Final Results

Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC 15 October 2003 15 October 2003 KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PLC PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2003 Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC, the independent provider of real-time market data services, announces encouraging results for the year ended 30 June 2003. Financial and business highlights: - Significant orders won towards the year end and current annualised contracted revenues exceeding £0.5million - Strengthening of existing team to provide a solid base for future development - Successful fundraising of £1 million before expenses in September 2003 the proceeds will be used for the continuing roll-out of QuoteTerminal and accelerating the sales and marketing of MarketTerminalTM - Group loss before tax of £705,651, reflecting further investment in research and development and additional overhead cost providing for the launch of MarketTerminalTM QuoteTerminal: - Fast acceptance in marketplace with enterprise-wide systems (>25 units) sold to seven clients - High quality recurring revenues from QuoteTerminal increasing month-on-month MarketTerminalTM: - Accelerated plan put in place to grow MarketTerminalTM international product - Scope of MarketTerminalTM lifted to 120 Exchanges - MarketTerminalTM provides far bigger opportunity whilst leveraging a shared infrastructure Commenting on these results, Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer, chief executive, said: 'The Company has made encouraging progress across all aspects of its operations. The short term sales prospect list is strong and we continue to strategically focus our products towards areas which should capitalise on the downsizing of the large market data vendors and provide outstanding opportunities for growth in the medium term. Our programme of continued technical innovation will culminate in the launch of the broader international MarketTerminalTM solution this year accessing an increased target market of tier one institutions.' For further information, please contact: Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC 020 8795 2700 Mr Oliver Scott KBC Peel Hunt Ltd 020 7418 8900 Mr Neil Boom Gresham PR Ltd 020 7404 9000 Professional users have the opportunity to request a free QuoteTerminal trial by calling the QuoteTerminal sales department on 020 7623 3399. KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PLC CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S STATEMENT Overview It is pleasing to report that during the year, Knowledge Technology Solutions (the 'Company') continued the systematic and confident expansion of its business. The emphasis was on strengthening our sales and support teams, establishing valuable reference sites for QuoteTerminal (the brand name for our UK-only product) and a move towards launching our significantly broader international MarketTerminalTM product. These have been significant strides, demonstrating the effort and commitment of our team and our unique technology platform which is delivering world-class market data services to an ever larger client base. We continue to benefit from taking market share from other, higher cost, market data vendors, as well as from creating a whole new market segment as market data is made available to those on the move. The short term sales prospect list is strong and we continue to strategically focus our products towards areas which should capitalise on the downsizing of the large market data vendors and provide outstanding opportunities for growth. It will already be obvious to shareholders and prospective investors that the data services industry has, and is continuing to experience, a fundamental restructuring of its operations, and here our thin-client ASP technology gives us a genuine competitive advantage which is enabling us to gain market share. Strategic Development Our business model has been built on reduced costs, advanced technology, enhanced efficiency as well as high product and service quality which has created a credible alternative for financial institutions. In line with our development strategy we have continued to invest in product enhancement and development to ensure we emerge as a leading participant in our market. This investment amounted to £260,000 this year and we remain confident that this expenditure will improve returns to shareholders over the coming years. As in previous years, the value of our software is not reflected in the Balance Sheet as the costs relating to its development are written off as incurred. Almost all the investment was to develop further our core browser-based market data platform, MarketTerminalTM, which was enhanced in terms of capacity and capability. This platform now provides a robust and scalable infrastructure upon which we base all our market data delivery ASP services. Until now, the capability of the MarketTerminalTM platform (encompassing QuoteTerminal) was confined to delivering UK market data. Having demonstrated QuoteTerminal to several new business clients last year, the product was very well received both in terms of its presentation and the modular flexibility of pricing options. Enterprise-wide contracts (>25 units) have been received from several clients and QuoteTerminal has fast established itself as a reliable, quality supplier to these customers. During the year we were encouraged to see several new business clients from our target market of tier one and tier two financial institutions choosing QuoteTerminal in preference to the products of other major competitors. New clients include Morley Fund Management, Royal London Asset Management, Prudential-Bache Limited, Williams de Broe Plc, Singer & Friedlander Limited, Charles Stanley and Company Limited, City Equities Limited, Hoodless Brennan and Partners Plc and Seymour Pierce Limited and these clearly endorse both the technology and the overall strategy of our company. QuoteTerminal now has many hundreds of live seats using the system daily and our exceptional levels of customer satisfaction continue to result in high client retention and renewal rates, and also in attracting new customers. Such relatively fast acceptance in the marketplace