AGM Statement
FDM Group PLC
10 May 2007
Embargoed for release at 7.00am 10 May 2007
FDM Group plc
("FDM" or "the Company")
AGM Statement
At FDM's Annual General Meeting, which will be held today at 10.00am at the
Company's offices at Lanchester House, Trafalgar Place, Brighton BN1 4FL,
Chairman Ivan Martin will make the following statement to shareholders attending
the meeting:
"I am pleased to report that trading in the first quarter of 2007 has been in
line with our expectations, with sales well ahead of the comparative first
quarter of 2006. Market conditions continue to be very favourable and we are
experiencing continuing high levels of demand for our IT staffing solutions,
with several new clients won during the period. Debtor days have continued to
improve, with a consequent positive impact on the Group's cash position.
"Following the opening of our City of London Training Academy in January 2007,
our ability to recruit personnel for our internal Mountie training programme has
been significantly enhanced and we remain on target to have 194 Mounties on
billing by 30 June 2007, compared to 118 as at 30 June 2006 and 154 as at 31
December 2006. Mountie utilisation rates have remained steady at 98%.
"We have recently introduced a new and innovative remuneration package for our
internally trained Mounties who have completed two years of employment with the
Group. The initial response to this package has been very positive and the
Board expect it to encourage Mounties to remain as long term FDM employees.
Margins earned from the services provided by Mounties will remain significantly
ahead of industry average. This initiative should also enable FDM to offer a
greater range of services to existing and prospective customers and thus exploit
project life cycles more fully, whilst maintaining our policy of delivering
solutions on the basis of time and materials spent.
"In conclusion, FDM remains firmly on track to achieve its objectives for 2007
and beyond and we view the future with a high degree of confidence."
For further information please contact:
FDM Group Plc Noble & Company Limited Pelham PR
Tel: 0870 060 3100 Tel: 0207 763 2200 Tel: 0207 743 6679
Rod Flavell, Chief Executive Officer Nick Naylor Archie Berens
Julian Divett, Chief Operating Officer Nick Athanas
Notes to Editors
ABOUT FDM
FDM is an international IT company providing IT staffing, and IT services to
companies for over 20 years. With offices in the UK, USA and Europe, FDM has
maintained its leadership in this highly competitive marketplace by investing in
a unique, industry-leading IT training programme (FDM Academy).
FDM provides IT services across multiple business sectors: Financial Services;
Systems Integrators and Software Houses; Telecommunications and Broadband;
Media; and Transportation. Clients include over 150 blue-chip organisations such
as JP Morgan, Sony, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, EDS, The BBC, Siemens and T-Mobile.
FDM has established solid partnerships with industry heavyweights including IBM,
Oracle, Sybase, Sun and Microsoft, enabling the Group to offer services in
leading-edge technical environments.
Like a number of other organisations in this sector, FDM supplies freelance IT
contractors to clients. However, FDM (through the FDM Academy) also trains,
certifies and places its own employed consultants (known as Mounties). This sets
FDM apart from the majority of its competitors in the IT staffing market, who
rely on a shared agency database of IT contractors.
OPERATING STRUCTURE
FDM delivers its services to clients through two business units:
IT Staffing - offering a unique mix of freelance contractors and Mounties,
ensuring properly qualified staff will be on site for the duration of clients'
projects, whilst reducing staffing costs.
Global Services - a low risk, highly scalable services model, that has been
designed to increase efficiency, whilst decreasing management overheads. From
development, support and training, FDM provides highly skilled teams to build
the right solution to meet clients' business needs.
FDM ACADEMY
FDM's award-winning Academy runs a unique fast track training programme designed
to provide the programmers of today and tomorrow. The Academy provides a
hi-tech apprenticeship scheme for programmers in Sun Microsystems' Java and
Microsoft's C# and .Net. With recently introduced finance and testing streams,
FDM Academy is well placed for the future. Over 1000 IT professionals have now
graduated from the Academy.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange