Final Results
To be released at 7.00 a.m.
on 4 April 2006
ToLuna Plc
(the "Company")
Preliminary Results
for the period ended 31st December 2005
ToLuna plc, the leading European independent provider of online panels and
technology services to the market research industry, today announces its
results from the 16 March 2005 to 31 December 2005, which includes trading from
10 May 2005. These are the first year end results to be announced since the
placing and admission to AIM in May 2005.
Highlights
* Successful IPO on AIM in May
* Proforma turnover for the Group of GBP 3 million, nearly tripling the
previous year result
* Proforma PBT of GBP 756,000, over 22 times the previous year
* Revenues up significantly across all three lines of business: panel access,
panel building and access to technology
* In line with stated strategy, significant expansion of operations to create
a Pan-European presence with offices and management team in Paris, London
and in Frankfurt following acquisition of German online pioneer Speedfacts
in December 2005
* Growth in panellists from 350,000 in May 2005 to 875,000 currently, now
across 13 countries
* Current trading very strong: Q1 revenue of GBP1.4 million, up 260%.
Commenting on the results, Chairman, George Kynoch said, "I'm delighted the
results reflect the Group's continuing strong performance and are significantly
ahead of management expectations. Demand for all our services continues to grow
as market research companies switch an increasing proportion of their market
research online. This gives us considerable confidence in the growth potential
of ToLuna."
Further enquires
ToLuna plc
Frederic-Charles Petit, Chief Executive Tel: 00336 33 08 03 91
Richard Bernstein, Non-Executive Director Tel: 0207 491 0770
Powerscourt
Victoria Palmer-Moore Tel: 0207 236 5680
Notes to Editors
ToLuna operates and builds online panels across Europe. It has designed and
operates software to enable research to be undertaken online.
ToLuna offers three core services to the market research industry:
* access to its online panellists;
* creation of dedicated online panels; and
* licensing of its own hosted proprietary technology.
The group operates across Europe with offices in London, Paris and Frankfurt,
following the acquisition of Speedfacts at the end of 2005.
Chairman's Statement
I am pleased to report the results of the Group for the period from
incorporation, 16 March 2005 to 31 December 2005. The Group commenced trading
on 10 May 2005. These are the first year end results to be announced since our
placing and admission to AIM in May 2005, and I am pleased to be able to report
profit before taxation of £430,000. These excellent results have been achieved
alongside a significant expansion of our operations to create a pan-European
presence. No direct comparatives have been included as ToLuna Plc was
incorporated as a new holding company for the Group in March 2005. Proforma
turnover for the Group for the full year was £3 million and proforma profit
before taxation was £756,000 as detailed in the proforma income statement at
the end of this statement, showing growth of 2.8 times turnover and 22.2 times
profit before taxation.
Your directors are not recommending a dividend for the period.
When Toluna acquired the operating subsidiaries on 10 May 2005, the business
was operating from one office in Paris with five international panels and a
total of 350,000 panel members. Since then, we have successfully opened an
office in London and our acquisition of Speedfacts Gesellschaft für Online
Research mbH ("Speedfacts") at the year end has given us a strong presence in
Germany. Presently, we have panels in 13 European countries and 875,000
panellists.
Demand for our services continues to grow as market research companies and
others switch an increasing proportion of their market research online, drawn
by the very significant advantages in cost and speed of processing. This gives
us considerable confidence in the growth potential of the Company.
The investment made during 2005 will enable the Company to handle the
increasing level of business.
Placing and admission to AIM
ToLuna was incorporated on 16 March 2005 and acquired the trading subsidiaries
Cjudge Limited and Cjudge SAS on 10 May 2005. On 25th May 2005, the Company
raised £4.4million, net of expenses, by means of a placing accompanied by
admission of the Company's shares to AIM. The funds raised from the placing
allowed us to accelerate our growth by increasing our panel size and market
penetration, while continuing to invest in the development of our technology,
opening of new offices and the identification of sound strategic acquisitions.
