12th May 2010 07:00
12th May 2010
CHIME COMMUNICATIONS PLC
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
Chime Communications plc, a leading marketing services group, is today publishing its Interim Management Statement relating to the period from 1st January 2010 to 12th May 2010 (as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency rules), ahead of its Annual General Meeting today.
At the meeting Lord Bell, Chairman of Chime Communications, will make the following statement:
"The Group overall in the first four months of 2010 has continued the progress made in 2009 with good growth. We expect to outperform the 2009 first half year operating income and operating profit and to be ahead of both budget and market expectations.
Our new business pipeline is full with the value of new business wins in the first quarter of 2010 over 30% higher than the same period in 2009, which was a record performance for the company. 77% of forecast operating income for 2010 is now committed, compared to 75% at this time last year. We acted for Qatar Holdings in their recent acquisition of Harrods and Qatari Diar on the redevelopment of UK property interests; and new business wins included: Airbus, Barclays, Johnson Matthey, Kuwait Energy, Gatwick Express, O2 Slovakia, the Moroccan National Tourist Office and The Clydesdale Bank 40 (cricket).
We have continued to control our fixed costs. Salary increases have only been given for promotions or increased responsibility and we have continued to increase the proportion of our expenditure that is variable and dependent on performance. Headcount, other than through acquisition, has not increased and the restructuring of the Research Division is resulting in substantial cost savings.
We have continued to manage our cash flow very carefully. In line with our forecast, we expect to have a small amount of debt at 30th June 2010 (caused by the payment of the first tranche of the Fast Track earnout). We expect to be cash positive by 31st December 2010.
Our overall strategy is to manage our business on a cautious basis with careful cost control, and we are very pleased with our performance so far in 2010.
The Public Relations Division (Bell Pottinger Group) has shown good growth in operating income and operating profit with strong performances from Public Affairs, Financial Public Relations, Corporate and Social Responsibility and Sans Frontières, our geopolitical public advocacy consultancy. We have opened an office in Singapore and already won Temasek and Golden Agri, two of the largest clients in South East Asia.
The Sports Marketing Division has shown organic growth in operating revenue and operating profit and the integration of recent acquisition Essentially has been successfully completed.
The Advertising Marketing Services Divisionhas had several good new business wins which will have biggest effect in the second half.
The Research Division has been restructured under new management and it has returned to profit in the first half of 2010. We are confident that this Division will return organic growth in the second half of 2010. The acquisition of Tree, completed in March 2010, will further improve the performance of this Division."
- ENDS -
For further information please contact:
Lord Bell, Chairman 020 7861 8515
Chime Communications
Christopher Satterthwaite, Chief Executive 020 7861 8515
Chime Communications
James Henderson/ Victoria Geoghegan 020 7337 1500
Pelham Bell Pottinger
About Chime Communications
The Chime Group helps clients create, manage, monitor and market their businesses, brands and reputation both in the UK and internationally.
Chime is the holding company for the UK's leading public relations group, Bell Pottinger; the UK's leading research group which includes Facts International and Opinion Leader Research; one of the fastest growing advertising and marketing services groups in the UK, that includes VCCP and Teamspirit; and the UK's number one sports marketing group that includes Fast Track and Essentially Group.
For more information please go to www.chime.plc.uk
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