Final Results
Trio Holdings PLC
30 November 2004
30 November 2004
TRIO HOLDINGS PLC
Preliminary Results - improved second half performance
TRIO Holdings PLC (TRN.L), a leading London-based money and securities broker,
today announces its preliminary results for the year to 30 September 2004,
showing a modestly improved second half performance, despite a very slow summer
and the prevailing climate of global uncertainty.
Highlights:
• Profit before tax of £1.07 million (2003: £1.85 million)
• Recommended final dividend maintained at 0.5p per share
• Total dividends for the year maintained at 0.75p per share
• Net assets at 30 September 2004 of £11.2 million (2003: £11.6 million)
• Cash balances stand at £10.30 million (2003: £10.38 million)
• Development of Martin Brokers FOCUS, a new trading system aimed at the
high volume, short-term sterling inter-bank market
• Formation of new Trio Equity Derivatives operation in Hong Kong
David Hagan, Executive Chairman, said:
'After a year notably characterised by a prolonged period of exceptionally muted
activity in our markets during the summer, coupled with the weakening US Dollar,
resulting in a small reduction in our annual turnover, I am pleased to confirm a
modest improvement in the second half enabling us to report profits before tax
for the year of £1.07 million. In the light of our continuing balance sheet
strength and notable liquidity, the Board is recommending the maintenance of the
final dividend at 0.5p, the historical high level.
'As outlined to shareholders in our interim statement these results have been
achieved after absorbing significant costs in the establishment and organic
growth of a new office in Switzerland. The accounting effect, with its inherent
taxation impact, coincided with subdued activity in the global financial markets
in July and August, widely reported elsewhere.
'However, activity levels improved to a degree of normality in September and
remain adequate to date. The further consolidation within the sector which we
predicted at our half year results has indeed become manifest recently, and we
foresee the climate of sensible consolidation continuing.'
Enquiries to:
DAVID HAGAN
Executive Chairman, TRIO Holdings PLC Tel: 020 7469 9100
PATRICK TOYNE SEWELL
Citigate Dewe Rogerson Tel: 020 7638 9571
CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT
Review of the business
The result for the year ended 30 September 2004 was a profit before taxation of
£1.07 million. However during the period, and as forecast, substantial costs
were incurred with the establishment of a new company in Lausanne: this
expenditure is not allowable for relief for UK taxation, which combined with
disallowance of UK entertaining expenditure, results in a disproportionately
high tax charge for the Group.
The profit after taxation was a modest £180,000. However the Board, having
regard to the return to the more normal trading levels since the beginning of
September, the Group's exceptionally strong balance sheet with net assets of
£11.2 million, and our continued holding of very sizeable cash balances of £10.3
million, is pleased to recommend for approval at the Annual General Meeting a
final dividend of 0.5p per share. This will be payable on 18 February 2005, to
shareholders on the register on 21 January 2005. Our historically high dividend
for the year is therefore maintained at 0.75p.
Niche excellence
Consolidation continues amongst our customer base, primarily the world's largest
banks, and the niche business sector of money, securities and derivatives
broking has entirely appropriately reflected this trend. At the half-year we
predicted further progress in this direction, and have recently seen the
completion of the take-over of Prebon by the listed company Collins Stewart
Tullett ('CST').
Predictably however, redundancies are emerging as CST consolidates the
acquisition, and Trio is actively seeking to take advantage from the improved
market for the attraction and retention of competent staff.
Although the competition are now very large entities indeed there are several
niche market areas in which Trio successfully competes, notably forward foreign
exchange in which our substantial market share has again been maintained over
the year, and in the arena of 'Local Authority' broking in which our market
leading electronic transactional system www.UK-Locals.com continues to
facilitate increases in our turnover to record levels in this market. Our
highly professional small OTC equity option broking team, our 'emerging markets'
desk, and our first class 'Scandi' team, have each again enjoyed a notable year.
Electronic transactional systems
Electronic transactional systems have emerged as a feature of several product
areas in our markets, with most success coming from the hybrid concepts which
offer fully transactional capability supported by voice assisted capability.
