Final Results
365 Corporation PLC
31 May 2001
PART 1
31st May 2000
365 Corporation plc
Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results
Preliminary announcement
'A year of growth - accelerating our drive to profitability'
Year ended Year ended
31 March 31 March
2001 2000
£'000 £'000
Turnover 50,142 22,420
Costs of sales 30,973 12,610
Gross profit 19,169 9,810
Administrative expenses* 36,035 15,719
Operating loss before goodwill charges and other 16,866 5,909
non-operating items
Goodwill charges 31,293 5,097
Other items** (692) 2,965
Operating loss 47,467 13,971
* before goodwill charges and other non-operating items
** other items are NIC and similar taxes on share options and shares issued at
under value
- A year of strong growth, with group turnover rising to over £50m - a 124%
increase. Growth (before acquisitions) was 73%.
- Annual operating losses of £47.5m, including goodwill write-offs totalling £
31.3m.
- Core businesses now moving towards profitability. Profitability will be
achieved through further growth, combined with strict cost control and
organisational restructuring.
- A strong balance sheet with £26.0 million of cash - sufficient to move 365
into profitability and retain 'firepower' to pursue new areas of opportunity.
- Imminent launch of 365's new comprehensive voice portal ('Eckoh') in June.
Martin Turner, Deputy Chief Executive & Finance Director, commented today:
'The 2001 financial year marked a very successful period of strong growth.
Group turnover exceeded £50m - a milestone for 365 - and we have achieved our
stated aim to build each of our operating divisions into large, fast-growing
businesses. However, our prime focus is to now move 365 into profit. This
will be achieved through further growth and strict cost control, whilst
preserving our ability to exploit new opportunities such as Eckoh. Non-core
or unprofitable parts of our business are being reorganised, sold, or closed.'
For further enquiries, please contact
365 Corporation plc Tel: 020 7505 7800
Ian Martin, Chairman
Martin Turner, Deputy CEO & Finance Director
Nik Philpot, Group MD Consumer Division
www.365corp.com
Financial Dynamics Tel: 020 7831 3113
Fiona Meiklejohn
Ben Atwell
Operating Review
Consumer Division Our Consumer Division doubled in size over the past year,
reporting turnover of £29.2m (compared to £14.7m for last year) and increased
users to 3.0m (compared to 1.8m at the end of last year). We believe this
success reflects the consistent quality of our content and services, together
with the effectiveness of our marketing activities. We continue to make our
digital content widely available over a number of platforms - internet,
e-mail, telephone, mobile (including WAP and SMS) and interactive TV.
We believe that 365's network of web-based users has reached the critical mass
necessary to attract the advertising and commercial deals required to move our
internet operation towards profitability. In particular, our four core sports
services - Football, Cricket, Rugby and Formula 1 - have all consolidated
their market leading positions during the year. Over the next twelve months,
we expect more of our competitors to leave the market or scale down their
operations, and for 365 to become one of the few remaining creators and owners
of an increasingly scarce commodity - quality digital content.
Revenue streams have continued to grow and diversify during the year, despite
a slow-down in the growth of on-line advertising and sponsorship revenues in
the second half of the financial year (which represent a small proportion of
our total Consumer revenues). Shortfalls in on-line advertising were offset
by revenue growth in other areas such as e-commerce, content sales, SMS
service provision, subscription revenues and shares of access revenues.
Nevertheless, we continue to take the view that, as time spent on-line by
consumers increases, revenue streams from more traditional media will
naturally migrate towards large, market-leading owners of digital content and
services.
We have continued to build on our strategy of becoming the UK's leading
provider of audio and interactive voice services. Our own brand products
continue to take an increasing share of the market and we have been able to
secure new client contracts with Johnston Press and Manchester Evening News.
With one of the largest voice and data handling platforms of its kind in the
UK, we are also uniquely positioned to provide leading-edge scalable
applications to our client base that includes Granada, Classic FM, Cartoon
Network, Channel 5, and Chrysalis.
