PRELIMINARY RESULTS
FDM Group PLC
11 March 2008
Embargoed for release at 7.00am 11 March 2008
FDM Group plc
("FDM" or the "Group")
PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007
The Board of FDM Group plc, (LSE: FDMG), the IT services business, today
announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2007.
Financial Highlights
• Revenues increased by 12% to £49.83 million (2006: £44.50 million).
• Gross profit increased by 31% to £11.23 million (2006: £8.60 million).
• Adjusted* profit before tax increased by 51% to £4.40 million (2006:
£2.92 million).
• Profit before tax £4.25 million (2006: £2.78 million).
• Adjusted* fully diluted earnings per share increased by 3.1p to 12.7p
(2006: 9.3p).
• Fully diluted earnings per share of 12.0p (2006: 9.0p).
• Final dividend of 1.9p per share, making a total dividend of 2.7p per
share (2006: 1.9p).
• Net cash and cash equivalents increased to £5.95 million (2006: £1.98
million), with debtor days reduced from 81 days in 2006 to 68 days in 2007.
* excluding IFRS2 Share-based payment charges.
Operational Highlights
• Overall gross margins increased to 22.5% (2006: 19.3%) and are
significantly above industry averages.
• Operating margin increased to 8.1% in 2007 from 6.4% in 2006.
• Mountie utilisation rates higher at 98.3% (2006: 97.8%).
• Mountie numbers increased from 154 at 31 December 2007 to 208 at 31
December 2007
• New training Academy opened in Manchester in December 2007, creating
additional training capacity to service client needs. City of London
office at full capacity.
• ew client wins include Williams Lea, Bear Stearns and Swiftcover Insurance.
• Current trading conditions still remain positive in spite of turbulent
financial markets.
Rod Flavell, Chief Executive of FDM Group, commented:
"2007 was an excellent year for FDM and further validates our business model of
driving profit-led growth. 2008 has started positively, with our business
metrics firmly on track. Despite the uncertainty in the wider economic climate,
FDM's Mountie proposition remains in great demand from clients. We are therefore
optimistic of a favourable outcome for the year as a whole."
For further information please contact:
FDM Group Plc Noble & Company Limited Pelham PR
Tel: 0870 060 3100 Tel: 020 7763 2200 Tel: 020 7743 6679
Rod Flavell, Chief Executive Officer Nick Naylor Archie Berens
David Templeman, Group Finance Director Nick Athanas
FDM Group plc
PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007
Chairman's Statement
Introduction
I am pleased to report that 2007 was FDM's best ever year, with both revenues
and profitability at record levels. This strong performance continues the
Group's margin-led growth and we look to 2008 and beyond with optimism. We are
well positioned for steady progress and expansion in both the UK and
internationally.
Results
2007 has seen profit growth across all of our areas of operations with gross
profit increasing by over 30% reflecting our margin focused sales policy and
revenues up by over 12% to reach almost £50m. Our international businesses have
all contributed strongly to our performance with improvement in gross
profitability across all locations. Profit before tax after adjusting for IFRS2
share-based payments amounted to £4.4m against £2.9m in 2006 and therefore
showed an increase of 51%. Adjusted fully-diluted earnings per share grew by
3.1p to 12.7p representing a 24% increase. Profit before tax was £4.3m (2006:
£2.8m).
Against this background of strong performance the Board is pleased to recommend
a final dividend of 1.9p per share making a total dividend for the year of 2.7p
per share, an increase of 42% on the prior year (2006: 1.9p).
This is the Group's first set of results presented under IFRS (International
Financial Reporting Standards) having been previously reported under UK
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (UK GAAP). The results for the
comparative year have been restated from UK GAAP to IFRS. There has been no
material impact on the results from the transition.
Board changes
In August 2007, we announced the appointment to the Board of FDM of our new
Chief Financial Officer, David Templeman, who joined us in November 2007. A
Chartered Accountant, David was a partner in BDO Stoy Hayward before taking up a
divisional CFO role within Citigroup and more recently acting as Head of Finance
& IT for an international bank in the City.
