Creston PLC
27 September 2007
27 September 2007
Creston plc
Pre-close trading statement
Creston plc, the Insight and Communications Group, issues the following trading
update for the six month period to 30 September 2007 in advance of announcing
its interim results on 30 November.
The Board has been pleased with the number and size of the new business wins,
which have demonstrated the quality and industry standing of the Group
companies. New client wins across the Group include Alton Towers, Capital One,
Freeview, GlaxoSmithKline, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Pricerunner.co.uk,
Royal Mail, Smart cars and Telstra.
In addition to these wins, there have been major new project and brand wins from
existing clients such as AstraZeneca, Capital Radio, Infinti from Nissan, direct
marketing consultancy for Numico in Austria and Thailand, Opel, Roche, Sainsbury
Bank from Sainsbury's, Slim Fast from Unilever, Vauxhall, and Sunbites from
Walkers Crisps.
Cross-selling between Creston's operating companies has also been very
successful in the period with new projects being won from several clients
including AstraZeneca, Morrisons, Servier, Stihl and Toshiba.
The Board is confident that the wins will maintain a similar like for like
revenue growth that was reported at 12% for the first quarter.
Digital and on-line projects continue to grow as a proportion of revenues and we
have increased our investment in specialist staff to match this development.
This necessary investment will have a very minor impact on first half operating
margin.
The balance sheet is strong and we have substantial unutilised bank facilities.
The Board retains the flexibility to settle earn out liabilities predominantly
in cash and loan notes rather than the issue of shares, as was demonstrated in
the settlement of the two earn outs in June of this year, which were 100% in
loan notes.
The Group has continued to perform well in the first half of the year
demonstrating its ability to deliver growth as a diversified Insight and
Communications Group. The new business pipeline continues to be strong with
major pitches planned across all companies and we are confident that our
successful pitch to win ratio will ensure a positive impact for the rest of the
financial year.
For further information, please contact:
Creston plc Tel: 020 7930 9757
Don Elgie, Chief Executive
Barrie Brien, COO & CFO
www.creston.com
Hogarth Partnership Limited Tel: 020 7357 9477
Chris Matthews / Sarah Macleod / Sarah Richardson
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.