AGM Statement

RNS Number : 5018X

RWS Holdings PLC

11 February 2013

 



                                                                                                                             11 February 2013

RWS Holdings plc

AGM Statement

RWS Holdings plc ("RWS", "the Company"), the world's leading provider of intellectual property support services (patent translations and searches) and technical translations, is today holding its Annual General Meeting at which Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman, will make the following remarks:

"The financial year ended 30 September 2012 saw the ninth successive year of growth in Group sales, underlying profits and dividends since flotation.

"Since then, the Group has had an encouraging start to the year with strong momentum in our core patent translations business (which accounts for approximately 70% of Group sales), where we are seeing a healthy flow of work from our 2012 client wins and from inovia.  Our Chinese and Japanese operations have continued to perform well and our commercial translations business has benefitted from a more stable performance at its German operations, as anticipated.  We are seeing growth in our information business driven by increased subscription revenues from PatBase, marginally offset by the continued flat performance of our patent search and watch services (which accounts for less than 3% of Group revenues).

Inovia update

"As announced in October 2011, RWS acquired a one third interest in inovia Holdings Pty Limited ("inovia"), a leading provider of web-based international patent filing solutions and agreed to acquire the remaining share capital, on an earnout basis, in September 2013. For the six months to 31 December 2012, inovia's gross revenues were US$11.4m, 21.2% ahead of the corresponding period in 2011, and it achieved EBITDA of US$0.78m.

Currency Effects and Hedging

"RWS has hedged its estimated net trading exposure to the Euro at 1 Euro = 83p until 31 March 2013,  at 1 Euro = 85p from 1 April to 30 September 2013 and at 1 Euro = 87p from 1 October until 31 March 2014. As regards the US$ exposure, the Group is continuing to accumulate US$ balances as a natural hedge against the inovia earn-out liability in 2013.

Summary and Outlook

"The performance of the Group as a whole has been encouraging over the first three months of our financial year. At this early stage, our expectations for the current financial year remain unchanged as we look forward with confidence to realising the benefits of some significant 2012 client wins and the flow of translation work from inovia.

"We have a strong balance sheet, enabling us to selectively review interesting niche acquisition opportunities, and we are confident that we will continue to materially enhance the Group's leading position in the intellectual property arena over the near to medium term."

For further information contact:

RWS Holdings plc

Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman                                                                               01753 480200

MHP

Katie Hunt /Simon Hockridge                                                                                       020 3128 8100

Numis

Stuart Skinner (Nominated Adviser)                                                                              020 7260 1000

James Serjeant (Corporate Broker)

About RWS:

RWS is the world's leading provider of patent translations and one of Europe's leading players in the provision of intellectual property support services and high level technical, commercial, legal and financial translation services.  Specialist divisions provide for the diverse needs of a blue-chip multinational client base from Europe, North America and Asia in the aerospace, automotive, chemical, defence, electronics, financial, insurance, legal, medical, pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries.  RWS is based in the UK, with offices in Europe, New York, Tokyo and Beijing, and is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).

RWS also has a one third interest in inovia Holdings Pty Limited which is headquartered in New York and is the largest non-law firm provider of international patent filing solutions globally.  Its patented, web-based technology provides over 1000 law firm and corporate clients with cost effective processing of international patent applications, typically producing cost savings in excess of 30%.  From its locations in the US, Australia and Europe, its patent filing service covers 62 jurisdictions in 84 countries.

Over 2,000,000 patent applications are filed per annum.  Applications filed in Europe have more than doubled in the last ten years to 258,000 applications in 2012 (source: European Patent Office), a 5.7% increase from 2011.  Applications from Asia have also seen significant recent growth.

For further information please visit: www.rws.com

 

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