Trading Statement
PayPoint plc
Interim Management Statement
14 August 2008
The board is pleased to report on events, transactions and trading
since the last year end.
Over the period, key contracts were signed or renewed and good
progress made on business initiatives to expand our product offering.
In the UK, bill and general payments are running ahead of
expectations. The impact of this is mitigated by lower mobile top-ups
as experienced in other retail networks and by the delay, in Romania
of the introduction of the bill payment service, the launch of which
we were pleased to announce this week.
Performance[1] for the period from 31 March 2008 to 27 July 2008[2]
and financial position[1] as at 27 July 2008
Terminal sites have increased by 1,351 since the year end from 23,895
(including 4,017 in Romania) to 25,246 (including 4,781 in Romania).
Transactions processed for the period were 163 million, up 10%
compared to 148 million for the same period last year. Revenues for
the period were £71m, up 11%.
Earnings are in line with market expectations.
After the payment of the final dividend of £7 million, net cash at 27
July was £26 million (including client cash of £8 million) compared
to £28 million (including client cash of £8 million) at 30 March
2008.
[1] PayPoint's auditors have not been requested to review the
performance or financial position
[2] Comparative data is given for the similar 17 week period last
year (i.e. 2 April to 29 July 2007)
Enquiries
Finsbury +44 207 251 3801
Rollo Head/Don Hunter
Notes to Editors
PayPoint is the leading cash and internet payments company in the UK
also with operations in Ireland and Romania. We handle in excess of
£7 billion from over 500 million transactions annually for more than
5,000 clients and merchants. The company operates with several
payment networks:
* The PayPoint branded retail network numbers over 20,000 terminal
sites located in local shops (including Co-op, Spar, Costcutter,
Sainsburys Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents)
in all parts of the UK and Ireland. Terminals handle gas and
electricity meter prepayments, cash bill payments, mobile phone
top-ups, transport tickets, London Congestion Charges, TV
licences and a wide variety of other payment types for all of the
leading utilities, telecommunications suppliers and many consumer
service companies. This network is used by consumers, free of
charge, over 8 million times a week. The network has 99%
population cover on a 1 mile urban or 5 miles rural measure;
* Multiple retailer connections into the electronic till systems in
addition to the branded terminal outlets including BP, Somerfield
and Superdrug for mobile top-ups and selected payments from the
PayPoint range;
* An ATM network which has 2130 'LINK' branded machines across the
UK, also typically in convenience stores;
* PayPoint.net, an internet payment service provider, provides
secure credit and debit card payments for over 5,000 web
merchants linking into all the major UK acquiring banks; and
* Pay Store, a Romanian mobile top-up operator with over 4,000
outlets equipped with electronic terminals and 2,000 other retail
outlets. A bill payment service has been added to increase the
breadth of PayPoint's offering in Romania, in line with the UK
branded retail network.
PayPoint floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004 and
the company's market capitalisation at 14 August 2008 was £431
million.
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