1st Sep 2014 07:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - IPPlus PLC said Monday that its pretax profit for the full-year dropped, missing expectations, while revenue was higher on a pick up in call centre traffic as overall trading was hit by its poorly performing software division.
The call centre services company said pretax profit for the year to June 30, 2014, came in at GBP217,483, compared to GBP345,856 the previous year. The company said in July that it expected to report a pretax profit of GBP500,000 for the year.
Operating profit also fell in the full-year, down to GBP257,765 from GBP358,544.
Revenue however showed strength, up 13% to GBP9.1 million from GBP8.1 million last year, meeting its July-announced expectations.
IPPlus said that its full-year results include a one-off profit on lease surrender of GBP352,367, arising from the purchase of its main office in Ipswich, a impairment charge on the CallScripter intagiable assets of GBP322,974, as well as non-recurring CallScripter reorganisation costs of GBP120,510.
"The Group has had a mercurial year which has seen the significant increase in call centre traffic being adversely affected by the poor performance of the software division. Management changes have been implemented, and whilst the year ahead is likely to be a significant challenge, we have confidence that our experienced team will recover the forward momentum," said CEO William Catchpole.
The company's Ansaback call centre division performed well, with revenue up 27% to GBP7.3 million, compared to GBP5.8 million the previous year, said the company. However CallScripter revenue declined, down to GBP1.1 million from GBP1.5 million in 2013, as well incurring re-organisational costs. The Ancora arm also reported lower revenue at GBP731,494 compared to GBP826,898 the previous year.
IPPlus said that its overall result reflects a reasonably strong performance by its contact centre division - Ansaback incorporating IP3 Telecom - which continued to perform in line with group expectations on revenue growth and new contracts wins; a weaker than expected performance for CallScripter, the software division; and a loss for Ancora, the group's archiving and removals division.
Despite its poor performance, the company said that while it remains confident in CallScripter's prospects, it did not fulfil its potential and become cash negative for the year, leading the company to write the CallScripter intangible asset down to nil.
Looking ahead, IPPlus said that it expects to face a number of challenges in the coming year as "Ansaback adjusts to the expiry of the utility contract with a commensurate decrease in turnover and margin; the new CallScripter team gains momentum; and the Board continues its active review of the Ancora division," said the company in a statement.
While it said the current year will be a "tough one," IPPlus remains confident, stating that the Ansaback division is a resilient business with significant growth opportunities. "Our capacity for growth and strong balance sheet means that we are well placed to meet these challenges."
By Alice Attwood; [email protected]; @AliceAtAlliance
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