8th Nov 2011 07:00
8th November, 2011
CHIME COMMUNICATIONS PLC
INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
Chime Communications plc, a leading marketing services group, is today publishing its Interim Management Statement relating to the period 1st July 2011 to 8th November 2011 (as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency rules).
Lord Bell, Chairman of Chime Communications, said:
"We have continued to trade well in a difficult economic environment. Our sports marketing business continues to grow both organically and through acquisition and our advertising and marketing services business continues to do very well building on its strong creative reputation and client wins. Our research business is continuing to recover.
Our public relations businesses continue to perform well and grow. However, our main American Government contract has ended earlier in 2011 than we expected. This has affected one of our public relations businesses. As a consequence of this we have moved quickly to reduce costs, mainly people and property, which has resulted in one-off restructuring costs in 2011.
Overall we expect our trading profit in 2011, prior to any restructuring costs, to be in line with both our budgets and market expectations.
We don't yet have high visibility for 2012 but we are not forecasting any significant income from the American Government in 2012. We expect the balance of our four divisions to change with Chime sports marketing becoming a higher proportion of our business and, because of the ending of the US contract, our public relations division to be a lower proportion of our business.
Chime is a growth orientated business and our strategy is to focus on growth in areas of marketing services that will show the strongest growth, like sports marketing and digital. We are at that point in the cycle where we need to make some investments particularly in public relations. We will continue to be acquisitive and we expect organic growth from our existing businesses and their expansion into disciplines and geographies in which we do not currently operate.
Our track record over the last six years has shown high organic growth year on year, but because of the weak global economy we continue to expect growth, but not at the same rate as the last few years. We expect to return to higher growth rates in future years. "
- 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 7861 3232
Pelham Bell Pottinger
Notes to Editors
About Chime
Chime Communications plc is the holding company for a number of leading public relations, marketing services, research and sports marketing firms.
The Chime Group consists of one of the UK's leading public relations groups, Bell Pottinger; a research and consultation business, Opinion Leader, VCCP, the advertising and marketing services group and Fast Track/Essentially now one of the world's leading sports marketing groups.
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