Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 7826S

Anite PLC

16 September 2010

 



16 September 2010

Anite plc

Interim Management Statement

Anite plc ("Anite" or "the Company"), the leading provider of software solutions to the international wireless and leisure travel industries, today announces an Interim Management Statement (IMS), covering the period from 1 May 2010 to 15 September 2010. This IMS is being issued ahead of the Company's Annual General Meeting being held later today.

Trading 

Overall trading in the quarter ended 31 July 2010 ("Q1") was encouraging, with both revenue and adjusted operating profit ahead of the same period last year and in line with the Board's expectations for the year as a whole.

In Wireless, both Networks and Handsets reported increased year on year revenue and adjusted operating profit in Q1. This compares to a weak performance in the same period last year and reflects the continuing recovery in 2G/3G spending first seen in the second half of the last financial year together with gradual progress in Handsets in 4G-LTE in line with expectations.

In Travel, due to the expected phasing of licence revenue this year, revenue and adjusted operating profit in Q1 are below that for the corresponding period last year.  This phasing will mean that first half profits in Travel are expected to be below that reported in the first half of last year.  The Travel business has continued to make progress with the major contracts that it is delivering and the pipeline for prospects remains encouraging for the year as a whole.

Order intake in the quarter was ahead of the same period last year in both parts of Wireless. Travel order intake was down year on year, reflecting the irregular nature of Travel orders and the lengthy sales cycles.

Trading in August continued the trends of Q1.    

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

LTE Update

We have made further good progress in rolling out our LTE products, which continue to be well received by customers. Q1 LTE revenues were in line with expectations accounting for 17% of overall Handsets' revenue. We increased our number of customers, broadening our geographical spread, and were also successful in making follow-on sales to key customers. We continue to have a good sales pipeline.

Although the roll out of 4G networks continues to gain momentum especially in North America and Asia, it is still very early in the technology cycle. The rate of growth therefore remains difficult to predict and as a result we continue to anticipate a gradual improvement in revenues.

Outlook

The Board's expectation for the full year outlook is unchanged since publishing the final results in July 2010, when we indicated that the gradual development of the new LTE market and normal seasonality factors would lead to a second half bias, although not as pronounced as last year.  Performance in the first four months of the year is consistent with this and has increased our overall confidence in the outlook.

Financial position

Anite continues to report a robust financial position.  Net cash as at 31 August 2010 was £29.1m (30 April 2010: net cash of £29.8m). 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. 

Commenting, Christopher Humphrey, Anite's Chief Executive said:

"We have had one of our best starts to the financial year for some time, which underpins our confidence in achieving our full year expectations.

"Our Wireless businesses have reported good first quarter trading and have benefited from the continuing recovery in 2G/3G customer spending. In LTE we continue to make good progress."

- Ends -

Anite plc	www.anite.com
Christopher Humphrey, Chief Executive	01252 775200
Richard Amos, Group Finance Director
Hogarth	020 7357 9477
Reg Hoare/Sarah MacLeod

 

END

 

 

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