6th Feb 2008 07:01
Homeserve Plc06 February 2008 Homeserve plc Interim Management Statement 6 February 2008 Homeserve is today publishing its second Interim Management Statement for theperiod 1 October 2007 to date as required by the UK Listing Authority'sDisclosure and Transparency Rules. The year continues to develop in line with our expectations and we are pleasedwith the progress in achieving our strategic goals. Our UK Policy Membership business is currently in its key period for marketingactivity. Recently launched new utility products are performing well and, aspreviously indicated, we expect gross new policy sales at least to match thelevel achieved last year. The integration of our Warranties and Homeserve GBbusinesses is progressing smoothly. We are pleased with the development of our US Policy Membership business. Asannounced last month, we now have access to 9.3m households, growing from 4.9mat the start of this financial year. We have commenced marketing to LouisvilleWater and California Water customers, the new partners we announced in November2007, and expect to start marketing to the customers of Progress Energy in May. In Europe, Domeo, our French joint venture, is continuing to deliver strongcustomer and policy growth, and is testing a range of products with prospectivepartners. Our Reparalia business in Spain has performed well in its first yearunder Homeserve ownership and has led to increased interest from prospectiveaffinity partners, with discussions on full marketing partnerships progressingwell. Our Emergency Services business is continuing to focus on completing disasterrestoration and property repair work driven by last summer's floods. Thisadditional workload continues to be offset by reduced volumes in other tradespartly impacted by higher cash settlement volumes. In addition, we have beeninvesting to increase the productivity and effectiveness of the network, withour Mercury workflow management IT system going live this month in our buildingsand Chem-Dry businesses. Overall, the business continues to perform well and in line with ourexpectations. We have clear visibility of our future earnings profile driven bycontinuing high renewal rates. The pipeline of future growth opportunitiesremains strong and we continue to build management capability in key areas. There have been no other material events since the announcement of our Interimresults in November. Homeserve is hosting an investor and analysts' seminar on its internationalbusiness tomorrow, Thursday 7 February, at which no new material informationwill be disclosed. Copies of the slides provided during the course of theseminar will be available on the Company's website (www.homeserve.com) from12.00 noon on that date. Enquiries: Homeserve plc Brian Whitty, Executive Chairman Tel: 01922 427903Jonathan Simpson-Dent, CFO TulchanAndrew Honnor Tel: 0207 353 4200Stephen Malthouse This Interim Management Statement has been drawn up and presented for thepurposes of complying with English law. Any liability arising out of or inconnection with this Interim Management Statement will also be determined inaccordance with English law. This Interim Management Statement may contain 'forward-looking statements'. Bytheir nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty becausethey relate to future events and circumstances. Many of these risks anduncertainties relate to factors beyond Homeserve's control or which cannot beestimated precisely, such as future market conditions and the behaviour of othermarket participants. Actual outcomes and results may therefore differmaterially from any outcomes or results expressed or implied by any suchforward-looking statements. Nothing in this Interim Management Statement is intended to be a profitforecast. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
HSV.L