Interim Results
To be embargoed until 7.00a.m. on
17 December, 2004
EUROVESTECH PLC ('Eurovestech' or 'the Company')
Interim Results for the six months ended 30 September 2004
OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW
I am pleased to report on a successful first half of the year, with material
progress in several of our portfolio companies. Most notably, Knowledge Support
Systems Limited (`KSS') and Cjudge Limited (`Cjudge') continued to secure
several new customer wins that resulted in very substantial increases in
turnover. We believe that during the coming year, these businesses will be
delivering solid growth and profitability.
Losses for the period under review, which represent our operating costs, were £
0.37 million. This compares with a loss for the corresponding period of £0.87
million, which took account of a £0.52 million decline in the value of quoted
investments. Net assets, reflecting this trading result, reduced from £8.66
million to £8.3 million. However, as I reported in September 2004, given what
we consider to be the exceptionally rapid development of our unquoted
portfolio, these carrying values do not reflect `fair values': at the current
stage of our portfolio companies' development, they are impractical to
benchmark reliably.
I am also pleased to report that just before the end of our first half, we
announced a placing of new ordinary shares. This was completed in October 2004,
raising £5 million at a premium to the prevailing share price. We consider this
strong institutional support to be a valid endorsement of both our approach and
strategy in providing exceptional returns to our shareholders.
PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT
Cjudge, the Paris-based online market research service provider traded ahead of
expectations over the period. The company continued to make progress in France
and its performance was helped by strong growth in the UK. Cjudge's panel now
comprises around 300,000 members in France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and
Belgium with around 100,000 new members per annum joining its access panel.
This critical mass together with Cjudge's hosted data collection technologies
has proven particularly attractive to market research professionals that are
increasingly outsourcing their online field operations to Cjudge. Eurovestech
owns 77 per cent. of Cjudge's fully diluted share capital.
KSS, a leading provider of pricing and revenue management systems for the
retail and petroleum sectors, won several sizeable contracts during the period
under review. Customers now include BP, Rite Aid, Sheetz, Brookshire Brothers,
Kuwait Petroleum and a major US convenience store group. Eurovestech owns 100
per cent. of KSS's fully diluted share capital.
Magenta Corporation Limited (`Magenta'), the developer of multi-agent systems
that enables automation of real-time negotiating and scheduling processes,
experienced increasing customer interest over the period and secured a `proof
of concept' contract from one of Europe's largest engineering groups.
Eurovestech owns 37.65% of Magenta's fully diluted share capital.
The remainder of the portfolio, which includes holdings in Mykindaplace Limited
(`MKP'), Tevet Process Control Technologies Limited (`Tevet'), ARKeX Limited,
Lynx Photonic Networks Inc., D-Pharm Limited and Atarim Web Consulting together
account for less than 15 per cent. of the portfolio by carrying value. The
overall performance of these businesses has been encouraging with MKP reporting
continuing profitability growth and Tevet's customer base now including many of
the world's leading semi-conductor companies.
CHARITABLE DONATIONS
The Company announces that it has today issued 200,000 new ordinary shares
divided equally between the Willow Foundation and the Complementary Cancer Care
Trust. Application has been made for these 200,000 new ordinary shares to be
admitted to AIM and it is expected that dealings in these shares will commence
on 5 January 2005. Richard Bernstein, Chief Executive of the Company, has paid
the £2,000 nominal value to facilitate their issue.
PROSPECTS
Cjudge is forecasting significant top-line growth that is expected to result in
solid and growing profitability. Strong demand from the UK and the US provides
additional evidence of Cjudge's success and scalability.
In December 2003, when we announced that KSS had secured significant new orders
and that its operations had been successfully restructured, we also reported
that the management of KSS believed that the business would be strongly cash
generative in 2004. Although KSS has been cash generative over the last six
months, it will not have been cash generative for the entire calendar period.
This is in part due to delays in signing up business and in part due to a
recent decision to continue receiving term licenses rather than pursuing a lump
sum from a perpetual license. Whilst this impacts short-term cash receipts, it
should enhance the overall revenue, cash and lifetime value of the transaction.
I am delighted to report that in recent weeks, KSS has reached agreement to
commence several new trials in the US. This unprecedented period of activity,
together with recently completed trials, augurs well for KSS's second half and
should lead to a profitable outcome for the full year.