was achieved due to the fact that QuoteTerminal is 'thin-client' and does not require a software installation nor does it conflict with customers' firewalls which enables it to be operated with a lower technical overhead when compared to rival vendors' systems. In the secure world of banks and financial institutions, this is regarded as critical success criteria. Unlike rival legacy systems, QuoteTerminal also eliminates the need for expensive infrastructure and has substantially lower monthly costs for the customer. At the interim stage, we reported on our need to invest further in our sales and marketing infrastructure. This included the appointment of a new head of sales and the opening of an office in the City of London. We have since made further appointments to our field sales team and are pleased to report that our ability to execute and support much larger enterprise-wide contracts has been progressively honed. We believe that the increased sales investment will bear fruit in the current year. We continue to see a growing number of engagements and will continue to acquire new business in an orderly and structured way as and when customers are released from contracts with their existing data vendors. Entry Point to International Market Data In parallel, another primary concentration last year was to extend the MarketTerminalTM product's capability globally with the addition of international data. This process will be complete this year and will be a major step in our development. This new product will leverage a shared infrastructure and offer the international market data coverage that is required by major financial institutions, while being a much more cost-effective alternative to traditional providers. We are a great deal further forward in our development work upon the international MarketTerminalTM product with data from most of the major international markets, including Nasdaq, NYSE, Euronext and Frankfurt, integrated into the service. We expect to commence trials later this year. It may be worth reminding shareholders that there was a similar period of trial before the successful QuoteTerminal launch and we believe this will be no different provided that we take one step at a time. The expanded breadth of our offering and our established reputation with customers means that we are uniquely positioned to capitalise on the opportunities within these markets once this product is launched. Our Markets We assess the market for our UK-market data service alone is some 20,000 terminals worth around £20 million per annum. With the activity that we are now seeing and the opportunities which will arise from the launch of the international MarketTerminalTM product we believe that the value of our market opportunity has increased substantially. Reference has been made in the Statement to a number of enterprise-wide contracts signed during the year. In addition to the opportunity to upsell to existing UK-only customers, there is considerable pent-up demand from other new customers for the international version of the product. We therefore believe that our addressable market will rise to $2.7bn (source: Inside Market Data Reference 2002) per annum once the international product has been launched. In order to develop the significant opportunity and to strengthen the Balance Sheet, on 22 September 2003 we announced that we had placed 8 million new shares to raise £1 million (before expenses). Contemporaneously to the Placing we announced the appointment of KBC Peel Hunt as stockbroker and nominated advisor to the Company. We were very pleased with the strong interest shown and welcome the new institutional investors who participated in the Placing. The Placing has further strengthened the Company's Balance Sheet. The Directors are of the opinion that the additional strength will be commercially beneficial in enabling the Company to engage successfully with large customers. We believe that the placing will also enable us to increase our operating capacity as well as increasing the flexibility to pursue the opportunities for MarketTerminalTM. Financial Control and Reporting We have a sound balance sheet with no borrowings and a product capable of excellent cash generation. Operating expenses remain tightly controlled. The MarketTerminalTM model is based around developing a business with a high level of renewable revenues, a low breakeven hurdle point and a marginal cost to service each new customer. It is important to note that our conservative accounting policies mean that, while sales and marketing expenses are written off as incurred, cash received from customers is not recognised as revenue immediately but spread over the full term of the subscription. The Board has always adopted this approach and is fully committed to continuing to follow this prudent policy in the future. These results are of academic interest given that the QuoteTerminal product was launched towards the end of the first half of 2003 when significant orders were received. Since then we have experienced continued success in winning larger contracts and solid renewals performance, and we are experiencing considerable growth quarter-on-quarter. The first quarter of the current year underway shows an 84% increase in terminal sales over the fourth quarter of 2003, which in turn showed a 46% increase the previous quarter. Annualised contracted revenues now exceed £0.5 million. The financial year just ended saw continued investment in MarketTerminalTM as we extended this product's capability globally with the addition of international data to ensure our longer-term goals are achieved. The year therefore includes some overhead relating to this product which is not yet revenue generating. The Group produced a net loss after tax of £705,651, consistent with managing this major investment programme. Outlook In summary, our trading performance in the first quarter of this year has built upon the good performance in the final quarter of last year. We have had strong success in invoicing in the quarter, particularly with enterprise-wide contracts incorporating multiple seats. Our programme of continued technical innovation will culminate in the launch of the broader international MarketTerminalTM solution this year accessing an increased target market of first tier institutions. We have every confidence that your company can build on the foundation now in place and expect to continue to benefit from the rapid adoption of thin-client market data services in this marketplace. Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer Chief Executive Officer 14 October 2003 *MarketTerminal is a registered trademark Consolidated Profit and Loss Account For the year ended 30 June 2003 ________________________________________________________________________________ Note Year ended Year ended 30 June 2003 30 June 2002 £ £ Turnover 1 160,708 76,539 Distribution costs (303,031) (184,532) Administrative costs (572,949) (487,532) --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- (715,272) (595,525) Other operating income - 125,000 --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- Operating loss (715,272) (470,525) Interest receivable 9,621 19,884 --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (705,651) (450,641) Taxation 2 41,837 - --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- Loss on ordinary activities after taxation (663,814) (450,641) Dividends 3 - - --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- Retained loss for the year (663,814) (450,641) --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- Loss per share 4 (0.73)p (0.57)p --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- Diluted loss per share 4 (0.73)p (0.38)p --------------------------------- ------ -------- -------- All of the results relate to continuing operations. There are no recognised gains or losses other than the loss for the year. Consolidated Balance Sheet As at 30 June 2003 ________________________________________________________________________________ 2003 2002 £ £ Fixed assets Tangible assets 184,949 36,788 Investments - - ----------------------------------- -------- -------- 184,949 36,788 ----------------------------------- -------- -------- Current assets Debtors 89,004 120,808 Cash at bank and in hand 439,245 366,074 ----------------------------------- -------- -------- 528,249 486,882 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year (102,065) (82,168) ----------------------------------- -------- -------- Net current assets 426,184 404,714 ----------------------------------- -------- -------- Net assets 611,133 441,502 ----------------------------------- -------- -------- Capital and reserves Called up share capital 109,256 81,606 Share premium account 1,810,193 1,004,398 Profit and loss account (1,308,316) (644,502) ----------------------------------- -------- -------- Equity shareholders' funds 611,133 441,502 ----------------------------------- -------- -------- Approved on behalf of the board on 14 October 2003 by: Marc Pinter-Krainer Michael Levy Chief Executive Officer Group Finance Director Consolidated Cash Flow Statement For the year ended 30 June 2003 ________________________________________________________________________________ Year ended Year ended 30 June 2003 30 June 2002 £ £ Net cash outflow from operating activities (630,020) (480,980) --------------------------------- -------- -------- Returns on investments and servicing of finance Interest received 9,621 19,884 Net cash inflow from returns on investments and servicing of finance 9,621 19,884 --------------------------------- -------- -------- Taxation Corporation tax refund 41,837 - Net cash inflow from taxation 41,837 - --------------------------------- -------- -------- Purchase of tangible fixed assets (181,712) (30,038) Net cash outflow from capital expenditure and financial investment (181,712) (30,038) --------------------------------- -------- -------- Net cash outflow before financing (760,274) (491,134) --------------------------------- -------- -------- Financing Issue of share capital 856,000 434,755 Expenses paid in connection with share issues (22,555) (18,493) Net cash inflow from financing 833,445 416,262 --------------------------------- -------- -------- Increase/(Decrease) in cash in the year 73,171 (74,872) --------------------------------- -------- -------- All cash flows relate to continuing operations. Notes to the Preliminary Statement ______________________________________________________________________________ 1 Turnover Turnover is attributable to the principal activities of the Group being the sale of real-time data and analysis services, together with advertising and sponsorship revenue. All turnover arises within the UK. Income is recognised over the contract period. 2 Taxation on loss on ordinary activities As a result of the losses available, no liability to UK corporation tax arose on the ordinary activities for the year ended 30 June 2003. 3 Dividends The Directors do not recommend the payment of a dividend. 4 Loss per ordinary share The loss per Ordinary Share has been calculated by dividing the loss on ordinary activities after tax attributable to shareholders by 91,292,074 (2002: 78,588,504), being the weighted average number of Ordinary Shares in issue during the year, which carry the right to receive a dividend. As a result of the loss for the year there is no difference between the basic and diluted loss per share. 5 Post balance sheet events Subsequent to the year-end all of the Founder Warrants were cancelled. In addition, 9,786,981 Ordinary Shares of 0.1 pence per share have been issued raising £1,050,517 after expenses. 6 Annual report and accounts The foregoing financial information does not amount to full accounts within the meaning of Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985 and has not been reported on but has been agreed with the Company's auditors. The Annual Report and Accounts will be filed at Companies House following the Annual General Meeting and will be posted to shareholders shortly. Copies will be available from the Company Secretary at Wembley Point, 1 Harrow Road, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 6DE. 7 Annual General Meeting The AGM will be held at KBC Peel Hunt Ltd, 111 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1PH, on Tuesday 25 November 2003 at 1.00 p.m. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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