Interim Results
Northamber PLC
24 February 2004
Northamber PLC
Interim Report & Accounts (Unaudited)
For Six Months Ended 31st December 2003
Chairman's Statement
Results
The Board is pleased to report pre tax profits of £659,000 for the six months to
December 2003, a marked improvement from the £260,000 loss reported a year ago.
This is especially pleasing given the difficult conditions caused by the weak
dollar, which fuelled further price erosion of an estimated 15% in many of our
product categories. By further increasing sales volumes, and we believe market
share, we have managed to hold the overall decline in sales to less than 4%,
which at £115 million for the period, we consider is a very satisfactory
outcome.
We also made further progress in reducing overheads and especially evolving our
business model away from selling high volume but profitless products. We have
continued with our policy of concentrating our sales efforts on our more
profitable product areas.
Given these results and the strength of our balance sheet, we have decided to
increase the interim dividend by 10% to 1.1p per share from Earnings Per Share
of 1.43p compared with a loss of 0.58p in the corresponding period of last year,
which itself benefited from a small tax credit.
As at 31 December 2003, we had net cash balances of £5.2m equivalent to over 16p
per share and our net asset value per share increased to 100p from 98.3p at the
end of June 2003.
Trading
As mentioned above, the US Dollar weakness over the period, coupled with
industry trends, resulted in further downward price pressure on the product
ranges which we distribute and which we estimate to have been circa 15%.
The necessary tight management of overheads, that key relationship between
actual costs, sales revenues and gross margin in monetary as well as percentage
terms, is a core factor in any business model such as ours. The major difficulty
in a deflationary price environment is the ability to reduce monetary overheads
in line with the relevant available cash profit margin.
Our business strategy, and the evolving and intended changes to our business
model and vendor product focus, resulted in both a better mix in terms of margin
and reduced overheads. This was despite an overall increase in unit volumes.
We were therefore able to increase our gross profit contribution despite a near
4% decline in the value of overall sales.
The Balance Sheet
During the period we purchased and cancelled 1.1 million shares at a cost of
£662,000. Despite this our balance sheet remains very strong with no debt and
£5.2m of cash at 31 December 2003. Despite a small decrease in total net assets
with fewer shares outstanding net asset value per share increased to 100p. The
daily focus on the key business ratios remains at the forefront of our
management controls.
Dividend
I have previously drawn attention to dividend policies necessarily reflecting
trading and the maintenance of a healthy balance sheet. As a consequence of
these results, your Board feels it appropriate to increase the 1p per share
interim dividend paid last year by 10% to 1.1p per share.
The proposed dividend will be payable on 7th May 2004 to members on the Register
as at 13th April 2004.
OUTLOOK
Within a sector which has encountered more than its fair share of downturns and
with the majority of IT products produced within a Dollar based context, the
ongoing US Dollar weakness will require very tight focus. The cost base model
of our sector is, however, already considerably over-stretched and the
opportunities are clearly there for well based, financially proven and
logistically strong companies such as ourselves.
Those pressures on competitors and for that matter suppliers with less flexible
resource and capital, should encourage positive movement towards a more
commercially mature model and away from a revenue growth focus. That then
enabling the sector to rebase itself more traditionally on the value of the
working capital employed.
Your Board is confident, if understandably slightly cautious, of a satisfactory
outcome for the current trading year as a whole.
D.M. Phillips
Chairman
24 February 2004
Enquiries
David Phillips, Chairman Tel: 020 8296 7000
Northamber plc
Philip Davies
Charles Stanley Tel: 020 7739 8200
CONSOLIDATED UNAUDITED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT
For the six months ended 31st December 2003
6 months ended 31 6 months ended 31 12 months ended 30
December December June
2003 2002 2003
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Audited)
£000 £000 £000
Turnover 114,920 119,266 240,481
Cost of Sales (105,417) (109,843) (221,563)
Gross Profit 9,503 9,423 18,918
Net operating expenses (8,943) (9,753) (18,513)
OPERATING PROFIT/(LOSS) 560 (330) 405
Interest Receivable 100 79 103
Interest Payable (1) (9) (86)
Profit/(Loss) on 659 (260) 422
ordinary activities
before taxation
Taxation (charge)/credit (198) 70 (116)
Profit/(Loss) on 461 (190) 306
ordinary activities
after taxation
Equity Dividends (344) (331) (977)
Retained Profit/(loss) 117 (521) (671)
for period
Earnings/(Loss) per 1.43p (0.58)p 0.94p
ordinary share
All operations are continuing.
There is no difference between the loss on ordinary activities before taxation
and the retained loss for the period stated above, and the historical cost
equivalents.
The comparative figures of cost of sales and net operating expenses for the half
year ended 31 December 2002 have been reclassified in line with the audited
figures for the year ended 30 June 2003.
CONSOLIDATED UNAUDITED INTERIM BALANCE SHEET
As at 31 December 2003
At 31 December At 31 December At 30 June
2003 2002 2003
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Audited)
£000 £000 £000
Fixed Assets
Tangible Assets 5,238 5,988 5,575
Investments 2,837 2,836 2,837
8,075 8,824 8,412
Current Assets
Stock 21,390 17,742 13,214
Debtors 27,128 29,776 27,249
Cash at bank and in hand 5,190 3,378 7,165
53,708 50,896 47,628
Current liabilities
Creditors due within 1 year (29,623) (26,659) (23,324)
Net current assets 24,085 24,237 24,304
Total assets less current liabilities 32,160 33,061 32,716
Deferred Taxation (859) (882) (859)
Net Assets 31,301 32,179 31,857
Capital and reserves
Share Capital 1,565 1,634 1,620
Share Premium 5,724 5,724 5,724
Capital Redemption Reserve 220 151 165
Profit and Loss 23,792 24,670 24,348
Equity shareholders' funds 31,301 32,179 31,857
Net assets per share 100.0p 98.5p 98.3p
CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
For the six months ended 31st December 2003
6 months ended 31 December 6 months ended 31 December 12 months ended 30 June
2003 2002 2003
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Audited)
£000 £000 £000
Cash outflow from continuing (1,171) (5,130) (365)
operating activities
Returns on investments and servicing of finance
Interest received 100 79 103
Interest paid (1) (9) (86)
Income from fixed asset 99 99 219
investments
Net cash inflow from returns 198 169 236
on investments and servicing
of finance
Taxation
UK corporation tax (paid) / (202) - 179
received
Capital expenditure and financial investment
Purchase of tangible fixed (169) (268) (408)
assets
Sale of tangible fixed assets 31 23 62
Net cash outflow from (138) (245) (346)
capital expenditure and
financial investment
Equity dividends paid - - (978)
Cash outflow before (1,313) (5,206) (1,274)
financing
Financing
Purchase of shares (662) (29) (174)
Issue of shares - 26 26
Net cash outflow from (662) (3) (148)
financing
Decrease in cash in the (1,975) (5,209) (1,422)
period
NORTHAMBER PLC
Unaudited Interim Statement for the half year ended 31st December 2003.
NOTES
1. The Directors have declared an interim net dividend of 1.1p per ordinary
share (2002 - 1.0p) which will be paid on 7th May 2004 to shareholders on the
register on 13th April 2004. The ex-dividend date for the shares will be 7th
April 2004.
2. The tax charge for the six months ended 31st December 2003 has been based
on the expected tax rate for the year of 30%.
3. The calculation of earnings per share is based on profits of £461,000
(2002 - loss £190,000) on the weighted average number of 32,243,565 (2002 -
32,506,524) ordinary shares in issue.
4. The calculation of net assets per ordinary share is based on 31,299,000
(2002 - 32,675,400) ordinary shares being the number of shares in issue at the
end of the period.
5. The interim financial statements for the six months ended 31st December
2003 are unaudited. They have been prepared on the basis of accounting policies
consistent with those adopted for the year ended 30th June 2003. The results
for the year ended 30th June 2003 have been summarised for comparative purposes
within the meaning of Section 240 of the Companies Act.
6. The full financial statements for the year ended 30th June 2003 were
reported on by the auditors without qualifications or statements under Section
237(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 1985 and have been delivered to the Registrar
of Companies.
7. A copy of the Interim Statement is being sent to all shareholders and is
available to the public from the Company's trading office at Namber House, 23
Davis Road, Chessington, Surrey, KT9 1HS.
8. These interim results were approved by the Board of Directors on 24
February 2004.
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