In the Chairman's Statement of 2002, I said that Eurovestech was seeking to
develop its investment portfolio to its full potential and that this required a
long-term perspective. This was not to say that we were not keen to see quick
results. It is pleasing therefore to be able to see the benefits of our work in
several of our portfolio companies and now to be able to forecast profitability
from our two most developed portfolio companies. At the same time, we are
actively pursuing other targeted investment opportunities.
Richard Grogan
Chairman
17 December 2004
UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT
For the six months ended 30 September 2004
Note Six months Six months Year ended
ended 30 ended 30 31 March
September September
2004 2003 2004
(unaudited) (unaudited) (audited)
£ £ £
Turnover - 32,473 34,692
Gross profit - 32,473 34,692
Administrative expenses (343,924) (374,298) (1,134,487)
Loss on disposal of current asset (818) (523,476) (93,726)
investments
Other operating income - - 1,091
Operating loss (344,742) (865,301) (1,192,430)
Amounts written off fixed asset - - 66,912
investments
Income from other fixed and current - 276 -
asset investments
Other interest receivable and similar 18,787 1,991 21,176
income
Interest payable and similar charges (41,177) (6,100) (48,307)
Loss on ordinary activities before (367,132) (869,134) (1,152,649)
taxation
Tax on loss on ordinary activities - - -
Retained loss on ordinary activities (367,132) (869,134) (1,152,649)
after tax
Fully diluted and basic loss per share (0.141)p (0.383)p (0.475)p
(pence)
UNAUDITED OTHER PRIMARY STATEMENTS
For the six months ended 30 September 2004
STATEMENT OF TOTAL RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES
Six months Six months Year ended
ended 30 ended 30 31 March
September September
2004 2003 2004
(unaudited) (unaudited) (audited)
£ £ £
Loss for the financial period (367,132) (869,134) (1,152,649)
Unrealised gain on fixed asset - 3,170,316 3,170,316
investments
Total recognised gains and losses for the (367,132) 2,301,182 2,107,667
period
NOTE OF HISTORICAL COST PROFIT AND LOSSES
Six months Six months Year ended
ended 30 ended 30 31 March
September September
2004 2003 2004
(unaudited) (unaudited) (audited)
£ £ £
Historical cost loss on ordinary (367,132) (869,134) (1,152,649)
activities before taxation
Historical cost loss transferred to (367,132) (869,134) (1,152,649)
reserves
UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
at 30 September 2004
At 30 September 2004 At 30 September 2003 At 31 March 2004
(unaudited) (unaudited) (audited)
£ £ £ £ £ £
Fixed assets
Tangible assets 2,612 5,448 3,205
Investments 9,000,433 7,533,885 8,467,663
9,003,045 7,539,333 8,470,868
Current assets
Debtors 214,814 459,684 226,124
Investments 562,438 57 56
Cash at bank and in 179,886 154,355 1,313,728
hand
957,138 614,096 1,539,908
Creditors: amounts (558,542) (1,074,314) (1,348,003)
falling due within
one year
Net current assets/ 398,596 (460,218) 191.905
(liabilities)
Creditors: amounts (1,100,000) - -
falling due after
more than one year
Net assets 8,301,641 7,079,115 8,662,773
Capital and reserves
Called up share 2,604,109 2,271,686 2,598,109
capital
Share premium 9,028,440 7,652,113 9,028,440
account
Revaluation reserve 3,170,316 3,170,314 3,170,316
Profit and loss (6,501,224) (6,014,998) (6,134,092)
account
Shareholders' funds 8,301,641 7,079,115 8,662,773
UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
For the six months ended 30 September 2004
Note Six months Six months Year ended
ended 30 ended 30 31 March
September September
2004 2003 2004
(unaudited) (unaudited) (audited)
£ £ £
Net cash (outflow /inflow from 3 (21,982) 35,938 (1,147,029)
operating activities
Returns on investments and servicing
of finance
Interest received 18,787 1,991 21,176
Interest paid (41,177) (6,100) (48,307)
Dividends received - 276 -
Net cash inflow from returns on (22,390) (3,833) (27,131)
investments and servicing of finance
Taxation - - -
Capital expenditure and financial
investment
Purchase of tangible fixed assets (310) (989) (988)
Purchase of fixed asset investments (532,770) (1,456,642) (2,323,506)
Net cash outflow from capital (533,080) (1,457,631) (2,324,494)
expenditure and financial investment
Management of liquid resources
Purchase of current asset investments (6,612,687) (2,663,586) (7,402,288)
Sale of current asset investments 6,050,297 3,858,710 9,027,163
Net cash (outflow)/inflow from (562,390) 1,195,124 1,624,875
management of liquid resources
Financing
Receipt of borrowings - - 1,100,000
Issue of shares 6,000 14,250 1,717,000
Net cash inflow from financing 6,000 14,250 2,817,000
(Decrease)/Increase in cash 4 (1,133,842) (216,152) 943,221
NOTES TO THE UNAUDITED INTERIM CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS
For the six months ended 30 September 2004
1. BASIS OF PREPARATION
The results for the six months ended 30 September 2004 which are unaudited,
have been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards except as
noted below and under the historical cost convention except for the revaluation
of investments.
Venture capital investments that are subsidiary undertakings are carried in
accordance with the company's normal policy on valuation and are not
consolidated. These investments within the portfolio are held exclusively for
resale with a view to the ultimate realisation of capital gains although not
necessarily with a view to disposal within a year of acquisition.
The company owns an investment that the Companies Act 1985 requires to be
treated as an associated undertaking and therefore accounted for using the
equity method of accounting. The directors believe that accounting for this
investment in this manner would not give a true and fair view of the value
generated from investment activities, since this is better measured by the
inclusion of profits or losses on disposal of such investments in the profit
and loss account. As a result, such investments have been recorded in
accordance with the company's normal policy on valuation.
Accordingly, the company is exempt from preparing group accounts as all
subsidiaries and associates are excluded from consolidation. Therefore, these
financial statements present information about the company and not about its
group.
The financial information set out in this document does not comprise the
statutory accounts of the Company within the meaning of section 240(5) of the
Companies Act 1985.
2. LOSS PER ORDINARY SHARE
The calculation of the loss per share is based on the loss on ordinary
activities for the six month period ended
30 September 2004 of £367,132 and the weighted average number of ordinary
shares in issue during the period, being 259,824,011.
3. RECONCILIATION OF OPERATING LOSS TO NET CASH (OUTFLOW)/INFLOW FROM OPERATING
ACTIVITIES
Six months Six months Year ended
ended 30 ended 30 31 March
September September
2004 2003 2004
(unaudited) (unaudited) (audited)
£ £ £
Operating loss for the period (344,742) (865,301) (1,192,430)
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets 903 5,106 7,348
Loss on sale of investments 818 523,476 93,726
Decrease/(Increase) in debtors 11,310 (304,303) (70,743)
(Decrease)/Increase in creditors 310,539 676,960 (149,351)
Other non-cash movement (810) - 164,421
Net cash (outflow)/inflow from operating (21,982) 35,938 (1,147,029)
activities
4. RECONCILIATION OF NET CASH FLOW TO MOVEMENT IN NET FUNDS
Six months Six months Year ended
ended 30 ended 30 31 March
September September
2004 2003 2004
(unaudited) (unaudited) (audited)
£ £ £
(Decrease)/Increase in cash in the period (1,133,842) (216,152) 943,221
Cash inflow from financing - - (1,100,000)
Cash (outflow)/inflow from current asset 562,390 (1,195,124) (1,624,875)
investments
Change in net funds resulting from cash (571,452) (1,411,276) (1,781,654)
flows
Other non-cash items (8) (523,476) (93,726)
Movement in net funds in the period (571,460) (1,934,752) (1,875,380)
Net funds at the beginning of the period 1,313,784 2,089,164 2,089,164
Net funds at the end of the period 742,324 154,412 213,784
5. ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET FUNDS - UNAUDITED
At 1 At 30
April 2004 Cash flow September
2004
£ £ £
Cash in hand and at bank 1,313,728 (1,607,977) 179,887
Current asset investments 56 562,382 562,438
1,313,784 (1,045,595) 742,324
6. DIVIDENDS
No dividend is proposed for the six months ended 30 September 2004.
7. CAPITAL COMMITMENTS
The company had no capital commitments at 30 September 2004 other than a €
200,000 commitment to increase its shareholding in Cjudge Limited and a
commitment of £68,750 relating to an increase in its shareholding in ARKeX
Limited.
8. COPIES OF THE INTERIM FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Copies of the interim financial statements will be sent to shareholders and
copies are available on request from the Company's registered office at 29
Curzon Street, London W1J 7TL.
Further Enquiries:
Eurovestech plc
Richard Bernstein, Chief Executive Tel: 020 7491 0770