruitment opportunity
accelerated these plans. The agency now has operations in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Major client additions
The current financial year has seen the addition of several major new clients
including Amazon Digital, Cisco, Dolby, Mozilla and Raytheon in the US; Boots
and Panasonic in Europe and Symantec and Philips CE in APAC. The Group's most
recent win came with the addition of Nokia as a client in the UK where Lexis has
been appointed to handle the mobile giant's corporate and consumer work.
Restructuring
During the second half of the year, August One was merged with Text 100's UK
business. This integration has gone well and Text 100 UK has added Philips amBX
(Consumer Gaming Division) as a client following this merger. The Group will
have some one off costs relating to this change, however these will be mitigated
by the profit the Group generated when it sold its Bullet business earlier in
the year. Bullet is a small web development agency with whom the Group continues
to partner.
The Group is also pleased that following the reorganisation of its US businesses
towards the end of the last financial year, a significantly lower effective tax
rate for the Group is expected this year, which will help deliver higher
earnings.
Will Whitehorn, Chairman of Next Fifteen, said:
"We expect to deliver another strong set of results for the full-year and are
pleased that we've been able to invest in new operations in Asia for Bite and
open our first research business in the UK. The Group continues to focus on the
organic growth of its existing PR brands and acquisitions that would complement
the existing PR businesses."
For further information:
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Next Fifteen
Tim Dyson, Chief Executive 001 415 350 2801
David Dewhurst, Finance Director 07974 161 183
Merlin 020 7653 6620
Vanessa Maydon 07802 961 902
Anja Kharlamova 07887 788 4788
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