Interim Results
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9 May 2006
SAGE PRE-TAX PROFIT UP 19% TO £113.7 MILLION FOR HALF-YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2006
The Sage Group plc ("Sage"), a leading supplier of accounting and business
management software solutions and related services for small to medium-sized
enterprises ("SMEs"), announces its unaudited results for the half-year ended
31 March 2006. These results have been prepared under International Financial
Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as adopted for use by the European Union ("EU")
that the Group expects to be applicable to the year ending 30 September 2006.
Financial highlights
Revenue increased by 18%* to £455.9m (2005: £385.6m*)
Pre-tax profit increased by 19% to £113.7m (2005: £95.8m)
Earnings per share increased by 19% to 6.10p (2005: 5.14p)
EBITA margin increased to 27% (2005: 26%*). (EBITA: earnings before interest,
tax and net amortisation)
Cash flow from operations represented 125% of EBITA (2005: 134%)
Interim dividend raised 17% to 1.08p per share (2005: 0.92p)
Operational and strategic highlights
Customer base expanded to 5.0m businesses (30 September 2005: 4.7m)
Organic revenue growth of 5%*, with growth in all regions
Customer Relationship Management ("CRM") solutions showed revenue growth of 9%*
Strong revenue growth in newer Sage territories - Spain, South Africa, Canada
and Australia
£281m invested in acquisitions to extend existing businesses in US and France -
these have shown high revenue growth since acquisition
Regional analysis*
First half First half
2006 2005
£m Revenue EBITA Revenue EBITA
UK 99.5 36.4 95.6 34.8
Mainland Europe 134.5 29.8 99.9 22.4
North America 164.1 38.7 161.0 38.7
Rest of World 33.3 9.1 29.1 5.3
431.4 114.0 385.6 101.2
Acquisitions:
Mainland Europe 18.3 4.3 - -
North America 6.2 2.1 - -
24.5 6.4 - -
Profit on disposal - 2.7 - -
Foreign exchange impact* - - (12.7) (3.0)
455.9 123.1 372.9 98.2
*Foreign currency results for the prior half-year ended 31 March 2005 and other
prior periods referred to, have been retranslated based on the average exchange
rates for the half-year ended 31 March 2006 to facilitate the comparison of
results.
Chief Executive, Paul Walker, commented: "The first half of 2006 has progressed
as expected, with our expanding customer base of 5 million businesses
continuing to purchase more of our locally-developed software and services.
We will continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities that meet the evolving
needs of customers, whilst satisfying our investment criteria and representing
good value for our shareholders.
With a number of new product and service initiatives in place, we expect
increased organic revenue growth for the second half and we therefore continue
to view 2006 with confidence."
A presentation for analysts will be held at 9.30am today at Deutsche Bank,
Winchester House, 1 Great Winchester Street, London EC2N 2DB. The presentation
will also be available at www.sage.com. A live audio broadcast of the
presentation will also be available for analysts. The dial-in number is + 44
(0)20 7162 0025.
Enquiries:
The Sage Group plc +44 (0) 191 294 3068 Tulchan Communications +44 (0) 20 7353 4200
Paul Walker, Chief Executive Julie Foster
Paul Harrison, Finance Director Kirstie Hamilton
Phil Branston, Investor Relations
Overview
We are pleased to report a revenue increase of 18%* and earnings per share
growth of 19%. These results show further progress in our growth strategy,
based on fulfilling a greater range of SME business management needs with a
portfolio of locally-developed software and services. Group organic revenue
growth of 5%* reflected our strong market positions, maintained by growth in
both our small business and mid-market divisions.
Customers
We have continued to focus on expanding our customer base and on encouraging
existing customers to adopt the new and enhanced products and services that we
have developed. Key developments in the period were:
Our customer base expanded to 5.0 million (30 September 2005: 4.7 million)
1.5 million of our customers purchased support contracts and related services
(2005: 1.3 million)
377,000 of our support service customers purchased added value, premium support
contracts (2005: 353,000)
745,000 of our support service customers chose subscriptions combining software
upgrades with support (30 September 2005: 678,000)
These achievements have further deepened relationships with our customers and
as they renew and expand their solutions over time, there will be significant
opportunities for our future growth.
