31st Jul 2007 07:00
Trading update Next Fifteen Communications Group plc ("Next Fifteen" or the "Group"), theinternational public relations consultancy group is issuing a pre-close tradingupdate ahead of its preliminary results for the year ended 31 July 2007. Next Fifteen is pleased to report that progress has continued in both revenuegeneration and profitability levels, which are in line with expectations thatwere raised when the Group announced record interim results on 17 April 2007.Trading remains healthy in all the Group's major markets, with Next Fifteenexpecting to post strong full-year figures in October 2007. Accelerated Investment During the last quarter the Group has invested in the launch of RedshiftResearch, a UK based market research agency and has introduced its Bite businessinto Mainland China. While these investments were unbudgeted they are notexpected to have a material impact on the Group's results for the current year.Redshift Research has already secured work from seven clients including QAS,Kimberley Clark, Mitsubishi and ARM. Bite's entry in to China was originallyplanned for the next financial year but a key recruitment opportunityaccelerated these plans. The agency now has operations in Hong Kong and Beijing. Major client additions The current financial year has seen the addition of several major new clientsincluding Amazon Digital, Cisco, Dolby, Mozilla and Raytheon in the US; Bootsand Panasonic in Europe and Symantec and Philips CE in APAC. The Group's mostrecent win came with the addition of Nokia as a client in the UK where Lexis hasbeen appointed to handle the mobile giant's corporate and consumer work. Restructuring During the second half of the year, August One was merged with Text 100's UKbusiness. This integration has gone well and Text 100 UK has added Philips amBX(Consumer Gaming Division) as a client following this merger. The Group willhave some one off costs relating to this change, however these will be mitigatedby the profit the Group generated when it sold its Bullet business earlier inthe year. Bullet is a small web development agency with whom the Group continuesto partner. The Group is also pleased that following the reorganisation of its US businessestowards the end of the last financial year, a significantly lower effective taxrate for the Group is expected this year, which will help deliver higherearnings. Will Whitehorn, Chairman of Next Fifteen, said: "We expect to deliver another strong set of results for the full-year and arepleased that we've been able to invest in new operations in Asia for Bite andopen our first research business in the UK. The Group continues to focus on theorganic growth of its existing PR brands and acquisitions that would complementthe existing PR businesses." For further information: \* TNext FifteenTim Dyson, Chief Executive 001 415 350 2801David Dewhurst, Finance Director 07974 161 183 Merlin 020 7653 6620Vanessa Maydon 07802 961 902Anja Kharlamova 07887 788 4788\* T Copyright Business Wire 2007Related Shares:
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