12th Jul 2007 07:10
Huntsworth PLC12 July 2007 Huntsworth plc TRADING UPDATE FOR THE HALF YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2007 Trading well - in line with market expectations Operating margin targets exceeded Huntsworth, the international public relations group, today issues the followingtrading statement in advance of its interim results for the six months to 30June 2007, which will be announced in September. Huntsworth continued to trade strongly giving the Board confidence that it willmeet market expectations in the first half of 2007. Operating Margins Operating company margins for the half year before central costs are expected toexceed 20%, after absorbing the full effects of IFRS charges. Operating marginsafter central costs are expected to exceed 15%. New Business Recent new business wins demonstrate that the Group's international network isworking well. There has been a significant increase in multi-office assignmentsattracting larger fees from blue chip clients. A number of these will beannounced in the autumn. The full financial effects of these multi office contracts will not be feltuntil 2008 as such assignments can take several months to come on stream. Some recent wins include: Hitachi in the UK and in France; PepsiCo and Johnson &Johnson in Russia; Magners Cider in Spain and Germany, and we have beenappointed by Carlyle to act in their bid for Virgin Media in London and NewYork. In addition we have extended our remit with a number of existing clientsto cover more countries. We now work with easyJet in eight European countries;T-Mobile in Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary; Starbucks in Russia, and Romania andMicrosoft Digital Advertising Solutions has extended its contract from the UKand EMEA to include the USA. Huntsworth Health have won new business including Novartis, Roche,Sanofi-aventis and Baxter, as well as a major global assignment from NovartisVaccines following the acquisition, three months ago, of Dorland in the USA. New media is now an integral part of most of our clients' PR campaigns with veryfew not including some element of new media. Many client programmes nowincorporate webcasts, podcasts, innovative online programmes and activities inthe blogosphere. Last month Huntsworth held the first official press conferenceon Trimedia's island in the virtual world of secondlife.com and Shiny Red,Huntsworth's subsidiary wholly devoted to new media, has recently been nominatedfor an NMA award for their work with Yell.com mobile. Conclusion There is real momentum in the Group's business today with the network developingexcellent new business opportunities which will strengthen Group revenues in thesecond half and 2008. For further information, please contact: Huntsworth plcLord Chadlington, Chief Executive Tel: 020 7408 2232Sally Withey, Finance Director Citigate Dewe Rogerson Tel: 020 7638 9571Simon Rigby / Brett Jacobs / George Cazenove This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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