For Immediate Release |
29 January 2009 |
FDM Group plc
("FDM", the "Board" or the "Company")
Trading Update
&
Preliminary Results Notification : Monday 9 March 2009
FDM (AIM: FDMG), the international IT services business, announces a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2008.
The Board is pleased to report that trading in the second half of 2008 continued the positive trend displayed in the first half and that profits for the full-year will be in line with market expectations. Investors should be further encouraged by the strength of the balance sheet. Strong cash generation means that our year-end net cash position will be in excess of £10 million. As such, we intend to maintain our final dividend for 2008 in line with our historic policy.
The Board recognises that market conditions remain challenging for all businesses and that 2009 is likely to be a difficult year. Our business is reliant on the buying patterns of our blue-chip financial and non-financial customer base and we expect to provide greater visibility when we publish our preliminary results announcement in March. However, the Board is confident that despite the economic backdrop, 2009 will represent another year of growth for FDM as the Company benefits from the resilience of its Mountie model and its portfolio of blue chip clients.
Preliminary Results
FDM will be announcing its preliminary results on 9 March 2009. There will be an analyst presentation at 10:00am at FDM's London Training Centre,
55 King William Street, London, EC4R 9CD.
Analysts wishing to attend this meeting should contact Lisa Baderoon or Jeremy Garcia at Buchanan.
Rod Flavell, Chief Executive Officer of FDM commented:
"2008 has been a record year for FDM with strong growth in profitability, an impressive cash position and the successful expansion of our in-house "Mountie" programme.
This excellent performance, particularly in this very testing macro-economic environment in which we all find ourselves further demonstrates the robust nature of our revenue model and the continuing maturity of FDM as an IT services business.
Outlook for 2009 is obviously less easy to predict than in more normal trading circumstances but I am confident that FDM is well placed to weather the economic downturn and that demand for Mountie resources remains compelling throughout our client base."
For further information please contact:
FDM Group Rod Flavell, Chief Executive Officer David Templeman, Group Finance Director |
Tel No: + 44 (0) 870 060 3100 |
Brewin Dolphin Investment Banking Matt Davis / Alison Barrow |
Tel No: + 44 (0) 845 213 3219 |
Buchanan Communications Limited Lisa Baderoon / Jeremy Garcia |
Tel No: + 44 (0) 207 466 5000 |
Note to Editors
About FDM Group plc
With over 350 employees and revenues in excess of £50m FDM Group Plc (LSE AIM: FDMG) is an international IT services company specialising in consulting and training solutions. Founded in 1984, with its HQ in the UK and a further five international offices, FDM works with over 200 blue-chip clients including the BBC, Barclays, HSBC, AA, RBS and British Airways. Over two thirds of FDM's employees are IT consultants, termed 'Mounties', who have been trained as Developers in the Sun Microsystems Java, Microsoft C#. and Net toolsets, or who have joined the Application Support or Test Analyst streams