NewMedia SPARK PLC
19 December 2002
The following replaces the Statement re Interim Results announcement released on
19th December 2000 at 13.02 hours under RNS 3631F. The announcement should have
been released under the heading Interim Results and not Statement re Interims as
previously released. All other details remain unchanged.
NewMedia SPARK plc
Announcement regarding Interim results for the 6 months ending 30 September 2002
Under normal circumstances the announcement of the interim results of NewMedia
SPARK plc ('SPARK') for the six months ended 30 September 2002 would contain
detailed financial statements, including a balance sheet for the period.
However, in the light of certain unusual circumstances, details of which are set
out below, SPARK is not able, at this time, to prepare detailed financial
statements and, in particular, a balance sheet that accurately represents the
value of its investment portfolio.
It was announced on 7 November 2002 that Tullett plc (formerly Tullett and Tokyo
Liberty plc) ('Tullett'), in which SPARK has an 11% stake, is in takeover
discussions with Collins Stewart Holdings plc. In SPARK's balance sheet at 31
March 2002, this stake was valued at £7.3 million out of an investment portfolio
of £38.8 million and was by some margin its largest single investment by value.
The outcome of these discussions could therefore potentially have a material
impact on the valuation of SPARK's holding in Tullett and on SPARK's own stated
net asset value. In addition, as previously announced on 10 September 2002,
SPARK is itself in takeover discussions. These discussions continue, but it will
not be possible to determine whether or not an acceptable offer for SPARK is
likely to be made until the outcome of the Tullett discussions is known.
Market conditions in the technology sector remain difficult. Excluding the
valuation of SPARK's stake in Tullett, the book value of the balance of SPARK's
investment portfolio has seen a further modest valuation reduction in the period
ended September 2002, though to a lesser extent than in previous periods. The
majority of this reduction arose as a result of the reduction in value of the
quoted investments. A number of SPARK's unquoted investments do however continue
to make encouraging progress. Despite difficult overall market conditions there
has been an increase in the number of SPARK's unquoted investments which have
reached cash flow breakeven in recent months. It can take some time for this
progress to be reflected in SPARK's book valuations as increases in valuations
depend on the occurrence of external valuation events, but SPARK regards this
underlying progress as encouraging.
SPARK Group has incurred significant expenditure in recent months in
rationalizing its own operations, but nevertheless SPARK's balance sheet remains
strong and the SPARK Group retains substantial net cash balances on deposit.
A further announcement will be made as soon as possible.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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