Products
We continued to make progress in extending our solutions to help our customers
manage processes throughout their businesses. In response to customer needs,
our annual product development programme continued to improve our product range
in all of our markets. A number of key new products are scheduled for release
in the second half of the year. These products provide industry-specific
extensions, new business analysis capabilities and deeper integration between
Sage products. In addition, we continued to cooperate with a range of major
technology partners in order to make more effective use of their technologies
in developing our products. During the period, our total investment in software
development, including £0.5m of capitalised expenditure, represented 31% of
software revenue (2005: 28%*).
Our customers have continued to adopt Sage solutions beyond core accounts and
payroll, particularly in industry-specific markets such as manufacturing and
distribution and also in customer relationship management ("CRM"). With organic
revenue growth of 9%*, CRM has continued to be our fastest-growing category of
solutions.
Acquisitions
Acquisitions in high-growth segments of the SME market remain an important part
of Sage's growth strategy. We made two significant acquisitions during the
period, which enhanced our position in existing product markets and also
extended our business into new service markets. These acquisitions contributed
to an increase in the size of our operations to 10,500 employees (31 March
2005: 8,200).
Adonix S.A. ("Adonix"), acquired in November 2005 for an enterprise value of £
74.1m, strengthened our market leading position in France. Adonix brings more
advanced business management solutions, including industry-specific software
for businesses in real estate and manufacturing. These solutions provide
migration choices for our large mid-market customer base in France.
Verus Financial Management, Inc. ("Verus"), acquired in February 2006 for an
enterprise value of £184.6m, provides credit / debit card and cheque processing
for US SMEs, complementing the existing payroll processing services available
to our North American customers. Verus supports over 100,000 merchants in
processing customer transactions. Such merchant services represent a strongly
growing market, underpinned by increased use of credit / debit cards and by
progressive adoption of e-commerce. Sage's North American customers are showing
clear demand for their card transactions to be both automated and integrated
with their accounting software. To realise this opportunity, we have begun to
integrate Verus services with Sage accounting software.
We continue to evaluate further acquisition opportunities to extend our
existing regional businesses and also to enter adjacent product and service
markets and new territories. We remain disciplined in our valuation of
businesses and will only acquire businesses that represent good value for our
shareholders. We demonstrated our commitment to shareholder value when, in
April 2006, having announced an offer for Visma ASA, a Scandinavian vendor of
business management solutions for SMEs, we withdrew our interest after a higher
bid was made by a third party.
After the end of the period, two further acquisitions, Contractor Anywhere and
Master Builder (combined enterprise value approximately £17m, May 2006),
extended the North American range of construction solutions. The two businesses
had combined revenues of £8.3m for the year ended 31 July 2005 and have 9,000
customers. Both Master Builder, purchased from Intuit Inc. and Contractor
Anywhere, a recently-developed mid-market solution, will form part of the
migration path to our full mid-market solution, Timberline.
Regional review
UK
UK revenues were £99.5m (2005: £95.6m). Organic revenue growth of 4% reflected
growth in both small business and mid-market solutions. Core small business
accounts products showed strong licence revenue growth. In addition,
industry-specific product extensions and CRM made rising contributions. In all
these product lines, support revenue growth resulted from the strong licence
sales growth over recent periods.
The EBITA margin increased to 37% (2005: 36%).
Mainland Europe
Revenues in Mainland Europe were £152.8m (2005: £99.9m*). Organic revenue
growth of 6%* resulted principally from increased customer spend on support
services. The strongest organic revenue growth was in Spain (11%*) and resulted
from strong growth in software licence revenues and further adoption of premium
support contracts.
The acquisition of Adonix extended our presence in the French mid-market with
advanced solutions for our mid-market customers. For the year ended 31
December 2004, its last full year prior to acquisition, its revenue was £43.1m*
and its EBITA was £9.7m*. Adonix has performed strongly since acquisition, with
revenue growth of 13% compared with the prior year period (pre-ownership).
The overall EBITA margin in Mainland Europe was maintained at 22% (2005: 22%*).
North America
Revenues in North America were £170.3m (2005: £161.0m*). Organic revenue
growth, excluding the contribution from a small business unit disposed of in
January 2006, was 4%*.
The small business division showed organic revenue growth of 7%*, resulting
from new and existing customers adopting premium versions of existing products,
together with added-value support and payroll services for these products.
