Interim Management Statement

NCC Group PLC 16 October 2007 16 October 2007 NCC Group plc Interim Management Statement NCC Group plc (LSE: NCC or 'the Group'), the international, independent provider of Escrow Solutions, Assurance Testing and Consultancy, is today publishing its first interim management statement, as a fully listed company, covering the period from 1 June 2007 to 12 October 2007. The Group's overall trading performance as indicated in the statement made at the AGM continues to be in line with the Board's expectations. The Group is now beginning to realise benefits from its substantially enlarged ethical security test team, following the acquisition and integration of two testing businesses, Site Confidence and Secure Test, earlier this year. Group Escrow Solutions and Assurance Testing divisions have seen good growth during the first four months of the current financial year, with a consistent performance being delivered by Consultancy. Group revenues grew by almost 40% for the period, which represents an increase of over 14% on a like for like basis, excluding the recently acquired businesses and curtailed activities. An Escrow Solutions sales facility has now been established in Dorking, along with an Ethical Security testing facility. Current expectations are that the operating costs incurred in setting up these facilities, including associated training and recruitment charges, will be matched by revenues by the end of this financial year. The performance of the Group's core division, Escrow Solutions, continues to be strong. UK Escrow Solutions has continued to grow well and the contract base is showing annualised growth of nearly 11% (May 2007: 8.3%) as there are now 7,704 live contracts (May 2007: 7,440). There are now 13,965 beneficiaries to those agreements, excluding minimum annual fees, (May 2007: 13,521) which represents an annualised growth rate of nearly 10% (May 2007: 9.0%). The growth including minimum annual fees is nearly 9%. Escrow Verification Testing has also seen strong growth of 25% for the period. Group renewals are now forecast to be £10.5m for the year (May 2007: £9.4m). Group termination rates continue to be below 11% for contracts and beneficiaries. The UK annual price increase is being implemented this month with the new prices becoming effective from the start of November for all new Escrow Solutions contracts and Escrow Verification Testing, and from the start of January for renewals as they are invoiced five weeks in advance. Prices for the main product lines will be increased by at least 6%. US Escrow Solutions continues to perform in line with expectations and Germany is now marginally profitable. The Assurance Testing division has seen strong sales growth with record order and renewals bases for the businesses. Ethical Security Testing has an order book of £2.6m (May 2007: £2.2m) as market demand continues to increase for high quality Ethical Security Testing. The Load and Performance Testing business now has monitoring renewals of more than £3.5m annually (May 2007: £3.2m). The renewal rate is in excess of 90% as more companies seek to gain competitive advantage by improving their web sites' performance capabilities and therefore the user experience. The Consultancy division order book remains at £1.8m (May 2007: £1.8m) in line with the Board's expectations. The Group expects to report its interim figures for the six months to 30 November 2007 on Tuesday 22 January 2008. Overall the Group is on course to deliver another year of strong growth in line with market expectations. Enquiries: NCC Group (www.nccgroup.com) 0161 209 5432 Rob Cotton, Chief Executive Paul Edwards, Group Finance Director College Hill Adrian Duffield 020 7457 2020 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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NCC Group (NCC)
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