Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 6338Q

NCC Group PLC

16 April 2009

 



16 April 2009

NCC Group plc

Interim Management Statement

NCC Group plc (LSE: NCC or 'the Group'), the international, independent provider of Escrow Solutions, Assurance Testing and Consultancy, is today publishing an Interim Management Statement covering the period from 1 December 2008 to 15 April 2009.

The Group's overall trading performance continues to be in line with expectations and remains on track to deliver the Board's anticipated levels of profitability and cash generation, despite the current economic climate.  

All divisions continued to see good growth. Group revenues for the 10 month period grew by 33%, a 20% increase on a like for like basis excluding the recently acquired businesses. The sector customer mix and revenue split have not changed since the Group first published the analysis of them on 11 March 2009.

Group Escrow Solutions grew revenues by 18% and renewals are forecast to be £13.6m for the financial year to 31 May 2009 (November 2008: £13.8m). The Group has seen good performances from all areas and in particular in its Non-UK operations.

UK Escrow has seen almost 4% growth (November 2008: 1%) and a stronger performance from Escrow Verification Testing.  Excluding Verification Testing, UK Escrow grew by 7% (November 2008: 6%).  Total Escrow Verification Testing orders are currently £2.1m (November 2008: £2.1m) of which £1.4m is in Escrow UK.

UK termination rates have marginally increased to almost 12% for contracts and beneficiaries, although the Board believes this to be a temporary increase rather than a longer term trend.

Revenues have grown by 50% in the Assurance Testing division, of which 28% is from organic growth. The order book for Ethical Security Testing remains high at £6.6m (November 2008 restated: £6.6m) as market demand continues for high quality ethical security testing.  

NGS, which the Group acquired in November 2008, continues to grow. The business has quickly become a key part of NCC Group as the integration process nears completion. The Group is seeing good opportunities to supply its existing range of security testing services worldwide, in particular through NGS in the US and Australia.  

The load and performance monitoring business, Site Confidence, continues to grow. Renewal rates are at 90% which indicates a renewals value of £3.8m for the year (November 2008: £3.8m). 

The Consultancy division has continued to perform very well and its order book continues to be strong, especially for information security work and stands at £2.8m (November 2008: £2.7m). Currently the Group is seeing good opportunities for delivering its Information Security services throughout much of Europe due to the excellent reputation for high quality delivery in the UK.

Roger Rawlinson has been promoted to Managing Director of the Assurance division with effect from 1 April 2009 and is responsible for both the Assurance and Consultancy operations. This appointment reflects the increasing overlap between the Group's assurance activities with parts of the consulting division's security work.   With effect from 1 June 2009, the Group expects that further resources will be switched from its non-core consulting activities to information security activities.  

The Board anticipates that by the end of the current financial year the Group will assume full control of its Escrow franchise operation in Switzerland where currently it owns 24% of the equity.  This will enable NCC Group to market to and service Swiss customers more effectively. 

Overall the Board expects the Group to deliver another year of strong growth. The Group expects to publish its preliminary results for the year to 31 May 2009 in early July.

Enquiries:
NCC Group (www.nccgroup.com)
Rob Cotton, Chief Executive Paul Edwards, Finance Director	0161 209 5432
College Hill
Adrian Duffield/Belinda Morris	020 7457 2020

 

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