The mid-market division showed organic revenue growth of 2%*. This was lower
than in recent periods due to this year's product release schedule being
weighted to the second half. Support revenues continued to grow strongly as a
result of sustained software licence growth over recent periods.
The acquisition of Verus (February 2006) extended the services we offer to US
SMEs into credit card processing. Its revenue for the year ended 31 December
2005 was £36.5m* and its EBITA was £11.0m. Verus has continued its strong
growth since acquisition, with revenue growth of 21% compared with the prior
year period (pre-ownership).
The overall North American EBITA margin increased to 25% (2005: 24%*),
principally as a result of a gain of £2.7m made on disposal of a small business
unit in January 2006. Excluding this gain, underlying margins were unchanged
from the prior year period at 24%.
Rest of World
This region contributed revenues of £33.3m (2005: £29.1m*). Organic revenue
growth was 14%* and was strong in both principal territories. In South Africa,
revenue growth resulted from licence sales growth in core accounts and payroll
products, combined with continued adoption of support contracts by new and
existing customers. In Australia, new payroll products provided a basis for
strong growth in revenues from upgrades, support and related services.
The overall EBITA margin for the region rose to 27% (2005: 18%*) as a result of
revenue growth.
Financial review
These results are the first the Group has reported under International
Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as adopted by the European Union ("EU")
that the Group expects to be applicable to the year ending 30 September 2006. A
summary of the principal impacts of IFRS is shown in note 1.
Revenue
Revenues grew 18%* to £455.9m (2005: £385.6m*). Organic revenue growth,
excluding the contributions of non-core products (3% of revenues) and of
current- and prior-year acquisitions together with a small disposal (combined
14% of revenues), was 5%*.
Software licence revenues were £161.7m (2005: £147.3m*), showing organic growth
of 2%*. Whilst we added 186,000 new customers excluding acquisitions, adoption
of our higher-value mid-market software products was comparatively slow
reflecting the fact that the year's principal product releases are due in the
second half.
Services revenues, principally related to the provision of support services,
were £294.2m (2005: £238.3m*), representing organic growth of 7%*. Support
service revenues represented 50% of Group revenues and grew 9%* organically,
principally as a result of an increase in spend per customer associated with
adoption of additional software and with further take-up of premium support.
Our 1.5 million support contracts (2005: 1.3 million) included a growing
proportion of contracts providing continuous subscriptions combining software
upgrades and support.
Profitability
Pre-tax profit increased by 19% to £113.7m (2005: £95.8m) and earnings per
share grew 19% to 6.10p (2005: 5.14p). These results include a gain of £2.7m
made on disposal of a small North American business unit in January 2006.
Under IFRS, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) includes non-cash charges
for amortisation and excludes capitalised software development expenditure. The
impacts of these items on the 2005 results are shown in note 1. The Board
measures Group and regional performance by using the EBITA (earnings before
interest, tax and net amortisation) performance measure. This excludes the
impact of amortisation of acquired intangible assets and also the net impact of
capitalisation of certain software development and its subsequent amortisation.
The EBITA margin was increased to 27% (2005: 26%*).
The tax charge gives an effective rate of 31% which is unchanged from the prior
year with the result that earning per share increased by 19%.
Acquisitions
During the period, we completed two significant acquisitions, for an enterprise
value of £258.7m. These were Adonix (France, enterprise value £74.1m) and Verus
(US, enterprise value £184.6m).
Current and prior year acquisitions contributed strong revenue growth, such
that Group pro-forma revenue growth, with comparative pre-ownership results
from acquisitions added to the prior year period, was 6%.
Cash flow
The Group remains highly cash generative with cash flow from operations of £
153.9m (2005: £131.7m) representing 125% of EBITA. This strong cash flow meant
that, after expenditure on acquisitions of £281.4m, net debt stood at £287.4m
at 31 March 2006 (£106.9m at 30 September 2005).
Dividend
In line with the Group's policy, announced in December 2004, the interim
dividend is being raised 17% to 1.08p per share (2005: 0.92p) reflecting the
Board's intention to move dividend cover to 3.5 times for the current year. The
dividend will be payable on 16 June 2006 to shareholders on the register at
close of business on 19 May 2006.
