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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