Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 6212N

Anite PLC

20 February 2009

For immediate release Friday, 20 February 2008

Anite plc

Interim Management Statement

Anite plc ('Anite' or 'the Company'), the international software and solutions company, today announces an Interim Management Statement, covering the period from 31 October 2008 to 19 February 2009.

Trading

Operating profit* in the quarter ended 31 January 2009 has been satisfactory and is in line with the Board's expectations for the year as a whole.

Overall Wireless trading continues to benefit from strong cost control and favourable currency movements, with both Handset Testing and Network Testing reporting improved profits year to date. However, market conditions remain tough and this has been characterised within some customers by lengthening sales cycles, budget reductions and deferrals. Handset Testing's outturn inevitably will be dependent on its important final quarter reflecting its normal trading patterns and set against its shorter term order book and a tough comparison with the same period last year.

The Board remains confident about Anite's long term opportunities for 4G (LTE) technology. We expect these revenues to progress during the second half of next year following the improvements in functionality achieved by Anite and its hardware partner, Agilent, with our new systems. At this stage however it is not possible to gauge the impact of the current macro-economic conditions on customer adoption, but it is clear that there is a growing demand for these products.

Travel continues to perform satisfactorily. Whilst order intake is down on last year as expected, overall performance is consistent with the various customer changes reported at the time of the interim results. We continue to report good progress with the TUI Group, a key international customer.

*continuing operating profit before disposed businesses, share based payments, amortisation of acquired intangible assets and restructuring costs

Financial position

Anite continues to report a robust financial position. Net cash as at 31 January 2009 was £38.4m (31 October 2008: net cash of £41.5m), £0.65m having been spent on buying back and cancelling 2.6m shares since 31 October 2008 at an average price of 25.3 pence per share. The Company also has additional funds available in the form of a £20m undrawn revolving credit facility and a £10m overdraft facility.

The interest income on the Company's cash balance has declined significantly due to falling base rates, whereas the interest expense on the Company's term loan is effectively at a fixed rate.

There will be a cash outflow of £10.9m on 20 February 2009 in respect of the cost of the interim dividend of 0.3 pence per share and the special dividend of 3.0 pence per share, the latter having been approved by shareholders at the General Meeting held on 27 January 2009.

The agreement of the final working capital adjustment following completion of the disposal of Public Sector will result in receipt of additional cash of £2.45m prior to the financial year end.

Share capital

The General Meeting also approved a share consolidation with 8 new ordinary shares being exchanged for 9 existing ordinary shares with effect from 2 February 2009. The issued ordinary share capital of the Company now comprises 298,609,840 ordinary shares of 11.25p each.

The Board has committed to a total on-market share buyback programme (to a value of circa £9.9m) which will be completed over the course of the next two years, taking into account developing market conditions.

Management update

The Board is making progress with the recruitment of a new Group Finance Director, following Christopher Humphrey's appointment as Chief Executive on 1 January 2009. We have also made recent changes in the leadership of our Travel division.

Commenting, Christopher Humphrey, Anite's Chief Executive said:

'Performance for the year to date is in line with our current expectations. The results for the financial year as a whole will be subject to the current economic environment and trading in Handset Testing in its important final quarter.'

A conference call for analysts and investors will be held at 9.00am today; please call or e-mail Olivia Evans at Smithfield for details (020 7360 4900 or oevans@smithfieldgroup.com)

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