Board
On 6 February 2006, we announced that our Chairman Michael Jackson would be
retiring from the Board on 1 August 2006. Michael joined the Board in 1984 and
has been Chairman since 1997. During this period Michael helped guide the Group
through its initial growth to become UK market leader, its flotation as a
listed company and its international expansion through a series of successful
acquisitions. The Board would like to thank Michael for his substantial
contribution to Sage's growth over the past 22 years. Sir Julian Horn-Smith,
who joined the Board on 3 March 2006 and will be retiring as Vodafone's Deputy
Chief Executive, will become Chairman on 1 August 2006.
Outlook
The first half of 2006 has progressed as expected, with our expanding customer
base of 5 million businesses continuing to purchase more of our
locally-developed software and services.
We will continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities that meet the evolving
needs of customers, whilst satisfying our investment criteria and representing
good value for our shareholders.
With a number of new product and service initiatives in place, we expect
increased organic revenue growth for the second half and we therefore continue
to view 2006 with confidence.
CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT
For the six months ended 31 March 2006
Six months ended Six months ended Year
31 March 31 March
ended 30
September
2006 2005 2005
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited)
Note £m £m £m
Revenue 1 455.9 372.9 759.6
Operating profit 1 118.8 98.2 199.2
Financial income 1.6 1.1 2.8
Financial expenses (6.7) (3.5) (8.5)
Profit before taxation 113.7 95.8 193.5
Taxation 3 (35.2) (29.9) (61.2)
Profit for the period 78.5 65.9 132.3
Attributable to:
Equity shareholders 78.5 65.9 132.2
Minority interest - - 0.1
Profit for the period 78.5 65.9 132.3
Earnings per share 5 6.10p 5.14p 10.30p
(pence) - basic
Earnings per share 5 6.05p 5.11p 10.25p
(pence) - diluted
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF RECOGNISED INCOME AND EXPENSE
For the six months ended 31 March 2006
Six months ended Six months ended Year
31 March 31 March
ended 30
September
2006 2005 2005
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited)
£m £m £m
Profit for the period 78.5 65.9 132.3
Net exchange adjustments 14.4 (17.2) 13.4
offset in reserves
Total recognised income for 92.9 48.7 145.7
the period
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
As at 31 March 2006
31 March 31 March 30 September
2006 2005 2005
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited)
£m £m £m
Goodwill 1,275.4 995.7 1,076.8
Other intangible assets 174.3 13.4 45.4
Property, plant and equipment 126.2 121.2 119.9
Deferred tax assets 13.7 38.5 46.0
Total non-current assets 1,589.6 1,168.8 1,288.1
Inventories 4.3 3.3 3.5
Trade and other receivables 184.2 132.0 149.9
Cash and cash equivalents 88.4 77.9 69.1
Total current assets 276.9 213.2 222.5
TOTAL ASSETS 1,866.5 1,382.0 1,510.6
Trade and other payables (168.0) (133.7) (145.5)
Tax liabilities (58.5) (59.5) (60.8)
Financial liabilities
- Borrowings (0.4) (6.0) (0.2)
Deferred consideration (14.9) (2.5) (5.8)
Deferred income (269.9) (222.2) (228.3)
Total current liabilities (511.7) (423.9) (440.6)
Financial liabilities
- Borrowings (375.8) (157.1) (176.3)
Retirement benefit obligations (2.3) (2.4) (2.3)
Deferred tax liabilities (19.4) (3.7) (2.5)
Total non-current liabilities (397.5) (163.2) (181.1)
TOTAL LIABILITIES (909.2) (587.1) (621.7)
NET ASSETS 957.3 794.9 888.9
Share capital 12.9 12.8 12.8
Share premium account 460.9 448.7 451.0
Other reserve 61.1 61.1 61.1
Currency translation reserve 27.8 (17.1) 13.4
Retained earnings 394.6 289.2 350.4
Total shareholders' equity 957.3 794.7 888.7
Minority interest in equity - 0.2 0.2
TOTAL EQUITY 957.3 794.9 888.9
CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
For the six months ended 31 March 2006
Six months Six months Year
ended 31 March ended 31 March
ended 30
September
2006 2005 2005
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited)
Note £m £m £m
Cash flows from operating 153.9 131.7 241.0
activities
Interest received 1.6 1.1 2.8
Interest paid (6.4) (3.9) (8.1)
Tax paid (30.0) (33.7) (57.3)
Net cash from operating 119.1 95.2 178.4
activities
Cash flows from investing
activities
Acquisitions of subsidiaries (251.8) (29.4) (101.0)
(net of cash acquired)
Disposal of subsdiary 8.4 - -
