Interim Results

i-documentsystems Group PLC 2 July 2001 2 July 2001 i-documentsystems group plc Interim Results For the six months ended 30 April 2001 Chairman Statement The period to 30 April 2001 was a very significant one for the Group. The Group further advanced its position as the market leader in converting UK Local Authority planning applications and processes onto the Internet through its Image-Gen suite of products, extended the capability of its products into other local authority departments, brought its ASP model UKPlanning to beyond the development stage, and became a quoted public company on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM). Financial Results As explained in an announcement on 25 April 2001, the considerable progress which the Group has made over the last six months, in particular the number of local authority contracts won, has not yet been reflected in increased revenues. There are several reasons for this. Some authorities have opted to pay on a rental basis which spreads revenues over a longer period. This boosts the Group's income in the longer term but brings in less up-front. In addition, some deals have been concluded later than expected. A further factor which has affected our results is that a major investment has been made in additional staff to accelerate the growth of the Group. The Group therefore made a loss of £475,000 in the six months to April 2001 based on a turnover of £459,000. This equates to a loss per share of 0.41p. Comparative figures for the same period last year were a loss of £92,000 based on a turnover of £483,000, equating to a loss per share of 0.19p. Net Cash at 30 April 2001 was £3,161,000. As at 26 June 2001 this figure was approximately £3,000,000. Local Authority Business The directors consider that the best indicator at present of the company's progress is the number of local authorities that have committed to the Group's products. This number has increased to 19 as at 30 April 2001 and is anticipated to increase to 40 by 30 April 2002. New contracts awarded in the six months ended 30 April 2001 were from Chester, Croydon, East Lothian, Glasgow City, New Forest, Nottingham and South Holland councils. The 19 local authorities using or committed to Image-Gen represent a 76% share of the 25 local authorities believed to have document management solutions in their Planning departments. There are 468 local authorities in the UK, all of which are expected to comply with the Prime Minister's directive to ensure that all local government services are available electronically by 2005. As well as this pressure from Central Government, there is a strong cost saving and efficiency argument for electronic availability of documents in Planning departments. Consequently the Group continues to believe that it is well placed to benefit from the remainder of the 468 local authorities in the UK moving to similar solutions as the existing 25. The revenue model for the Group's income from a local authority is partly determined by the size of the local authority, by the timing of when the contract arises in the financial year and by the degree and timing of rollout into other council departments over time. Customers for Image-Gen include Westminster, the local authority with the most planning applications in the UK, and the Western Isles, which has one of the smallest number of planning applications. Five new local authorities were signed up in the month of March, which is typically an important month for council commitments. The geographical spread of the Group's local authority business is now quite diverse. After the period end, the Group made an announcement of an important contract win for Gosport Council in the Revenue and Benefits area. Previously all councils had largely been won through the Planning area. The Group also announced the appointment of MVM Consultants plc, a subsidiary of Anglian Water plc, as a reseller, which gives the Group access to 300 council customers of MVM. Both of these deals are strategically important. Our participation in various relevant trade shows has been very successful with a significant number of opportunities to follow up and signs of establishing our brand. The e-Government strategy has delivered significant opportunities. These will be further enhanced with additional market awareness driven by marketing and sales programmes over the next 12 months. The Group has continued to enjoy a 100% customer retention rate among its local authority customers. Not a single local authority customer has been lost since the Group commenced business. Banking and Financial Business This is currently less significant as an area of focus for the Group than local authorities, but remains an area where the Group sees potential. The Group has a number of important banking customers including Abbey National, Bank of America, CIBC and Sumitomo Bank. Applications provided include the efficient