I am also delighted to confirm two internal promotions to the Board that we
announced in January 2008. Andrew Brown and Sheila Flavell are both
long-standing employees of FDM and respectively head our Sales and Global
Services Delivery functions.
Andrew joined FDM in 1994, and was instrumental in establishing FDM as a leading
provider of Client Server development and consultancy services within the UK. He
also developed FDM's Financial Services Sector offering and won FDM's first
major finance client, NatWest. He subsequently went on to establish FDM as a key
vendor to other major financial organisations, including Deutsche Bank, UBS,
HSBC, ABN Amro and RBS. This paved the way for the opening of FDM's City office
in 2007. He is now Head of Group Sales and is responsible for the development of
products and services for FDM and its customers.
Sheila has enjoyed a successful business career stretching over 20 years in both
the public and private sectors of information technology. She joined FDM in 1998
as a senior executive and has been fundamental to the success and development of
FDM's Global Services. Sheila has responsibility for FDM's Testing, Consultancy,
Support and Training business areas as well as overseeing the strategic
direction of the FDM Academy programme. She holds both an MBA and an MA in
Marketing and is a qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner.
Julian Divett, Chief Operating Officer of the Company, stepped down from the
Board on 10 March 2008 to pursue other interests overseas. Julian has been with
the Company since 1991 and has been on the Board since 2001. He has been an
integral part of the Company's development and was heavily involved in the
Company's successful flotation on AIM in 2005. The Board would like to record
their appreciation of all Julian's hard work since he joined FDM. In light of
the appointments of Sheila Flavell and Andrew Brown, the Board of FDM does not
intend to appoint a replacement Chief Operating Officer.
In the last annual report, it was noted that April Denney was the subject of a
dispute, following her departure from FDM in December 2006. This dispute was
resolved in 2007 with no additional charge to the profit and loss account.
Outlook
We have experienced no slowdown in our sales pipeline as a result of the
turbulence in the financial markets. This is no surprise to us, given the
nature of our client base and the types of support and back-office functions
that our staff perform within client organisations.
FDM operates across a broad range of business sectors from financial services to
communication to supporting government contracts. Our diverse client base,
together with the nature of our support contracts, means that we are relatively
sheltered from the vagaries of the global credit markets. Even within our
financial services client base we perform back-office services necessary for the
very working of these organisations. As such, despite shocks to their profits,
these financial organisations are reliant on our services to continue normal
operations.
We approach this year with continued optimism: the FDM business model is proven
and successful. We have expanded our footprint in the UK and will seek further
opportunities to do so, both here and abroad. The successful opening of our
London and Manchester training academies show that we are now beginning to
demonstrate the scalability of our Mountie programme. With improved geographic
presence in our chosen marketplaces and the ability to attract and retain
quality IT professionals we expect further growth in 2008, in line with current
expectations. The year has begun well and I look forward to providing further
updates.
Ivan Martin
Chairman
10 March 2008
FDM Group plc
PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007
Chief Executive's Review
Introduction
2007 was an excellent year for FDM and further validates our business model of
driving profit-led growth. We opened two new offices during the year in London
and Manchester which have given us a strong footprint in these locations and
enable us to tap into the rich local resources for our unique Mountie training
programme. Our operating margins continue to exceed the industry average and
with excellent control systems we are positioned for further strong improvement.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Strong cost management and a managed growth programme have allowed our
conversion rate (the ratio of profit before tax to gross profitability) to reach
38%, up from 32% in 2006 and by some distance the best among our peer group. We
regard this as our most important performance indicator, which reflects our
productivity and the effectiveness of FDM's business model.