Proceeds from sale of property, 2.7 2.1 3.5
plant and equipment
Purchase of property, plant and (13.9) (6.7) (20.7)
equipment
Purchase of intangible assets (1.9) - -
Development expenditure (0.3) (0.4) (0.7)
Net cash used in investing (256.8) (34.4) (118.9)
activities
Cash flows from financing
activities
Net proceeds from issue of 10.0 1.8 4.6
ordinary share capital
Purchase of treasury shares (13.3) - -
Finance lease principal (0.4) - 0.9
repayment
Issue costs on loans (0.2) - -
Repayment of borrowings (111.1) (54.0) (209.4)
New borrowings 296.2 17.0 173.1
Dividends paid to shareholders (25.2) (22.0) (33.9)
Net cash from/(used in) 156.0 (57.2) (64.7)
financing activities
Net increase/(decrease) in cash 18.3 3.6 (5.2)
and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents at 1 69.1 74.3 74.3
October
Effects of exchange rate 1.0 - -
changes
Cash and cash equivalents 2 88.4 77.9 69.1
NOTES
For the six months ended 31 March 2006
1 IFRS
IFRS financial information presented in this statement has been prepared on the
basis of the policies the directors expect to adopt for the Group's first full
IFRS financial statements for the year to 30 September 2006. These policies
include all prevailing and applicable IFRS including International Accounting
Standards ("IAS") and interpretations issued by the International Accounting
Standards Board ("IASB") and its committees. These standards and
interpretations are subject to ongoing amendment by the IASB and subsequent
endorsement by the European Commission and are therefore subject to possible
change.
The Group has taken the exemption available under IFRS 1 from presenting
comparative financial information under IAS 32 and IAS 39 and therefore the
related applicable financial instruments have been accounted for under UK GAAP.
Further standards and interpretations may also be issued that will be
applicable for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2005 or that
will be applicable to later accounting periods but may be adopted early. The
Group's first IFRS financial statements may, therefore, be prepared in
accordance with different accounting policies to those used to prepare the
financial information presented in this announcement. In addition, as IFRS is a
new reporting basis for UK companies, accounting practice and interpretations
of accounting standards will develop as companies gain more experience of the
new framework. Accordingly there may be changes in the common approaches
currently adopted and the final application of IFRS in the financial statements
for the year to 30 September 2006 may be subject to change.
The date of transition to IFRS for the Group was 1 October 2004, being the
first day of the comparative period ("the transition date") and the Group is
required to prepare a balance sheet as at the transition date ("the transition
balance sheet") under IFRS.
On 27 March 2006 the Group disclosed the unaudited restatement of financial
information for the Group under IFRS for the six months ended 31 March 2005 and
the year ended 30 September 2005 including the reconciliation of the Group's UK
GAAP consolidated income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement to
IFRS. In addition, details of the impacts on the primary segmental disclosure
of geographic region were provided.
This document is available at www.sage.com/investors/ifrs.pdf
Analysis of results
First half First half
2006 2005
Revenue EBITA Operating Revenue EBITA Operating
profit profit
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited)
(Unaudited)
£m £m £m £m £m £m
UK 99.5 36.4 37.0 95.6 34.8 34.9
Mainland 134.5 29.8 26.6 99.9 22.4 22.0
Europe
North America 164.1 38.7 37.0 161.0 38.7 39.0
Rest of World 33.3 9.1 9.1 29.1 5.3 5.3
431.4 114.0 109.7 385.6 101.2 101.2
Acquisitions:
Mainland 18.3 4.3 4.3 - - -
Europe
North America 6.2 2.1 2.1 - - -
24.5 6.4 6.4 - - -
Profit on - 2.7 2.7 - - -
disposal
Impact of - - - (12.7) (3.0) (3.0)
foreign
exchange*
455.9 123.1 118.8 372.9 98.2 98.2
* The 2006 trading results from businesses located outside the UK were
translated into Sterling at the average exchange rates for the period. For our
two most significant foreign operating currencies, the US Dollar and the Euro,
the resulting rates were £1=$1.75 and £1=€1.46 respectively. Results for the
period ended 31 March 2005 have been retranslated at these exchange rates to
facilitate the comparison of results. The Group does not hedge this
translational exposure.