Our Voice Portal On 5 December we announced our plans to launch the UK's first
comprehensive voice portal (codenamed 'Guardian Angel', now called 'Eckoh')
which provides the entire population with access to a totally mobile, unified
communications platform. Our technical partners include Philips, Cable &
Wireless, eCal and Sonexis (formerly US-based Brooktrout Software).
Using simple voice commands, Eckoh allows individuals to access a full range
of customisable communication, commerce, and content services from any
fixed-line or mobile telephone, using state-of-the-art speech recognition
technology as the primary interface. They will also have the ability to
access, change and synchronise their diary and phonebook from either the web
or phone, pick up email from multiple accounts, and set up conference calls.
Eckoh is a truly convergent product that utilises many elements of 365's
business model - web content, voice technology and telecommunications
expertise - to create a service that is relevant to both consumer and business
users. The revenue model is strong, sustainable and diverse, including a
share of dial-up access charges, subscription, advertising and commerce.
We are uniquely positioned to launch this product to the UK market. As a
leading provider of voice services in the UK, we are hugely experienced in the
deployment of leading-edge telephony technology and the particular skills
required for successful speech recognition-based services. We also have a
significant competitive advantage by already owning the necessary
infrastructure to support Eckoh, with over 4,000 lines of interactive voice
response equipment in place.
In anticipation of the commercial opportunities Eckoh offers, we have already
established partnerships with William Hill, Domino's Pizza, Teleflorist, HMV
Direct and Ticketmaster, allowing users to make transactions with these
companies through Eckoh. There is also premium content available such as live
professional advice from lawyers, doctors and vets and live, interactive
traffic information provided by Trafficmaster. We also intend to develop
further commercial agreements in areas such as stockbroking, cinema ticketing
and travel.
In developing Eckoh, we have received significant levels of interest from
large corporations and national brand-owners wishing to gain access to our
technology and expertise in this field. EckohTec has therefore been created as
a new department within voice services to specialise in client applications
that utilise convergent technologies such as VoiceXML, speech recognition and
text-to-speech. This means that the maximum benefit can be gained from our
existing technical infrastructure and expertise that we have built during the
development of both Eckoh and our proprietary internet publishing system, the
'GPS'.
Eckoh will be released to the public in June.
Business Division This year, our Business Division (which trades as Symphony
Telecom) almost tripled its annual turnover to £21.0m, increasing its gross
margin to 33%, compared to 30% last year. This was achieved through a
combination of strong organic growth, including the introduction of new
products and services, and seven strategic acquisitions, including the
hardware businesses of Compass, Essential, Systematic and Ringback - these
acquisitions represented £4.3m of our turnover this year.
Following the acquisition of Fenfones last year, we have pursued an active
acquisition strategy to accelerate growth and establish 365 as a leader in the
UK market. To this end, we have consolidated our best performing joint
ventures into 365 and, where appropriate, acquired complementary hardware
partners in order to increase our customer base, extend geographical coverage
and strengthen our hardware capabilities. We believe that we have succeeded
in achieving our expansion objectives over the past 12 months.
We continue to concentrate on securing long-term relationships with business
customers through the provision of an integrated telecommunication solution
(or 'one-stop-shop'), with particular emphasis on control of the telephone
system. We also see increasing opportunities to provide complementary data
solutions, including internet-related services, and intend to expand our
expertise in this area.
In the UK, we have centralised network operations (fixed-line and mobile) in
Hemel Hempstead, hardware and data services operations in Newmarket (acquired
through Fenfones last year) and have made good progress integrating our
acquisitions over the past few months. We expect the full financial benefits
of our acquisition strategy to become evident next year as we continue to
rationalise costs and cross-sell our product portfolio into the acquired
customer bases.
We have also made good progress in Ireland, strengthening our existing
operations with the acquisition of Valuetel in Dublin and securing an
exclusive distribution deal with Samsung for the whole of Ireland. This
agreement enables us to sell both network services and hardware through an
independent distribution channel of dealers and agents, and reflects the great
success we have enjoyed this year with Samsung in the UK.
Management changes In March, Dan Thompson expressed his intention to stand
down as Chief Executive. Dan was a founding member the Company and made an
outstanding contribution in building the company to its present size and
establishing its reputation.
Current Trading The new financial year has started well, and the Directors
remain confident about the Group's future prospects. Technological change
continues to alter the world of content consumption and communications at an
accelerating pace, and we remain firmly convinced that 365's expertise and
assets are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities this change
creates. This financial year, we intend to concentrate on moving our core
businesses on a clear and demonstrable path towards profitability, whilst
maintaining continued growth and preserving our ability to exploit new and
exceptional opportunities, such as Eckoh. This process is already underway.
Operating data
Mar 2000 Jun 2000 Sep 2000 Dec 2000 Mar 2001
Consumer Division - unique 1,752,000 2,091,000 2,391,000 2,864,000 2,951,000
users(1)
Business Division - customers 2,989 3,473 3,945 4,518 5,159
(2)
Notes:
(1) 365 defines the number of unique users in a month as the number of
people who visit one of 365's web sites (including those web sites created and
hosted by 365 for third parties) during a month, telephone one of 365's voice
services (audiotext) during a month or are registered to receive an e-mail
product at a selected mid-month date. If a person uses the same 365 service
more than once in a month they are counted only once as a unique user. If,
however, that person uses more than one 365 service during that month, they are
counted as a unique user once for each service used.
(2) 365 defines the number of business customers as the total number of
customers at the month end who have been billed for that month.
Financial Review
Financial data (£'000)
3 months ended 3 months ended 3 months ended
Quarterly 30 Jun 2000 30 Sep 2000 31 Dec 2000
Revenue
Consumer Division 6,406 7,497 7,525
Business Division 3,596 4,529 6,062
Total revenue 10,002 12,026 13,587
Cost of sales (5,999) (7,186) (8,085)
Total gross profit 4,003 4,840 5,502
Administrative expenses* (7,391) (7,856) (9,484)
Operating loss* (3,388) (3,016) (3,982)
3 months ended Year ended Year ended
Quarterly 31 Mar 2001 31 Mar 2001 31 Mar 2000
Revenue
Consumer Division 7,753 29,181 14,719
Business Division 6,774 20,961 7,701
Total revenue 14,527 50,142 22,420
Cost of sales (9,703) (30,973) (12,610)
Total gross profit 4,824 19,169 9,810
Administrative expenses* (11,304) (36,035) (15,719)
Operating loss* (6,480) (16,866) (5,909)
* before goodwill amortisation and impairment, provision for NIC and similar
taxes on share options and shares issued at below market value.
Consumer Division
Turnover doubled during the year ended 31 March 2001 to £29.2m, and users grew
by 68% to 3.0m, through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.
Internet turnover more than tripled to £5.8m during the year. A good
performance in first-party e-commerce revenues and the sale of our content to
third parties helped us to offset a slow-down in the growth of advertising and
sponsorship revenues in the second half of the financial year. Voice services
(or 'audiotext') turnover grew to £21.4m from £13.1m, including £5.5m of
turnover from Teletalk, which was acquired in April 2000. 365Television
continued to make high quality digital TV programming for outside distribution
partners such as BBC Choice, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide.
On 17 January 2001, we acquired the Formula One web site, formula-1.co.uk, for
consideration totalling £0.3m. The acquisition of formula-1.co.uk has added to
our existing motor-sports portfolio centred on its flagship product,
planet-f1.com, and has strengthened our market position in this rapidly
emerging part of the digital sports market.
On 31 March 2001, we sold our French language football web site to French
media company, Onlysport France SA - a leading digital content producer in the
French language market. Total consideration was £1.3m, satisfied by a cash
payment of £0.3m and ordinary shares, representing a 7.4% stake in Onlysport.
