Parity Group PLC
7 June 2000
PARITY GROUP PLC
AGM STATEMENT
At the AGM at 11 o'clock today, shareholders are being updated on a number of
matters, including current trading. The following statement is being made by
the Chairman, Philip Swinstead:
'I would like to tell you today about important strategic developments aimed
at further reinforcing our strong position in e- business and providing the
basis for good growth and shareholder returns. I am outlining below a new
Group structure which reflects the transition that Parity has achieved to date
and details of the £7 million investment programme first announced in our
trading statement of 19 May.
Group Structure
The Board has approved a new internal structure to give increased focus to the
strategic objectives of its two businesses. As from the start of next month,
the Group will consist of two distinct businesses with separate management
teams, reporting independently to me through their respective Managing
Directors. Each has its own separate strategy for long term growth and the
Board is considering proposals for separate branding of Parity Solutions.
The two businesses are:
Parity Solutions led by Managing Director Keith Jennings, our e-business
solutions company with 750 staff. The combination of web, systems integration
and training services in one company will provide a strong competitive
offering to customers migrating their business processes to capitalise on the
new e-economy.
Parity Software Services, our international IT skills business led by
Managing Director Rick Bacon, brings together Parity Resources, Parity
EuroSoft and TelTech in the UK, Continental Europe and the USA respectively.
The investments outlined below will allow the business to provide an
integrated one-stop-shop in IT resources and recruitment across Europe and the
USA for its blue- chip client base.
Investment Programme
The Board is taking advantage of Parity's strong financial position to invest
in a range of new products and services to strengthen the Group's competitive
edge and ensure good growth in future years.
In Parity Solutions we shall invest £4.5 million in:
1. The Parity Web Academy - an exciting new initiative from Parity Training
which will train Parity's own graduates and also create a business to
address the serious shortage of web-related skills in the UK. A full press
launch of the Parity Web Academy is scheduled for early July and a brief
overview is given below.
2. Proprietary software tools and kernels particularly for entry level e-
commerce applications, including support for the new WAP and interactive TV
technologies.
3. The creation of operational e-hubs for supply chain and billing
applications to reinforce our application management market offerings.
4. The development of an e-knowledge intranet portal to ensure the highest
level of e-business skills across the company and as a user-friendly
information source for customers.
5. The re-branding of Parity Solutions to reflect its separate identity as
an end-to-end e-business solutions company.
In Parity Software Services we shall invest £2.5 million in:
1. The creation of a single international Software Services business under
the Parity banner.
2. New e-commerce systems to interface with our professional staff and for
international customer relationship management to leverage major
relationships globally.
3. Additional offices to be opened across Europe and the USA in response to
client demand.
4. The development and relaunching of our permanent recruitment businesses
across Europe and the USA under the Parity Selection banner.
The total cash investment over the next 12 months will be approximately £7
million and will be separately identified in our financial reports.
Approximately £5 million will be charged to profits this year and £2 million
in 2001.
Parity Web Academy
We will establish the first Web Academy in the UK dedicated to creating
skilled e-technicians. The Academy will open its doors in September and will
offer industry standard accreditation. The course will consist of a
combination of classroom and remote internet tuition. It is intended that the
Academy will initially provide places to train 100 e-commerce specialists per
quarter, some of which will be sponsored directly by Parity. It is expected
that this branch of our training business will expand next year from
individual paid courses to a full training service for corporate clients'
staff. We expect this new business to start contributing to Group profits
from the second half of next year.
Current Trading
As indicated in our recent Annual Report, Parity Solutions continues to see
high demand for its e-business capabilities, in particular, an increasing
customer base of major companies requiring pilot web developments. Parity
Training is also making good progress with strong demand for web-related
public courses. There has however been lower demand for classic systems
integration services so far this year. The upturn in demand, now expected by
the industry later in the year, will be driven by customers seeking to both
maintain their core systems and integrate them with newly developed web front-
ends.
In recent months trading in Parity Software Services has been stable after the
sharp decline in the last quarter of 1999 due to Y2K lockdown. The market has
not as yet picked up strongly in Europe, although we have seen growth in our
USA business. In general there is good demand for the new technology skills
and for permanent recruitment services but reduced demand currently for
traditional skills.
The delayed upturn in the traditional skills market after Y2K led to the
reduced short-term profit expectations in Parity which we indicated in our May
trading statement. However, the Board believes that it has not affected the
longer term prospects of our two businesses. We believe that our £7 million
investment programme will ensure that Parity is in an excellent position to
take advantage of the future demand for e-business solutions and the expected
upturn in the traditional software services market.
The Group expects to publish its results for the six months to 30 June in
early September.'
For further information please contact:
Parity Group plc 020 7776 0800
Philip Swinstead, Chairman and Chief Executive
Ray King, Group Finance Director
Michael Harrington, Group Communications Director
Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113
Giles Sanderson
Jon Earl
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