The capital injection and the good reception from the market has given us
significant momentum which has continued into the current year.
ToLuna's shares, which were priced at 70p in the float, have recently traded at
130p. While share prices are volatile and not within the company's control, we
are pleased the shares sit at a significant premium to the placing price at
float.
Speedfacts Acquisition
On 30 December 2005, Speedfacts was purchased for £2.06 million. The
consideration was satisfied by the payment to the vendors of £1.91 million in
cash and by the issue of 146,588 new ordinary shares in ToLuna. The acquisition
was a first step in our strategy of expanding into other major European
markets, giving us an immediate presence in Germany, together with an important
strategic co-operation agreement with freenet.de AG, one of Germany's biggest
internet service providers.
Operational Review
Revenue has grown across all three lines of business: panel access, panel
building and access to technology.
This significant improvement in performance resulted from:
* The successful strategy of expanding our office network with offices in
London in addition to our operational centre in Paris. Your directors
strongly believe that although our focus is online panel and technology,
clients also benefit from contact with local teams who understand local
markets;
* The leveraging of our offering to clients, providing not only strong sample
services but also panel building and proprietary access to hosted data
collection technology;
* Adding more resources to service clients, in project management, sales and
consulting;
* Increasing repeat business from existing clients, as well as developing and
broadening our portfolio of clients.
This has been achieved by adding fresh talented management to the core team at
ToLuna in sales, IT, client services and finance. ToLuna is strongly committed
to continue to invest in its people in order to continue and accelerate our
strong growth.
Services
ToLuna offers its clients access to its panel, panel building operations and to
its technology. This gives the Group the ability to offer a wide range of
services specifically suited to client needs and to adapt to the evolving
requirements of those clients in a market that is still changing, while
reshaping market research.
Capacity to deliver services, whether they are panel or technology driven, is
key to the long term success of ToLuna. ToLuna has invested in people by
growing the production, panel management, IT and sales team.
* Panel Access and Panel Building
As part of our efforts to offer ever-better service to clients, we have grown
our panel base from five countries to 13 and from 350,000 panellists to 729,000
as of 31 December 2005.
We have also worked hard to maintain the quality of our panellist relationship
management through our "testandvote" and "Toluna" portals. This has been
achieved by developing the functions of the panellist portals (quick vote,
product testing and opinions gathering).
* Technology
In 2005, our portfolio of technology clients grew by adding new clients such as
Galeries Lafayette, SwissLife and Best Western. In line with our stated
strategy, we have invested in infrastructure and research and development. This
has involved:
* Growing our IT resources;
* Upgrading our IT capacity by investing in new equipment;
* Creating access to new resources of research and development; and
* Development of our new AutomateSurvey solution.
ToLuna is distinguished from its competitors by the high levels of investment
in proprietary IT and in research and development. This has been key to the
past development of our offer and we intend to continue in that vein.
Prospects
The strong growth seen in 2005 has continued into the current year, with
revenue in the first quarter of £1.4 million, an increase of approximately 260
per cent. over the same period in 2005. The market for our services continues
to increase and the investment and hard work that has been put in by ToLuna's
management and staff is achieving positive results. On behalf of your Board I
should like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff, management and
advisers for their significant contribution to our success over the past year.
With a strong start to the year, your directors are confident that ToLuna's
prospects are excellent. We believe our investment in the future gives us a
solid platform from which to exploit our position as one of the leading players
in a fast growing market place.
George Kynoch
Chairman
3 April 2006
Unaudited Proforma Consolidated Income Statement
The additional proforma information does not form part of the financial
statements on which the auditors have issued their report; however, it should
be read in conjunction with them.
The Group acquired Cjudge on 10 May 2005 and therefore the consolidated income
statement in the financial statements only includes the results from that date.
The following proforma information shows the results of the Group for the full
year ended 31 December 2005 as if the Group had been in existence for the full
year. The comparative figures are extracted from the placing document dated 13
May 2005.
