29th Jan 2008 07:00
Next Fifteen Communications Group plc AGM and trading update At the AGM to be held today at 2.30 p.m., Will Whitehorn, Chairman of NextFifteen Communications Group plc (the "Group"), will make the following commentswith regard to trading and the business since the start of the financial year, 1August 2007. "With almost six months of trading under our belt I am pleased to report thatthe Group has made a strong start to the financial year. This is thanks tosignificant client wins made in the latter half of the last financial year, suchas Boots, Cisco, Nokia and MySpace and a strong new-business pipeline in thecurrent trading period. As a result the Group is confident of meeting itstargets for the year. The Group's agencies that service a mix of consumer andbusiness-to-business technology customers are experiencing good growth andimproving margins in all the major markets around the world, thanks in part tothe Group's advanced services around social media and other digital offerings.At the same time the Group's non-technology business in the UK continues toexperience strong growth. Outlook "The Group recognises the uncertain economic outlook for a number of its majormarkets in 2008 and has taken a series of steps to ensure that if there is achange in trading conditions, the business is well prepared. However, at thisstage the Group continues to see solid budgets and significant new-businessopportunities. It is also worth noting that the Group has relatively lowexposure to project income, with less than 20% of fees being derived from suchactivities. Finally, while the Group's international nature does create somecurrency exposures, investors should be aware that the business does havecurrency hedges in place to protect the projected profits of the Group. Customer Expansion and Retention "Next Fifteen's growth continues to come from its operations around the worldand from its broad spectrum of customers, which includes a mix of largecompanies such as IBM, Microsoft, Xerox, Yahoo!, Nokia, Unilever and Sun andmedium-sized and small companies such as VM Ware, Salesforce.com and Facebook.In the case of Sun, the Group's Bite agency has just signed a five yearagreement to provide PR services to the company. In the first half of thisfiscal year, the Group has increased its business with customers such as Amazon,Facebook, eBay, VM Ware, Cap Gemini, Salesforce.com and IBM. It has also addednew assignments from Fujitsu, Autonomy, Blinx and Nickelodeon. The Group now has330 clients around the world, an increase of 7.5% over the last year. "The Group expects to report its Interim Results on 23 April 2008." Enquiries: \* TNext FifteenTim Dyson, Chief Executive 001 415 350 2801David Dewhurst, Finance Director 020 8846 0770 Merlin 020 7653 6620Anja Kharlamova 07887 788 4788\* T Notes to Editors Next Fifteen -- Next Fifteen Communications Group Plc (www.nextfifteen.com) is the holding company for a group of worldwide PR consultancies. The majority of the Group's clients are in the technology industry, and include global names such as IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Cisco. The Group's strategy has also evolved to advise non-technology clients including companies such as Coca-Cola, Whirlpool, Total, Dove, Nokia, MySpace and the Barclays Premiership. -- The Group owns five independent subsidiary PR brands that operate as autonomous businesses. It also owns two research businesses and has an investment in a policy communications business -- The Group's dedicated B2B and consumer services PR brand, Lexis Public Relations, operates across a number of vertical market sectors. -- In the 12 months to 31 July 2007, Next Fifteen's net revenue grew by 6% to £59.3m and pre-tax profit by 49% to £4.5m. EBITDA grew by 33% to £7.25m in the same period. -- Next Fifteen is listed on the Alternative Investment Market in London and has a market capitalisation of £31.89m as at 28 January 2008. Copyright Business Wire 2008Related Shares:
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