Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 2664O

Anite PLC

15 September 2011

 

15 September 2011

Anite plc

Interim Management Statement

Anite plc ("Anite" or "the Group"), the leading provider of software solutions to the international wireless and leisure travel industries, ahead of its Annual General Meeting being held later today, announces an Interim Management Statement covering the period from 1 May to 14 September 2011. 

Trading

Anite has had a strong start to the year. Overall trading in the quarter ended 31 July 2011 ('Q1' or 'the quarter') was encouraging, with total Group order intake, revenue and adjusted operating profit¹ ahead of the same period last year and also the Board's expectations for the period. These trends continued in August. The Handset Testing business was the principal source of the outperformance.  

The Handset Testing business reported order intake, revenue and adjusted operating profit significantly in excess of the same period last year and ahead of expectations. In addition to strong underlying trading, the performance benefited, in part, from a substantial opening order book and the acceleration of annual orders into the first quarter by one major customer.  The growth was driven by LTE revenues with both Conformance Testing and the increasingly important Interoperability Testing area showing significant year-on-year increases.  LTE revenue represented 46% of total Handset Testing Q1 revenue, compared to 17% in Q1 last year and 34% in the prior financial year as a whole.

The Network Testing business performed in line with expectations in the quarter.  The first sales of the Invex 4G benchmarking product were made in the period, although material sales are not expected until later in the year following planned investment in the first half to support the product development.

In Travel, revenue and adjusted operating profit in Q1 were in line with expectations. Following material contract extensions with existing major customers, the order book has increased from the improved level reported at the financial year end and the pipeline of new opportunities remains strong. Progress was made on delivering the new TUI UK contract and further development work is ongoing for TUI in Germany.  The Board is encouraged by the potential for the Travel business on the back of its improving order book and pipeline.

¹  Adjusted operating profit is defined as operating profit for continuing operations before share based payments, amortisation of acquired intangible assets, restructuring costs, other gains and losses and recycled hedge losses.

Financial position

Anite continues to report a robust financial position. Net cash as at 31 August 2011 was £31.8m (30 April 2011: net cash of £27.7m). The reported level of net cash is before taking account of the liability on the Group's currency swap which, as previously announced, has been fixed at £21.6m.  This swap is due to be repaid on 31 October 2011, with the Group's other facilities maturing on 30 November 2011, triggering as expected a significant reduction in Anite's future finance costs.

Commenting on recent trading and outlook, Christopher Humphrey,  Chief Executive, said:

"We have had a strong start to the year which has increased our expectation for first half performance and is underpinning our confidence for the year as a whole."

- Ends -

Anite plc	www.anite.com
Christopher Humphrey, Chief Executive	01252 775200
Richard Amos, Group Finance Director
MHP Communications	020 3128 8100
Reg Hoare/Anthony Arthur/Giles Robinson

 

END

 

 

IMSDMGMLVDKGMZM