Trading Update

Intercede Group PLC 25 February 2002 INTERCEDE GROUP plc ('Intercede' or 'the Group') Trading Update Intercede, a leading developer of security management software, today provides an update on trading ahead of its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2002. In the period following its admission onto AIM, the Group has taken steps to position itself as a global business, able to earn long term revenues for its proprietary product, edefice. A great deal of time and effort has been devoted to this purpose, culminating in the release of edefice 6.0, as announced on 16 October 2001. At the time of the interim results announced in December 2001, the Board also advised that, whilst a move away from UK based project work was inevitably serving to reduce short term revenues, encouraging progress had been made with the announcement of OEM agreements with two major smart card industry players. This will result in the incorporation of edefice into those companies' core product lines, thereby offering considerable scope for the generation of significant future revenues. Whilst further progress has been made in the second half of the financial year, short term revenues have continued to be depressed in a difficult and slow moving market. As a result, revenues for the second half are likely to be broadly in line with the first half, prior to consideration of the $800,000 up front commitment from our OEM partner referred to below. Good progress is being made both with the existing partner relationships and further potential partners. The Group's technology is now being actively marketed as a core part of Oberthur's AuthentIC Security Manager solution. This has already resulted in edefice effectively forming part of Oberthur's offering for a number of high profile projects around the world which are expected to be placed within the next 12 months. The other OEM agreement, which was announced on 7 December 2001, included a commitment to buy an initial number of licences to the value of $800,000 against a series of development milestones. To date $400,000 has been paid over to Intercede and it is anticipated that the balance will be received by 31 March 2002. Having due regard for current market concerns about revenue recognition, the accounting treatment of the $800,000 will be determined as part of the year end audit process. Whilst the Directors believe that the two existing OEM agreements are sufficiently significant to see the Group through to profitability in due course, discussions with a number of other major industry players are already taking place. Further updates on progress will be provided as and when agreements are signed. Richard Parris, Chairman & Chief Executive of Intercede, commented: 'I am pleased with the progress being made to consolidate Intercede's position as a leading international supplier of security management software for smart cards. Although trading conditions have remained difficult throughout the current financial period, the Group has made significant progress in establishing a platform for the generation of significant future revenues. We will continue to work closely with existing and future partners to fulfil our ambition of becoming a major player in the global IT security management market.' 25 February 2002 ENQUIRIES: Intercede Group plc Tel. 01455 558111 Richard Parris, Chairman & Chief Executive Andrew Walker, Finance Director College Hill Tel. 020 7457 2020 Archie Berens E-mail:archie.berens@collegehill.com Clare Warren E-mail:clare.warren@collegehill.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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