Trading Update

RNS Number : 2309B

Digital Barriers plc

02 April 2013

 



2 April 2013

Digital Barriers plc

("Digital Barriers" or the "Group")

Trading Update

The Board of Digital Barriers (LSE AIM: DGB) (the "Board"), the specialist provider of advanced surveillance technologies to the international homeland security and defence markets, provides an update on trading for the financial year ended 31 March 2013.

During the year the Group has continued to trade well and the Board expects to report revenues and growth rate broadly in line with market expectations. There have been notable successes in the UK, including a further material sale of three of the Group's core technologies to an existing UK-based customer at the end of the period, as referenced in a separate announcement this morning.

Work to internationalise the Group's sales efforts has delivered good returns, with initial sales into the Middle East and very strong sales growth in Asia Pacific driven by significant deal closures in the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. As announced this morning, the Group has also signed a new strategic partner relationship with SingTel in Singapore for the provision of the Group's video surveillance products as a managed service. The Group continues to see strong interest in the United States for its products, but has seen some delays to sales closures caused by federal budget uncertainty and sequestration. Despite these delays, the sales pipeline in the United States remains solid and the Group's technology has now been selected by a number of major government agencies.

The delays to sales closures in the United States have resulted in a different mix of revenues across the Group, delivering some slightly lower margin sales towards the end of the period. Therefore the operating loss for the period will be slightly higher than market expectations at approximately £6.8 million.  In addition, the growing global sales pipeline has meant a higher investment in demonstration stock and this, together with one-off write downs on fixed assets within acquired businesses, has increased depreciation to approximately £0.8 million. Subject to audit, the Board therefore expects to report an adjusted loss* for the period including depreciation of approximately £7.6 million.

With Digital Barriers' unique technology solutions delivering strong, international sales momentum the outlook for the Group remains positive. The Board remains comfortable with current market expectations for the financial year ending March 2014 thanks to this ongoing strong sales momentum.

The Group intends to announce preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2013 on 29 May 2013.

*Adjusted loss is the Group's loss before tax, excluding amortisation of intangibles initially recognised on acquisition, deal costs, adjustments to deferred consideration and reorganisation costs.

For further information, please contact:

Digital Barriers plc		Tel: [phone]
Tom Black, Executive Chairman
Colin Evans, Managing Director Zak Doffman, Development Director
Investec Investment Banking		Tel: [phone]
Patrick Robb / Andrew Pinder / Dominic Emery
FTI Consulting		Tel: [phone]
Edward Bridges / Matt Dixon / Elodie Castagna

About Digital Barriers

Digital Barriers provides advanced surveillance technologies to the international homeland security and defence markets, specialising in 'edge-intelligent' solutions that are designed for remote, hostile or complex operating environments. We work with governments, multinational corporations and system integrators in the defence, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, transportation and natural resources sectors. Our surveillance technologies have been successfully proven on some of the most demanding operational and environmental deployments around the world.

www.digitalbarriers.com

 

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