Trading Statement

RNS Number : 3593V

Anite PLC

28 May 2008

 



    28 May 2008

Anite plc

Year End Trading Update

Anite plc ('Anite' or 'the Company'), the international software and solutions company, today announces a trading update for its financial year ended 30 April 2008. The Company intends to report its preliminary results for the year in early July 2008.

Trading

Revenue and operating profit from continuing operations* will be down approximately 3% and 10% respectively when compared to last year. This is wholly attributable to Handset Testing which has been impacted by difficult market conditions as indicated at the time of the Interim Management Statement issued in March. This has reduced revenues and profitability in Wireless despite a strong performance from Network Testing (Nemo).

Travel performed strongly with better than expected order intake, revenues and profitability whilst Public Sector's overall performance was in line with expectations.

Net finance charges for the year have benefited from a one-off currency gain of approximately £1.3m. 

Exceptional items

During the year £3.3m of restructuring costs were incurred in the Handset Testing business, following the agreement with Agilent and to mitigate the weakness in its trading. 

However, this amount will be largely offset by net profit on disposals and warranty provisions no longer required, totalling £3.1m.  

Financial position and share buy back

Year end net debt fell to £15.4m (2007: £22.5m), reflecting good cash generation despite expenditure on own shares and cash restructuring costs.  Under the authority to buy back Anite shares, 16.3 million shares were bought back during the year and cancelled at an average price of 46.2 pence per share for a total cost of £7.5m. In addition, the Company has purchased 6 million shares for the Company's Employee Share Ownership Plan at a cost of £4.05m.

*continuing operations before disposed/discontinued businesses (being Anite Deutschland Management GmbH and Carus which generated revenue of £13.3m and PBIT of £1.1m in 2006/07), share based payments, amortisation of acquired intangible assets and exceptional restructuring costs

- Ends -

A Conference Call for analysts and investors will be held at 8.30am today; please call or   e-mail Will Henderson at Smithfield for details (020 7360 4900 or [e-mail])

Anite Group plc	www.anite.com
Steve Rowley, Chief Executive Christopher Humphrey, Group Finance Director	01753 804000
Smithfield	020 7360 4900
Reg Hoare/Will Henderson

 

END

 

 

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