Proforma year ended Year ended
31December
31 December
2005
2004
£'000
£'000
Revenue 3,001 1,069
Staff costs (excluding share option scheme (1,211) (567)
grant cost)
Other operating expenses (1,147) (477)
Profit from operations 643 25
Net investment income 113 9
Profit before tax 756 34
Tax (233) (14)
Retained profit for the financial year 523 20
Earnings per share
Basic 1.46p n/a
Diluted 1.45p n/a
The earnings per share have been calculated on the assumption that the shares
at the time of the acquisition of Cjudge Ltd and at the time of listing on AIM
were in issue for the full year.
The retained profit for the financial year using the actual tax payable of £
45,000 would be £711,000. The earnings per share based on these retained
earnings are basic 1.99 pence and diluted 1.97 pence.
Consolidated Income Statement
Note Period from 16
March 2005 to
31December
2005
£'000
Revenue 2,155
Staff costs (1,001)
Other operating expenses (839)
Profit from operations 315
Net interest income 115
Profit before tax 430
Tax 2 (147)
Retained profit for the financial 283
year period
Earnings per share
Basic 4 0.99p
Diluted 4 0.98p
Consolidated Balance Sheet
31 December
2005
£'000
Non-current assets
Goodwill 2,088
Other intangible assets 458
Property, plant and equipment 70
Deferred tax 295
2,911
Current assets
Trade and other receivables 1,323
Cash and cash equivalents 2,968
4,291
Total assets 7,202
Equity and liabilities
Equity
Share capital 359
Share premium account 5,365
Retained earnings 339
Total equity 6,063
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables 1,048
Tax liabilities 91
Total current liabilities 1,139
Total equity and liabilities 7,202
Consolidated Cash Flow Statement
Period from
16 March 2005
to 31December
2005
£'000
Operating activities
Profit before tax 430
Adjustments for:
Depreciation and amortisation 123
Share option grant costs 56
Loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment 1
610
Increase in receivables (563)
Increase in payables 481
Cash generated from operations 528
Net investment income (115)
Net cash from operating activities 413
Investing activities
Interest received 127
Interest paid (12)
Purchase of subsidiary undertakings (net of cash (1,540)
acquired)
Purchase of intangible assets (446)
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (37)
Net cash from investing activities (1,908)
Cash outflow before financing (1,495)
Financing
Issue of shares 4,443
Finance leases entered into 20
Net cash inflow from financing 4,463
Increase in cash and cash equivalents in period 2,968
Cash at start of the period -
Cash and cash equivalents at end of the period 2,968
Notes to the Financial Statements
1. Publication of non-statutory accounts
The financial information set out in this preliminary announcement does not
constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 240 of the Companies Act
1985.
The financial information for the period ended 31 December 2005 has been
extracted from the Company's financial statements to that date which have
received an unqualified auditors' report but have not yet been delivered to the
Registrar of Companies.
2. Taxation
Period from
16 March 2005
to
31 December
2005
£'000
Current tax
UK tax 46
Foreign tax -
Deferred tax 101
147
Deferred tax relates to the utilisation of the deferred tax asset recognised on
the acquisition of the Cjudge SAS in respect of accumulated tax losses.
Tax reconciliation Period from
16 March 2005
to
31 December
2005
£'000
Profit before tax 430
Tax at 30% on profit before tax 129
Non deductible items 18
Tax expenses 147
3. Dividends
No dividends were paid or are proposed in respect of the period ended 31
December 2005.
4. Earnings per share
Earnings per share has been calculated on a profit of £283,000 and the average
number of shares in issue for the period of 28,616,031.
The diluted earnings per share is calculated on the assumption that all options
granted were exercised. This would give rise to a total weighted average number
of ordinary shares in issue for the period of 28,397,823.
Basic Diluted
£'000 £'000
Profit for the financial year 283 283
Earnings per share 0.99p 0.98p
5. Copies of the Report and Accounts will be sent to share holders shortly and
will be available from the registered office of the Company, 29 Curzon Street,
London W1J 7TL.
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