EBITA includes a charge for share-based payments of £4.2m (2005: £3.6m).
The Board measures Group and regional performance by using the EBITA (earnings
before interest, tax and net amortisation) performance measure. This excludes
the impact of amortisation of acquired intangible assets and also the net
impact of capitalisation of certain software development and its subsequent
amortisation.
Reconciliation of EBITA to operating profit 2006 First half 2005 First
half
(Unaudited) (Unaudited)
£m £m
EBITA 123.1 98.2
Development cost capitalised 0.6 0.6
Development amortisation (0.3) (0.2)
Intangible amortisation (4.6) (0.4)
Operating profit 118.8 98.2
The geographical restatement of UK GAAP figures for the period ended 31 March
2005 to IFRS is presented below. Further details are available at www.sage.com/
investors/ifrs.pdf
Revenue - half year ended 31 March 2005 (Unaudited)
UK Mainland North Rest of Total
Europe America World
£m £m £m £m £m
UK GAAP 96.7 101.3 155.4 28.2 381.6
IFRS adjustments:
IAS 18 - Revenue (1.1) 0.2 (7.8) - (8.7)
IFRS 95.6 101.5 147.6 28.2 372.9
Operating profit - half year ended 31 March 2005 (Unaudited)
UK Mainland North Rest Total
of
Europe America
World
£m £m £m £m £m
UK GAAP 36.3 24.0 37.3 5.5 103.1
IFRS adjustments:
IFRS 2 - Share-based payment (1.1) (0.9) (1.4) (0.2) (3.6)
IAS 18 - Revenue (0.4) 0.4 - - -
IAS 19 - Employee benefits - (0.8) (0.4) (0.1) (1.3)
EBITA 34.8 22.7 35.5 5.2 98.2
IFRS 3 - Business combinations
(amortisation) - (0.3) (0.1) - (0.4)
IAS 38 - Intangible assets (development
costs) 0.1 (0.1) 0.4 - 0.4
Operating profit 34.9 22.3 35.8 5.2 98.2
2 Analysis of change in net debt
At 1 Exchange At 31
movement/
October March
2005
2006
(Audited) Cash other (Unaudited)
flow
£m £m £m £m
Cash and cash equivalents 69.1 18.3 1.0 88.4
Loans due within one year (0.1) (0.3) - (0.4)
Finance leases due within one year (0.1) 0.1 - -
Loans due after more than one year (175.2) (184.6) (15.3) (375.1)
Finance leases due after more than (0.6) 0.3 - (0.3)
one year
(106.9) (166.2) (14.3) (287.4)
3 Taxation
The taxation charge for the period comprises:
Six months ended 31 Six months ended 31 Year
March March
ended 30
September
2006 2005 2005
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited)
£m £m £m
UK taxation 13.8 13.2 19.1
Overseas taxation 21.4 16.7 42.1
35.2 29.9 61.2
The taxation charge gives an effective rate of 31% (2005: 31%).
4 Statutory accounts
The unaudited financial information set out above does not constitute the
Company's statutory accounts for the period ended 31 March 2006. The accounting
policies used as a basis for this interim results announcement are consistent
with those included in the unaudited restatement of financial information for
the year ended 30 September 2005 as highlighted above. The Company's
statutory accounts for the year ended 30 September 2005, based on UK GAAP have
been delivered to the Registrar of Companies.
The Group results for the year ended 30 September 2005 have been extracted from
those statutory accounts as adjusted for IFRS in the unaudited restatement of
financial information for the year ended 30 September 2005 highlighted above.
The Auditors' Report on the UK GAAP accounts to 30 September 2005 was
unqualified and did not contain a statement under Section 237 of the Companies
Act 1985. Accounts to 30 September 2006 under IFRS will be delivered in due
course.
5 Earnings per share
The calculation of basic earnings per ordinary share is based on earnings of £
78,470,000 (2005: £65,918,000) being the profit for the period and on
1,287,271,933 ordinary 1p shares (2005: 1,282,275,455) being the weighted
average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period.
The diluted earnings per ordinary share is based on profit for the period of £
78,470,000 (2005: £65,918,000) and on 1,297,329,036 ordinary 1p shares (2005:
1,289,959,970).
6 Dividends
The interim dividend of 1.08 pence per share will be paid on 16 June 2006 to
shareholders on the register at the close of business on 19 May 2006.
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