We have strategically endorsed the hybrid model, and our in-house development of
a transactional system for Local Authorities has been a resounding success since
its inception in 2001. It is interesting that an average of 37% of trades
through www.UK-Locals.com are 'fully' transactional, while the remainder are '
voice broker assisted'. I am therefore now very pleased to announce our next
new initiative, the launch of another strategic product utilising this
technology and expertise, which will be known as 'Martin Brokers FOCUS'.
FOCUS is presently in the final development stage internally. It will be
delivered to our customer banks on RadianzNet only, the secure global financial
extranet provided by Radianz. This fully transactional electronic system
addresses the niche high volume short-date inter-bank sterling deposits market,
from overnight to one month.
The opportunity to explore this niche was presented following the profound
reforms of the Bank of England's operations in the sterling money markets
announced in July 2004 which, amongst other objectives, seek to limit day-to-day
and intra-day volatility in short term sterling market interest rates.
The intuitive user-interface of FOCUS will offer customers a clean and simple
view of the available prices and volumes, along with the market depth and
liquidity offered by all the leading banks. Trading will be possible with just
two clicks of the mouse, although a comprehensive voice broker service will
supplement the system.
As well as a graphical intra-day volume / price analysis of each standard short
date period, a SONIA forecast (sterling overnight index average) will be updated
in real-time, based on overnight trades passing through the system. All trades
will be subsequently processed in the same way as voice brokered deals through
our sophisticated computerised back-office systems. Therefore in addition to
standard confirmations delivery, all trade details including payment
instructions will be available on-line, and if required can be exported to the
bank's own trade capture systems in TOF or XML/FpML format, facilitating the
goal of Straight Through Processing.
Overseas expansion
A growing market in OTC equity derivatives has emerged in the Far East, centred
in Hong Kong. As we have a specialist small team in this product area in
London, which rightly enjoys an excellent reputation, we have been able to take
advantage of a recent staffing 'opportunity' to participate in the Far East
region with the establishment of a small niche presence.
Trio Equity Derivatives (Hong Kong) Limited has been formed, premises secured
and equipped, and initially two brokers have relocated to Hong Kong. Their
early reception from the local customer base has been encouraging, and they will
be joined by an excellent Hong Kong recruit in January. The necessary
Securities and Futures Commission licence and associated broker authorisation
procedures are in progress: we anticipate trading will commence in the New Year,
and that a positive contribution from this small new operation will be achieved
shortly thereafter.
Software development
During the year our superb software development team Trio Internet Systems,
originators of the transactional systems referred to above, also launched an
all-new pricing and analytics tool branded Trio Vantage. Trio Vantage is a
comprehensive, fast and simple to use multi-instrument pricing tool for the
dealing environment - www.triointernetsystems.com. This product is now in full
productive use across our dealing desks, and early progress in third party sales
has been achieved with the recent contracting of sales to three banks.
Summary
The prevailing prognosis of rising or static interest rates, and the weakness of
the US Dollar, is less favourable to our core businesses. Nonetheless we
anticipate some modest underlying market growth in the current year and are
encouraged by some improvement in overall market activity since the end of
August.
We continue to view our strategic establishment of a broking presence in
Lausanne, to compliment the London product order flows directly into Europe, as
desirable for the longer term, but advise there will be further establishment
costs in the near term.
Finally, against a background of continuing careful management of costs, the
employment and retention of further good quality staff will be assisted by the
consolidation in the industry sector. Therefore, coupled with our excellent
balance sheet and enviable liquidity, the Company is in a strong position to
seek future growth opportunities.