electronic handling of derivatives documentation, and assisting financial institutions with the process of storing documents demonstrating that they know their customer (otherwise known as Enhanced Due Diligence). The latter is in response to increasing pressure from financial regulators concerned about money laundering. Product Development The development of our key suite of products has been significant. In order to establish ourselves as a corporate provider we have added additional functionality within Image-Gen. Some of this has been achieved by enhancing our own software. We have also incorporated the third party JetForms product which delivers the immediate benefit of electronic forms with an output in XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) delivering compliance with e-GIF (Government Interoperability Framework), a mandatory component within Local Government. The Group announced in its flotation prospectus its intention to develop the UKPlanning system, an ASP (Application Service Provider) model for local authority planning applications. Rather than each council separately developing the expertise to store and index documents and maintaining the hardware infrastructure to make these available on the internet, the Group would provide this service on an outsourced basis using its existing Image-Gen technology, and it would be possible to view each participating council's planning applications through a single portal known as ukplanning.com. This new service has received considerable acceptance from the user community. The Group has made significant headway with implementing this service and has had two customers, Hackney and Wandsworth, testing the system in a live environment. This has proved successful so far with Phase 1 completed in June 2001. There are significant development tasks outstanding but it is anticipated that the remaining phases should be completed by the end of the calendar year. The Group won an award for the best workflow product for its Image-Gen i-flow product at the IM2000 awards in November 2000. People The Group has seen a large rise in staff numbers over the past six months as the board has started aggressively to execute the business plan anticipated during flotation. In June 2001 staff numbers were 30 as against 18 in October 2000. This expansion has been centred on the Sales and Marketing areas and in the recently established Glasgow office, taking advantage of a skilled and highly competitive pool of IT talent available in Scotland. Support for Scotland and much of the North of England will be carried out from Glasgow. It is anticipated that for the Group's current businesses the number of employees in Scotland will in due course exceed that in London. AIM Flotation Despite a very difficult market for the technology sector at the end of 2000, the Group, through Noble & Company Limited as Nominated Advisors and Brokers, raised £3,400,000 on AIM at a price of 12p per share (£3,000,000 after issue costs and expenses). The shares commenced trading on AIM on 19 December 2000. At the same time a further £1,970,000 of preference shares already issued by the Group were converted into ordinary shares at an average price of approximately 9.5p per share. Since admission to AIM, shares have traded in a range of 10.75p to 23.25p. Dividend As stated in the float prospectus, earnings for the foreseeable future will be re-invested to finance the growth of the Group's business. The directors do not recommend the payment of a dividend. Outlook The board is very positive about i-documentsystems' future. This is based on the investment that has now been made in infrastructure, the significant increase in pipeline revenues, the rise in brand awareness, and finally on the continued e-Government push towards total electronic services by 2005. However, given the variation in length of time between contract award and revenue recognition, the speed of revenue growth remains difficult to forecast in the short term and fluctuations in half yearly revenue figures may occur for some time. Summary The half year has been a period of laying firm foundations. The board is intent on developing the group as a major player in its chosen marketplace. The board's primary focus is to build market share and it is therefore unlikely that the Group will return to profit during the expansion phase over the next 18 months. It is hoped to achieve profitability in the year to October 2003. All our staff deserve congratulations for maintaining the company's market leading position despite the considerable time pressures resulting from the flotation. The directors join me in thanking them and also our advisors for all their good work. John Wisbey Chairman 29 June 2001 The interim statement was approved by the Board on 29 June 2001 Consolidated Profit and Loss Account For the six months ended 30 April 2001 6 months to 30 7 months to 31 6 months to 30 Apr 2001 