The strength of our model can also be seen within a number of business critical
KPIs, which revolve around the throughput of Mounties in our Academy programme,
the utilisation rates of fully-trained Mounties, our gross and net profit
margins, and collections from our clients. All of these KPIs have seen
improvement in 2007 from already very acceptable levels in 2006. In 2007, 95 new
Mounties graduated from our Academies and the utilisation rate for Mounties
remains around 98%. We have seen increases in gross and net profit margins as
noted above. In addition, it is essential that we maintain control over the
collection of cash. Debtor days at 31 December 2007 show improvement at 68 days
average, against 81 days at 31 December 2006.
Review of operations
FDM's business model is centred on the selling of IT services to what are often
large, multinational businesses in a variety of sectors. Our business model
relies on us resourcing our IT service contracts with a mix of in-house resource
(our "Mountie" IT professionals) and freelance contractors. Our Mounties are all
IT professionals who have passed through our accreditation programme in one of
the Java, .Net, Testing or Finance streams and who are contracted to work for us
for a minimum period of two years after certification. Freelance resources are
subjected to a rigorous selection procedure and we strive to match our resources
carefully with client needs.
Increasingly, our business model is one where institutions require teams to
operate under Service Level Agreements ("SLAs"). Our clients demand a
fit-for-purpose solution constructed by, and carrying, FDM's badge of
excellence. Our SLA driven services normally comprise a blend of Consulting,
Support, Testing and Training and all areas have seen growth during 2007.
We now have sales presence in Brighton, London and Manchester within the UK and
overseas offices in America, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, allowing us to
work closely with our clients. We retain a strong core of blue-chip institutions
with whom we work including British Airways, the BBC, the Metropolitan Police,
Barclays Wealth, the AA, ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and UBS.
Global Services and IT Staffing
The Group continues to focus on moving away from low-margin, high volume
freelance sales whilst driving up profitability by selling increasing numbers of
our own internally trained resources.
Global Services manages teams of Mounties and freelance consultants delivering a
range of services such as Support, Development, Testing and Training to our
clients. Global Services has seen significant growth this year in both sales
and gross profit, sales were up 30% to £13.5m (2006: £10.3m) and gross profit
increased by 48%. Gross margins increased to 45.8% (2006: 40.4%). Mountie
numbers increased from 154 at 31 December 2006 to 208 at 31 December 2007. New
client wins during the year included Atos Euronext Market Solutions, Cedegim RX
and Citigroup.
IT Staffing provides clients with freelance contractors to meet their IT
requirements: sales growth in this area increased by 6.3% to £36.3m on the prior
year (2006: £34.2m). FDM continues to focus on exiting low-margin freelance
deals and obtaining higher margin business. Gross profits increased by 14% on
the prior year and gross margins increased to 13.9% (2006: 12.9%).
FDM Academy
One of the unique aspects of our business model is our Mountie accreditation
programme which allows us to retain highly skilled IT staff for a minimum of two
years after they have graduated from our in-house training programme. Training
of our Mounties takes place within our three FDM Academies located in Brighton,
London and Manchester which fulfil the resource needs of our international
businesses in Europe and the US as well as the UK.
We opened our London training Academy early in 2007 and demand for places has
been very high, so much so that our training capacity is at 100% and has been
since shortly after the training centre opened. We will look to expand our
London presence in 2008 in line with client demand for our Mountie
professionals.
Our second expansion of 2007 took place with the opening of our Manchester
Academy in December. Manchester is one of the UK's pre-eminent regional centre
for financial, professional and business services, employing almost 200,000
people and currently generating more than £9 billion of business each year. With
very competitive infrastructure costs and geographic mobility of our Mounties,
we are looking to Manchester to provide us with a strong push in Mountie numbers
to service both our Northern client demands and to provide resource for the UK
in general.
We will continue to consider regional expansion of the Academy model in 2008 and
beyond, but will only do so where we can see client-driven demand for our
Mounties in these locations or where national and international demand dictates.
Outlook
In my review of 2006 I stated that FDM would continue its strategy of focusing
on higher-margin projects where the best opportunities exist for our specific
skillset to be applied. This is exactly what we did in 2007 and we will continue
with this core strategy in 2008. Our Mountie training programme has been central
to our success and 2008 should see some of the production-led constraints on our
growth being eased with increased Academy capacity. Given the increasing client
demand for Mounties, new capacity will be rapidly filled.
Recent statistics show that, while the overall number of computing science
students graduating from universities continues to fall, the demand for skilled
IT workers has never been higher. This has created a severe and unprecedented
skills shortage in the IT industry. FDM's training programme seeks to address
this shortage, but it also clearly represents a long term growth opportunity.
Clearly all businesses need to be aware of the economic climate in which they
operate, and in this respect FDM is no different. However, we are confident in
our business model which we believe is robust, and we have experienced no
adverse impact from the much publicised global credit crunch. In my view, our
broad client base across many business sectors and the back-office roles that we
perform mean that our performance will be more resilient than most in times of
stress. It is against this backdrop that I am confident of a successful future.
2008 has started positively, with our business metrics firmly on track. Despite
the uncertainty in the wider economic climate, FDM's Mountie proposition remains
in great demand from clients. We are therefore optimistic of a favourable
outcome for the year as a whole.
Rod Flavell
Chief Executive Officer
10 March 2008
Consolidated Income Statement
for year ended 31 December 2007
Note 2007 2006
£000 £000
Revenue 2 49,826 44,504
Cost of sales (38,595) (35,906)
Gross profit 11,231 8,598
Administrative expenses (7,182) (5,900)
Operating profit 4,049 2,698
Financial income 212 100
Financial expenses (7) (19)
Net financing costs 205 81
Profit before tax 4,254 2,779
Taxation (1,421) (689)
Profit for the year attributable to equity holders of 2,833 2,090
the parent company
Earnings per share (pence) 4
Basic 12.3p 9.1p
Diluted 12.0p 9.0p
Consolidated Balance Sheet
at 31 December 2007
2007 2006
£000 £000
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment 373 186
Intangible assets 110 16
Deferred tax assets 212 117
695 319
Current assets
Trade and other receivables 9,527 10,080
Cash and cash equivalents 5,953 2,002
15,480 12,082
Total assets 16,175 12,401
Current liabilities
Bank overdraft - 27
Trade and other payables 4,841 4,107
Tax payable 830 441
Total liabilities 5,671 4,575
Net assets 10,504 7,826
Equity attributable to equity holders of the
parent
Share capital 232 232
Share premium 3,332 3,332
Translation Reserve 64 (49)
Capital Redemption Reserve 63 63
Retained earnings 6,813 4,248
Total equity 10,504 7,826
Consolidated Cash Flow Statements
for year ended 31 December 2007
2007 2006
£000 £000
Cash flows from operating activities
Profit for the year 2,833 2,090
Adjustments for:
Depreciation and amortisation 210 104
Financial income (212) (100)
Financial expense 7 19
Equity settled share-based payment expenses 147 137
Taxation 1,421 689
Decrease/(increase) in trade and other receivables 665 (2,525)
Increase in trade and other payables 688 610
Interest paid (7) (19)
Tax paid (1,059) (824)
Net cash from operating activities 4,693 181
Cash flows from investing activities
Interest received 212 100
Acquisition of property, plant and equipment (380) (91)
Acquisition of other intangible assets (109) (11)
Net cash from investing activities (277) (2)
Cash flows from financing activities
Decrease in cash held by Trust in year (22) (170)
Dividends paid (482) (368)
Net cash used in financing activities (504) (538)
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 3,912 (359)
Cash and cash equivalents at 1 January 1975 2,342
Effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash held 66 (8)
Cash and cash equivalents at 31 December 5,953 1,975
ABRIDGED NOTES
1. Basis of Preparation
a) The financial information for the years ended 31 December 2007 and 31
December 2006 does not constitute the company's statutory financial statements
but is extracted from the audited accounts for those years. The auditors have
reported on those accounts; their reports were unqualified and did not contain
statements under Section 237 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 1985.
b) The audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2006 have been
delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The Annual Report and Financial
Statements for the year ended 31 December 2007 will be delivered to the
Registrar of Companies following the Annual General Meeting. Copies will be
available to the public at the Company's registered office: Second Floor,
Lanchester House, Trafalgar Place, Brighton, BN1 4FL.