For more information on TRIO and its operating businesses please visit:
www.trio.co.uk
www.uk-Locals.com
www.martin-brokers.com
www.triointernetsystems.com
TRIO HOLDINGS PLC
UNAUDITED PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OF ANNUAL RESULTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2004
2004 2003
Total Total
£000's £000's
Turnover 32,445 32,860
Operating expenses (31,606) (31,159)
_______ _______
Operating Profit 839 1,701
Share of loss of associate company (71) (94)
Interest receivable and similar income 354 326
Interest payable and similar charges (47) (80)
_______ _______
Profit on ordinary activities before taxation 1,075 1,853
Taxation (895) (834)
_______ _______
Profit on ordinary activities after taxation 180 1,019
Dividends paid and proposed (626) (626)
_______ _______
Retained (loss)/profit for the year transferred (from)/to reserves (446) 393
====== ======
Earnings per share 0.22p 1.22p
===== =====
Dividends per share 0.75p 0.75p
===== =====
TRIO HOLDINGS PLC
UNAUDITED STATEMENT OF TOTAL RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES
2004 2003
£000's £000's
Profit for the year 180 1,019
Foreign exchange translation differences
on foreign currency investment in subsidiaries (8) 2
_______ _______
Total recognised gains and losses 172 1,021
====== ======
UNAUDITED RECONCILIATION OF MOVEMENT IN EQUITY SHAREHOLDERS' FUNDS
2004 2003
£000's £000's
Profit for the year 180 1,019
Dividends paid and proposed (626) (626)
_______ _______
(446) 393
Other recognised gains and losses (8) 2
_______ _______
Net (reduction in)/addition to equity shareholders' funds (454) 395
Opening equity shareholders' funds 11,648 11,253
_______ _______
Closing equity shareholders' funds 11,194 11,648
====== ======
TRIO HOLDINGS PLC
UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2004
2004 2003
£000's £000's
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets 1,733 1,993
Investments 1 71
_______ _______
1,734 2,064
CURRENT ASSETS
Investments 127 277
Debtors 4,341 5,062
Cash 10,297 10,376
_______ _______
14,765 15,715
Creditors: due within one year (5,118) (5,449)
_______ _______
NET CURRENT ASSETS 9,647 10,266
Creditors: due after more than one year (186) (681)
Equity minority interests (1) (1)
_______ _______
NET ASSETS 11,194 11,648
====== ======
CAPITAL AND RESERVES
Share capital 4,174 4,174
Capital reserve 2,474 2,474
Profit and loss account 4,546 5,000
_______ _______
EQUITY SHAREHOLDERS' FUNDS 11,194 11,648
====== ======
TRIO HOLDINGS PLC
UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2004
2004 2003
£000's £000's
Net cash inflow from operating activities 1,682 1,917
Returns on investments and servicing of finance 307 246
Taxation paid (788) (1,770)
Capital expenditure and financial investment (213) (69)
Acquisitions and disposals - (141)
Dividends paid (626) (835)
_______ _______
Net cash inflow/(outflow) before financing 362 (652)
Financing (441) (435)
_______ _______
Decrease in cash in the year (79) (1,087)
====== ======
Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds
2004 2003
£000's £000's
Decrease in cash in the year (79) (1,087)
Cash inflow from the decrease in debt and lease financing 441 435
_______ _______
Movement in net funds in the year 362 (652)
Net funds at 1 October 2003 9,527 10,179
_______ _______
Net funds at 30 September 2004 9,889 9,527
====== ======
Reconciliation of operating profit to net cash inflow from operating activities
2004 2003
£000's £000's
Operating profit 839 1,701
Depreciation charges 472 483
Decrease in investments 150 -
Decrease in debtors 549 167
Decrease in creditors (320) (449)
Decrease in stock - 13
Exchange rate movements (8) 2
_______ _______
Net cash inflow from operating activities 1,682 1,917
====== ======
TRIO HOLDINGS PLC
NOTES
1. Profit and Loss Account
The results in foreign currencies are translated into Sterling at
the average exchange rates ruling in the year in which the results accrued.
2. Earnings per Share
Earnings per share is based on the net profit after taxation
attributable to ordinary shareholders and on a weighted average of the number of
ordinary shares in issue in the year: 83,484,325 (2003: 83,484,325).
3. Announcement based on draft accounts
The financial information set out in the announcement does not
constitute the group's statutory accounts for the years ended 30 September 2004
or 2003. The financial information for the year ended 30 September 2003 is
derived from the statutory accounts for that year, which have been delivered to
the Registrar of Companies. The auditors reported on those accounts; their
report was unqualified and did not contain a statement under s237(2) or (3)
Companies Act 1985. The statutory accounts for the year ended 30 September 2004
will be finalised on the basis of the financial information presented by the
directors in this preliminary announcement and will be delivered to the
Registrar of Companies following the group's annual general meeting.
Copies of this announcement are available to members of the public at the
Company's registered office, Cannon Bridge, 25 Dowgate Hill, London EC4R 2BB.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange