Year End Trading Statement

RNS Number : 1753U

RWS Holdings PLC

14 October 2014

 



For immediate release                                                                                                                                 14 October 2014

RWS Holdings plc

Year End Trading Statement

RWS Holdings plc (RWS), one of the world's leading providers of intellectual property support services (patent translations, international patent filing solutions and searches) and commercial translations, today provides an update on trading for the year ended 30 September 2014, ahead of the announcement of its final results, which is expected on 9 December 2014.

Trading & Financial Update

On a constant currency basis, RWS will achieve at least a 26% increase in revenues to approximately £97.8 million (2013: £77.4 million). This performance primarily reflects further organic growth in the core patent translations business, together with a full year's sales from the inovia Holdings Pty Limited ("inovia") business and a strong performance from the search business, where the patent search revenues increased by 36% and PatBase subscription revenues advanced by 5%. Reported revenues are expected to be up by 21% to £93.6 million (2013: £77.4 million). It is anticipated that the Profit before tax will reach approximately £22.1 million despite the currency headwinds, and in line with market expectations.

RWS' strategy is focused on organic growth, complemented by the deployment of its significant cash resources for selective acquisitions.  We announced in September 2013 the full acquisition of inovia, a leading provider of web-based international patent filing solutions and during 2014 this business has been further integrated into the RWS group. inovia has added a substantial, complementary and highly scalable service to our existing intellectual property support services portfolio and in the year ended 30 September 2014, inovia will achieve gross revenues of US$33.1 million, an increase of 15%.  inovia is on track to deliver further revenue growth in 2015 through new integrated technical developments, the continued generation of translation revenue as well as carefully targeted cross selling of inovia services to RWS' blue chip customer base.  

Looking forward, RWS has hedged its estimated net Euro exposure through to 30 September 2015 at an average rate of 82 pence per Euro, and has also hedged its US dollar exposure to 31 March 2015 at a rate of 1.66 USD per GBP. Current developments in the GBP/USD rate are anticipated to be beneficial.

The RWS balance sheet shows further strength, with shareholder funds expected to exceed £77.0 million and net cash in excess of £22.0 million, this is after the purchase of additional office premises at a cost £4.3 million to secure further expansion. The directors anticipate that this strong balance sheet will allow an increase in the final dividend, at least in line with market consensus, and payable to shareholders in February 2015.

Executive Chairman Andrew Brode commented:

"We are delighted that despite the strength of sterling during the year, RWS has made further progress in its business in 2014, with an 11^th successive year of sales and profit growth.  

"We have a healthy pipeline of new client wins and prospects throughout our different service lines, and can look forward to further benefits accruing from the full integration of inovia.  This leaves the Group well positioned to make further positive progress in the new financial year and grow our share of the expanding worldwide intellectual property support services market."

For further information contact:

RWS Holdings plc

Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman                                                                                    01753 480200

MHP

Katie Hunt/Simon Hockridge                                                                                              020 3128 8794

Numis

Stuart Skinner (Nominated Adviser)                                                                                    020 7260 1000

James Serjeant (Corporate Broker)

About RWS:

RWS is the world's largest provider of patent translations and is one of the leading players in the provision of intellectual property support services and high level technical, medical, commercial, legal and financial translation services.  Specialist divisions provide for the diverse needs of a blue-chip worldwide multinational client base.

RWS is based in the UK, with offices in Europe, New York, Tokyo, Beijing and Sydney, and is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).

Over 2,200,000 patent applications are filed globally per annum. The two most important international filing routes are via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the European Patent Office (EPO) both of which reported record highs for filing of patents in 2013. PCT filings grew by 5% to 205,000 from 195,000 in 2012 and the European patent filings grew by 3% to 266,000.

For further information please visit: www.rws.com

 

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