Trading Statement

RNS Number : 9439B

RWS Holdings PLC

10 April 2013

 



                                                                                                                                        10 April 2013

RWS Holdings plc

Half Year Trading Statement

RWS Holdings plc (RWS), Europe's leading provider of intellectual property support services (patent translations and searches) and technical translations, today provides an update on trading for the half year ended 31 March 2013 ahead of the announcement of its half year results on 10 June 2013.

Trading & Financial Update

The Board expects Group revenues for the half year ended 31 March 2013 to be approximately £36.5 million compared to £33.7 million in the previous financial year.  At constant currency rates revenues would have been approximately £1 million higher. This strong performance owes much to the core patent translation business, where the combined effect of earlier client wins and inovia referred work has been beneficial. Medical translations performed well, and we have seen further growth in China and Japan, whilst PatBase revenues continue to progress.  Our German and Swiss operations have successfully reversed last year's decline.  Overall, our underlying profit expectations for the year as a whole remain unchanged.  However, should sterling continue its recent weakness, the Group would expect profits to exceed current market expectations.

We have hedged estimated net trading exposure to the Euro at 1 Euro = 85p from 1 April to 30 September 2013 and at 1 Euro = 87p from 1 October to 31 March 2014.  As regards US$ exposure, the Group has continued to accumulate US$ balances as a natural hedge against the inovia earn-out liability which is expected to be paid in late September 2013.

The Group has continued to strengthen its financial position with shareholder funds in excess of £65 million and net cash of £28 million as at 31 March 2013, providing an underpin to the Group's ability to both make acquisitions and support its progressive dividend policy.

Market Update

In March, the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) published figures showing a 6.6% increase in the 2012 PCT filings to 194,400 from 182,379 in 2011, establishing a new record in spite of continued economic problems.  The European Patent Office also published figures in January showing that the total number of European patent filings increased by 5.24% to 257,744 in 2012 from 244,934 in 2011, again a new record.

Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman of RWS, commented on outlook:

"RWS' position as the premier provider of intellectual property support services has proved to be resilient throughout the recent years of economic problems. We expect to continue growing our share of the patent translation and intellectual property services markets.

Our financial position remains strong; we look forward to completing the acquisition of inovia which will further enhance our growth prospects, and we see further interesting niche acquisition opportunities.  We therefore expect additional progress in the second half of the year."

For further information contact:

RWS Holdings plc

Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman                                                                                   01753 480200

MHP

Katie Hunt/Simon Hockridge                                                                                            020 3128 8100

Numis

Stuart Skinner (Nominated Adviser)                                                                                   020 7260 1000

James Serjeant (Corporate Broker)

About RWS:

RWS is the world's leading provider of patent translations and one of Europe's leading players in the provision of intellectual property support services and high level technical, medical, commercial, legal and financial translation services.  Specialist divisions provide for the diverse needs of a blue-chip multinational client base from Europe, North America and Asia in the aerospace, automotive, chemical, defence, electronics, financial, insurance, legal, medical, pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries.  RWS is based in the UK, with offices in Europe, New York, Tokyo and Beijing, and is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).

RWS also has a one third interest in inovia Holdings Pty Limited which is headquartered in New York and is the largest non-law firm provider of international patent filing solutions globally.  Its patented, web-based technology provides over 1000 law firm and corporate clients with cost effective processing of international patent applications, typically producing cost savings in excess of 30%.  From its locations in the US, Australia and Europe, its patent filing service covers 62 jurisdictions in 84 countries.

Over 2,000,000 patent applications are filed per annum.  Applications filed in Europe have more than doubled in the last ten years to 258,000 applications in 2012 (source: European Patent Office), a 5.24% increase from 2011.  Applications from Asia have also seen significant recent growth.

For further information please visit: www.rws.com

 

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