Oct 2000 Apr 2000 (unaudited) (audited) (unaudited) £ £ £ Turnover 459,379 501,648 482,960 External charges (126,847) (80,631) (61,090) 332,532 421,017 421,870 Staff costs (534,634) (438,624) (235,178) Other operating charges (348,645) (192,607) (189,484) Operating loss (550,747) (210,214) (2,792) Net interest 76,196 (32,556) (89,181) Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (474,551) (242,770) (91,973) Tax on loss on ordinary activities 0 0 0 Loss for the period transferred to reserves (474,551) (242,770) (91,973) Loss per share (pence) Basic 0.41 0.33 0.19 Diluted 0.41 0.33 0.19 Consolidated Balance Sheet At 30 April 2001 At At At 30 Apr 2001 31 Oct 2000 30 Apr 2000 (unaudited) (audited) (unaudited) £ £ £ Fixed assets Tangible assets 62,755 32,963 4,937 Current assets Debtors 659,764 244,826 419,237 Cash at bank and in hand 3,161,742 729,766 2,505 3,821,506 974,592 421,742 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year (510,437) (275,093) (164,974) Net current assets 3,311,069 699,499 256,768 Total assets less current liabilities 3,373,824 732,462 261,705 Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year 0 0 (1,947,524) 3,373,824 732,462 1,685,819) Capital and reserves Called up share capital 2,395,186 2,103,218 632,218 Share premium account 4,028,876 1,204,931 112,401 Profit and loss account (3,050,238) (2,575,687) (2,430,438) 3,373,824 732,462 (1,685,819) Shareholders' funds Equity 3,373,824 (1,072,360) (1,685,819) Non-equity 0 1,804,822 0 3,373,824 732,462 (1,685,819) Consolidated Cash Flow Statement For the six months ended 30 April 2001 6 months to 30 7 months to 31 6 months to 30 Apr 2001 Oct 2000 Apr 2000 (unaudited) (audited) (unaudited) £ £ £ Net cash outflow from operating activities (712,298) (28,358) (103,796) Returns on investments and servicing of finance Interest received 76,196 5,150 0 Interest paid 0 (37,706) (89,181) Net cash (outflow) from returns on investments and servicing of finance 76,196 (32,556) (89,181) Capital expenditure and financial investment Purchase of tangible fixed assets (47,835) (33,866) (3,853) Net cash outflow from capital expenditure and financial investment (47,835) (33,866) (3,853) Financing Issue of share capital 3,443,206 2,563,530 344,619 Expenses paid in connection with share issues (327,293) 0 0 Repayment of long term borrowings 0 (1,947,524) (150,086) Net cash inflow from financing 3,115,913 616,006 194,533 Increase/(decrease) in cash 2,431,976 521,226 (2,297) Notes to the Interim Results For the six months ended 30 April 2001 1. BASIS OF PREPARATION The interim financial information has been prepared based on accounting policies consistent with those set out in the company's statutory accounts for the period ended 31 October 2000. The financial information set out in this interim statement does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The figures for the period ended 31 October 2000 have been extracted from the statutory accounts, which have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. The auditors' report on those financial statements was unqualified and did not contain a statement under section 237(2) of the Companies Act 1985. 2. LOSS PER SHARE The loss per ordinary share is calculated by reference to the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted average number of shares in issue during each period, as follows: 6 months to 7 months to 6 months to 30 Apr 2001 31 Oct 2000 30 Apr 2000 £ £ £ Loss for the period (475,000) (243,000) (92,000) Weighted average number of shares in issue 115,962,000 74,079,000 47,740,600 Loss per share (0.41)p (0.33)p (0.19)p The loss attributable to ordinary shareholders and weighted average number of ordinary shares for the purpose of calculating the diluted loss per ordinary share are identical to those used for basic loss per ordinary share. This is because the conversion of preference shares or exercise of options would have the effect of reducing the loss per ordinary share and is therefore not dilutive under the terms of FRS 14. The number of shares for comparative periods has been restated to reflect the sub-divisions of each £1 ordinary share into 100 ordinary shares of 1p each 3. FURTHER COPIES A copy of the Interim Report is due to be sent to all shareholders on or about 2 July 2001. Copies of this announcement and the Interim Results are available, free of charge for one month from the date of this announcement from the Group's Nominated Advisor and Broker, Noble & Company Limited, 1 Frederick's Place, London EC3R 8AB. For further information please contact: John Wisbey Chairman i-documentsystems group plc 020 7353 5330 Andrew Fraser CEO i-documentsystems group plc 020 7353 5008 Tim Bowen FD i-documentsystems group plc 020 7353 5008 Patrick Booth-Clibborn Chris Barker Noble & Company Ltd 020 7367 5600 Jonathan Rooper Nadja Vetter Cardew & Co 020 7930 0777

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