Due to the uncertainty of the realisation of this investment value, we have
accounted for it at nil value. This transaction is part of a broader plan to
rationalise foreign language content production and reduce costs, and has lead
to the decision to close our operations in Paris (French language content) and
Santiago, Chile (Spanish language content). Combined operating losses for the
year to 31 March 2001 from these two operations, excluding proceeds from the
sale of the French web site, exceeded £2.5m.
Turnover is classified as internet, voice services and 'other' turnover, and
for the year ended 31 March 2001 was £29.2m, compared to £14.7m for the prior
year. During the year, our internet revenue streams have expanded and include
the sale of banner advertisements, sponsorship, contract publishing and third
party e-commerce, first party e-commerce and content sales. Fourth quarter
consumer division turnover was £7.8m.
Cost of sales relates primarily to the direct costs of advertising our voice
services in a variety of media, freephone (0800) access charges and
commissions or royalties payable to third parties. Overall consumer cost of
sales during the year ended 31 March 2001 rose to £17.0m (2000 - £7.2m). Gross
profit as a percentage of turnover reduced to 41.7% for the year ended 31
March 2001 from 50.8%, mainly as a result of lower voice services margins, due
to the acquisition of Teletalk in April 2000 and an increase in voice
solutions provided to third parties. During the fourth quarter, we increased
direct response advertising in support of our voice services.
Administrative expenses (before goodwill amortisation and impairment and
provision for NIC and similar taxes on share options) increased to £20.8m
during the year ended 31 March 2001 (2000- £9.4m) as we continued to increase
our investment in new content and services, our voice portal ('Eckoh'),
infrastructure, technology and personnel. During the year, we invested £0.8m
in Eckoh, and £0.3m in GPS, and included these development costs in
administrative expenses (combined fourth quarter expenditure was £0.3m).
Content and brand marketing costs totalled £5.5m for the year ended 31 March
2001 (2000 - £2.8m), and included a number of non-recurring and one-off
marketing charges totalling £1.1m during the fourth quarter - these costs
relate primarily to internet marketing activities to promote our web sites and
increase our audience. Termination costs related to the closure of our
offices in Paris and Santiago, Chile totaling £0.3m, and an increase in bad
debt provisions totalling £0.3m are also included in administrative costs in
the fourth quarter.
Consumer operating losses (before goodwill amortisation and impairment and
provision for NIC and similar taxes on share options) increased to £8.6m
during the year ended 31 March 2001 (2000 - £1.9m). Our historical consumer
operating losses are a consequence of our growth strategy, and investment in
content, services, audience, brands, technology and related infrastructure.
While we fully expect to make further investments in growth opportunities in
the future as we execute our expansion plans (which may include the creation
of new content and services, the acquisition of complementary businesses and
selective international development), we intend to focus on moving our
established, core activities towards profitability.
Consumer users increased 68% from 1,752,000 in March 2000 to 2,951,000 in
March 2001, which included 175,000 users of French and Spanish language
content and services. This growth is the result of the marketing and promotion
of existing content, the creation and introduction of new content, and the
acquisition of complementary businesses during the year.
Business Division
Through our wholly-owned Symphony Telecom subsidiary, our Business Division
provides a 'one-stop-shop' of integrated telecommunication services to
businesses in the UK and Ireland. These services include the provision of
telephone systems ('hardware'), fixed line resale, mobile and, increasingly,
complex data services. In order to quickly build critical mass and extend
geographical coverage, we have expanded our Business Division aggressively
over the past year through a combination of direct sales, new dealers, joint
ventures and, in particular, a number of complementary acquisitions. These
include the acquisition of the minority interests in our best performing joint
ventures, and the acquisition of complementary hardware businesses.
On 15 February 2001, we announced that we had entered into an exclusive
distribution agreement with Samsung Telecoms (U.K.) Ltd ('Samsung') to sell
its full range of voice and data products to businesses in Ireland. Together
with the Valuetel acquisition in December 2000, the Samsung deal will greatly
strengthen our Irish operation in terms of both distribution and product
offering. Over the past 12 months, we have become one of the largest
resellers of Samsung voice and data products in the UK.
Turnover includes that generated by our wholly-owned subsidiaries and our
joint ventures which are fully consolidated in our financial statements in
accordance with UK GAAP, as we exercise a dominant influence over the
operating and financial policies and activities of these companies. During the
year ended 31 March 2001, Business Division turnover increased to £21.0m (2000
- £7.7m). This growth is a reflection of both strong organic growth (including
the expansion of our product portfolio and distribution) and the impact of
acquisitions made during the year, which accounted for £4.3m of turnover.
Fourth quarter turnover increased 11.7% to £6.8m.
Cost of sales includes costs relating to the provision of telephone system
equipment; fixed line access charges; mobile handsets and airtime charges; and
data service costs. To date we have written off all installation costs as
incurred. Cost of sales for the year ended 31 March 2001 was £14.0m (2000 - £
5.4m), and gross profit as a percentage of turnover improved to 33.3% compared
to 30.2% for the prior year. The underlying trend in gross margin is upwards,
as we continue to negotiate improved volume discounts, from a number of our
key suppliers, and focus our sales efforts on higher-margin products and
services.
Administrative expenses (before goodwill amortisation and impairment and
provision for NIC and similar taxes on share options) include all costs
related to the development and management of our infrastructure, customer
services, sales and marketing expenses, general operating expenses and
personnel. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of advertising,
employee-related expenses and travel costs, including all costs relating to
the operation of our joint ventures and branch operations. These costs
increased to £11.4m for the year ended 31 March 2001 compared to £3.9m for the
prior year. This is reflective of the growth of the business during the year.
Sales and marketing costs increased to £6.5m (2000 - £2.2m) due to the
inclusion of acquisitions and a significant increase in sales staff as we
expanded our direct sales force. Included in the fourth quarter are a number
of one-off charges associated with acquisitions made during the year and
start-up costs in Ireland. The Business Division also provided for redundancy
costs totalling £0.4m during the fourth quarter relating to the departure of a
number of employees, as part of a structured and ongoing rationalisation of
our operations.
Business operating losses (before goodwill amortisation and impairment and
provision for NIC and similar taxes on share options) for the year ended 31
March 2001 increased to £4.4m (2000 - £1.6m) as the Business Division expanded
its customer base, infrastructure, distribution and sales and marketing
efforts. In parallel with further growth, our Business Division intends to
enter a period of consolidation of existing operations, which will result in a
reduction of costs and operating losses in future periods as we move towards
profitability.
Minority interests represent the aggregate proportionate interests of our
joint venture partners in the profit or loss of each joint venture company
during the relevant accounting period. Minority interests are computed with
reference to shares owned by the joint venture partners. In respect of each
joint venture company, we own at least 50% of the voting shares and fully
consolidate the joint venture companies, in accordance with UK GAAP, on the
basis of our exercise of dominant influence over the relevant joint venture.
As at 31 March 2001, we had 7 joint ventures, compared to 10 at the end of the
prior year.
Business Customers increased by 73% during the year to 31 March 2001, from
2,989 in March 2000 to 5,159 at year-end.
Corporate
Administration costs increased to £3.8m during the year ended 31 March 2001
(2000 - £2.5m). This increase largely arises from our status as a public
company for a full twelve months, compared to just four months during the year
ended 31 March 2000 following our flotation on the London Stock Exchange in
December 1999. Fourth quarter costs also include £0.2m in respect of a
re-organisation of the Group's legal structure in order to simplify
administration and reduce ongoing costs, and a redundancy provision of £0.3m
relating to the departure of certain corporate staff.
Amortisation and impairment of goodwill Amortisation charges totalled £25.4m
for the year (2000 - £5.1m), and have been charged to the profit and loss
account due largely to goodwill on internet acquisitions being written off
over 18 months. Following an impairment review of acquisitions made during
the previous financial year, impairment write-downs totalling £5.9m have been
recorded during the fourth quarter, all in respect of Consumer Division
acquisitions. In particular, this reflects the fall in market valuations in
the internet sector.
Provision for NIC and similar taxes on share options. We have made a
provision of £12,000 for NIC and similar taxes on share options as at 31 March
2001. The corresponding charge for the prior year was restated from £2.7m to
£0.7m to reflect the change in accounting policy in response to UITF25 which
requires the liability to be spread over the period to vesting. In the
previous year we made a full provision following the grant of options and as a
result have made a prior year adjustment to reduce the charge by £2.0m.
Cost of shares issued at under value. There was no charge during the year to
31 March 2001. During the prior year, we incurred a one-off charge of £2.3m
(including related NIC) relating to the allotment of 400,000 ordinary shares
of 1p each to two Directors at nominal value.
Net interest income for the year to 31 March 2001 was £2.4m, compared to £1.2m
for the prior year. The increase was primarily due to the investment of the
remaining net funds of the Company's flotation on 2 December 1999 for a full
year (2000: 4 months) in a variety of interest-bearing deposit accounts.
Taxation. We have incurred a cumulative net loss since inception. Due to the
uncertainty surrounding the future benefits of the net tax losses carried
forward, the Group has not recognised a deferred tax asset.
Loss for the period. The Group recorded a loss for the year of £45.0m (2000 -
£12.6m), or 22.5p per share for the year ended 31 March 2001 (2000 - 8.2p).
Excluding the effect of the goodwill amortisation and impairment, provision
for NIC and similar taxes on share options and charges for shares issued at
below market value, the loss for the year ended 31 March 2001 was £14.4m
compared to £4.5m for the year ended 31 March 2000. We have never paid or
declared a dividend on our shares and intend to reinvest any earnings to
finance the growth of our business.
Liquidity and capital resources. During the year ended 31 March 2001, our
operating activities used cash totalling £20.0m (2000 - £7.5m), primarily due
to operating losses and increases in working capital. During the fourth
quarter, operating activities consumed £5.8m of cash. Capital expenditure and
financial investment during the year totalled £2.1m (2000 - £1.2m) and related
almost entirely to the purchase of telecommunications and computer equipment
as we expanded our operations. We made a number of acquisitions resulting in a
net cash outflow totalling £7.2m (2000 - £5.4m). This relates to the cash
component of these acquisitions, together with related transaction costs. We
have no significant bank lending facilities, borrowings (except for finance
leases or hire purchase agreements) or lines of credit. Our principal
commitments relate to annual obligations under property and vehicles leases
and totalled £1.1m as at 31 March 2001.
Consolidated profit and loss account
for the quarter and year ended 31 March 2001
Quarter Quarter Year Year
ended 31 ended 31 ended 31 ended 31
March March March March
2001 2000 2001 2000
unaudited unaudited unaudited audited
& &
restated restated
Note £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Turnover
Continuing operations 14,527 7,319 39,079 22,420
Acquisitions - - 11,063 -
3;4 14,527 7,319 50,142 22,420
Cost of sales (9,703) (4,400) (30,973) (12,610)
Gross profit 4,824 2,919 19,169 9,810
Administrative expenses before the 11,304 5,780 36,035 15,719
following:
Amortisation of goodwill 6,420 3,309 25,393 5,097
Impairment of goodwill 5,900 - 5,900 -
Provision for NIC and similar 9 (26) 44 (692) 704
taxes on share options
Shares issued at under value - - - 2,261
Total administrative expenses 23,598 9,133 66,636 23,781
Operating loss before goodwill 3;4 (6,480) (2,861) (16,866) (5,909)
amortisation and impairment,
provision for NIC and similar
taxes on share options and shares
issued at under value
Continuing operations (18,774) (6,214) (45,376) (13,971)
Acquisitions - - (2,091) -
Operating loss (18,774) (6,214) (47,467) (13,971)
Net interest receivable 382 836 2,365 1,208
Loss on ordinary activities before (18,392) (5,378) (45,102) (12,763)
taxation
Taxation 10 (6) (16) (6)
Loss on ordinary activities after (18,382) (5,384) (45,118) (12,769)
taxation
Minority interests 32 76 78 158
Retained loss for the period (18,350) (5,308) (45,040) (12,611)
Loss per ordinary share 5
Basic and diluted loss per share 9.1p 2.8p 22.5p 8.2p
Basic and diluted loss per share 3.0p 1.0p 7.2p 3.0p
before goodwill amortisation and
impairment, provision for NIC and
similar taxes on share options and
shares issued at under value
Statement of total recognised gains and losses
for the quarter and year ended 31 March 2001
Quarter ended Quarter ended Year ended Year
31 March 2001 31 March 2000 31 March ended 31
2001 March
2000
unaudited unaudited & unaudited audited &
restated restated
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Retained loss for (18,350) (5,308) (45,040) (12,611)
the period
Exchange adjustments (115) (36) (120) (17)
Total recognised (18,465) (5,344) (45,160) (12,628)
losses for the
period
Prior year 9 1,992
adjustment
Total recognised (43,168)
losses since last
period
Consolidated balance sheet
as at 31 March 2001
31 March 31 March 2000
2001
unaudited audited &
restated
Note £'000 £'000
Fixed assets
Intangible fixed assets 24,985 40,660
Tangible fixed assets 3,179 1,675
28,164 42,335
Current assets
Stock - finished goods 1,401 587
Debtors 14,566 8,284
Investments - short term deposits 24,250 49,500
Cash at bank and in hand 1,702 3,340
41,919 61,711
Creditors: amounts falling due within one (12,205) (8,309)
year
Net current assets 29,714 53,402
Total assets less current liabilities 57,878 95,737
Creditors: amounts falling due after more (279) (245)
than one year
Provisions for liabilities and charges 9 (3,371) (704)
Net assets 54,228 94,788
Capital and reserves 6
Called up share capital 505 493
Shares to be issued 752 80
Share premium account 72,425 72,220
Merger reserve 38,536 34,844
Profit and loss account (57,856) (12,696)
Total equity shareholders' funds 7 54,362 94,941
Minority interests (134) (153)
Capital employed 54,228 94,788
Consolidated cash flow statement
for the quarter and year ended 31 March 2001
Quarter Quarter Year ended Year ended
ended 31 ended 31 31 March 31 March
March 2001 March 2000 2001 2000
unaudited audited unaudited audited
Note £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Net cash outflow from 8 (5,828) (4,672) (20,052) (7,463)
operating activities
Return on investments
and servicing of finance
Net interest 627 508 2,679 880
Taxation 67 (265) (5) (265)
Capital expenditure and
financial investment
Purchase of tangible (588) (143) (2,205) (819)
fixed assets
Purchase of intangible (213) (410) (213) (410)
fixed assets
Receipt from sale of 47 - 47 -
tangible fixed assets
Receipt from sale of 312 - 312 -
intangible asset
(442) (553) (2,059) (1,229)
Acquisitions
Net cash/(overdraft) - (204) 392 (192)
acquired with subsidiary
undertakings
Purchase of subsidiaries 9 129 (5,053) (6,661) (5,216)
Purchase of business - - (914) -
129 (5,257) (7,183) (5,408)
Cash outflow before use (5,447) (10,239) (26,620) (13,485)
of liquid resources and
financing
Management of liquid
resources
Decrease/(increase) in 4,218 11,500 25,250 (49,500)
short-term deposits
Financing
Issue of shares 32 9 46 66,362
Expenses on issue of - (51) - (5,527)
shares
Capital element of (32) (33) (107) (33)
finance lease payments
- (75) (61) 60,802
(Decrease)/increase in (1,229) 1,186 (1,431) (2,183)
cash in the period
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