Trading Update

RNS Number : 3139L

Eckoh PLC

27 April 2015

 



For immediate release

27th April 2015

Eckoh PLC

("Eckoh" or "the Group")

Trading Update

Eckoh (AIM:ECK), the global provider of secure payment products and customer service solutions, today announces that trading for the twelve months ended 31 March 2015 was a year of significant growth, in line with market expectations.

During the year, strong sales and margin momentum has underpinned an increase in Adjusted* Operating Profit of over 50% at the same time as investing in establishing the Group's US operations.

This excellent performance has primarily been driven by the organic growth of Eckoh's proposition in the UK, where we have secured over 20 new contracts during the year as well as successfully renewing 100% of all significant contracts that came up for renewal.  In the US market we have also made encouraging progress with sales of our secure payment proposition, and since the contracts update issued on March 31st we are delighted to announce that the Group has secured an additional US contract.  This agreement for a CallGuard On-site installation is with a leading provider of customer experience, engagement and growth solutions and is another indication of the ongoing strength of our US pipeline.

In view of this growth, and the significant opportunity that is available for our payment proposition in the US, we have accelerated our US investment plans with our headcount now standing at six US employees. This expansion and investment is expected to deliver financial benefits in the years ahead.

The Group has maintained a robust balance sheet during the year and our financial strength continues to support our stated growth objectives and our investment in the business, particularly in the US. As we enter the new financial year, we are well placed to continue to build on the progress achieved over the last 12 months and therefore the outlook remains very positive for Eckoh.

The Board looks forward to providing a further update at the time of full year results, which will be announced in the week commencing 15 June 2015.

Nik Philpot, CEO of Eckoh, commented, "We are very pleased to be able to announce another year of strong growth in the UK that has been achieved whilst investing and successfully establishing our presence in the US. This strong momentum has continued into the new financial year and we remain confident of our prospects of further significant growth in the years ahead."

*excluding amortisation of acquired intangible assets, acquisition costs, non-recurring admin expenses and expenses relating to share based payments

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For more information, please contact:

Eckoh plc

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer                                                                      Tel: [phone]

Adam Moloney, Group Finance Director

www.eckoh.com

N+1 Singer

Shaun Dobson                                                                                                                 Tel: [phone]

Ben Wright

www.n1singer.com

Buchanan

Sophie McNulty

Gabriella Clinkard

Stephanie Watson                                                                                                         Tel: [phone]

www.buchanan.uk.com

About Eckoh plc

Eckoh is a global provider of secure payment products and customer service solutions, working with organisations in over 10 countries around the world.

Our range of secure payment products removes customer card data from contact centres and IT environments. They are designed to help merchants reduce the risk of fraud and become compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Eckoh's CallGuard product can be deployed on the customer's site or hosted in the Cloud. It allows contact centres to take card payments from customers without their agents seeing, hearing or accessing card data in any way. We have been a PCI DSS Level One accredited Service Provider since 2010 and we currently process over $1 billion in card payments annually.

Eckoh's customer service solutions enable payments, transactions and enquiries to be processed without the caller needing to talk to a contact centre agent. This significantly reduces our clients' costs, whilst freeing up their agents to deal with more complex enquiries. These solutions are delivered over the phone, web and mobile devices. Eckoh is the largest provider of such hosted services in the UK.

For more information, visit: www.eckoh.com or www.eckoh.us

 

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