2. Segmental Reporting
The segmental reporting is based on the geography of the division. The group
operates in three geographic areas, the UK being the predominant area.
Geographical Breakdown 2007
UK Europe America Consolidation Totals
Adjustments
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Revenue 42,560 5,286 1,980 - 49,826
Profit before tax 3,796 322 136 - 4,254
Depreciation and Amortisation (199) (8) (3) - (210)
Purchase of non-current assets (479) (10) - - (489)
Total non-current assets 671 21 3 - 695
Total Assets 13,755 2,084 629 (293) 16,175
Total Liabilities (5,050) (669) (245) 293 (5,671)
Equity attributable to equity holders of the parent 8,705 1,415 384 - 10,504
The consolidation adjustments are the removal of inter-company balances.
Geographical Breakdown 2006
UK Europe America Consolidation Totals
Adjustments
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Revenue 37,759 4,459 2,286 - 44,504
Profit before tax 2,474 228 77 - 2,779
Depreciation and Amortisation (93) (7) (4) - (104)
Purchase of non-current assets (95) (5) (2) - (102)
Total non-current assets 296 17 6 - 319
Total Assets 10,652 1,558 444 (253) 12,401
Total Liabilities (4,162) (478) (188) 253 4,575
Equity attributable to equity holders of the parent 6,490 1,080 256 - 7,826
The revenue and gross profit derived in these geographical locations can be
further broken down into the two divisional sales business units known as IT
Staffing and Global Services, as shown below. It is not possible to segment the
administrative expenses and assets of these divisions accurately as they are
only reportable within the Group's accounts to the extent shown.
2007 Global Services IT Staffing Totals
£000 £000 £000
Revenue 13,514 36,312 49,826
Gross Profit 6,190 5,041 11,231
2006 Global Services IT Staffing Totals
£000 £000 £000
Revenue 10,340 34,164 44,504
Gross Profit 4,180 4,418 8,598
3. Dividends
2007 2006
£000 £000
Ordinary Dividends
Final (prior year) 302 232
Interim (current year) 186 139
Dividend waived by Employee Benefit Trust in year (6) (3)
482 368
After the balance sheet date, the board recommended a final dividend of 1.9p
(2006:1.3p) per share, making a total dividend of 2.7p (2006:1.9p).The final
dividend has not been provided for in these financial statements.
4. Earnings Per Share
2007 2006
£000 £000
Earnings
Profit after tax 2,833 2,090
Add IFRS 2 share-based payment charges 147 137
Adjusted earnings before IFRS 2 share-based payment charges 2,980 2,227
Earnings per share
Basic 12.3p 9.1p
Diluted 12.0p 9.0p
Adjusted basic 13.0p 9.7p
Adjusted diluted 12.7p 9.6p
The calculation of basic earnings per share is based on profit after tax. The
calculation of adjusted earnings uses the basic earnings before IFRS 2
share-based payment charges and is presented to show more clearly the underlying
performance of the Group.
The weighted average number of ordinary shares used in the calculation of the
basic, diluted and adjusted earnings per share is as follows:
2007 2006
No. No.
Weighted average number of shares in issue during the year used in the calculation of 22,950,608 22,943,962
basic and adjusted basic earnings per share
Dilutive effect of options treated as exercisable at the year end 588,786 369,237
23,539,394 23,313,199
5. Circulation to Shareholders
Copies of the Company's Annual Report will be sent to shareholders on 19th March
2008 with further copies available from the Company Secretary, FDM Group Plc,
2nd Floor Lanchester House, Trafalgar Place, Brighton, East Sussex. BN1 4FL.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange