Pre-Close Trading Update
Wilmington Group Plc
20 July 2007
20 July 2007
WILMINGTON GROUP PLC
PRE-CLOSE PERIOD STATEMENT
Wilmington Group plc ('Wilmington' or the 'Group'), the professional information
and training group, today issues its pre-close period statement in respect of
the year to 30 June 2007.
Trading performance for the year to 30 June 2007 is anticipated to be in line
with the Board's expectations and, boosted by acquisitions, significantly ahead
of the year to 30 June 2006. This reflects the continued success of our strategy
of focussing on selected professional business markets where we can develop a
range of complementary information and training activities.
We anticipate that strong growth in both turnover and profits will come from all
our core divisions where excellent progress has been made. The information and
publishing activities have continued to benefit from the growth in e-revenues
and are expected to produce excellent levels of profitability. Our training
businesses are expected to have generated profits at the higher end of the
Board's expectations with strong performances from all major business areas.
We announced on 6 June 2007 that the Board had conducted a strategic review of
the business and concluded that Wilmington should focus on its core Professional
Markets business and dispose of non core activities. The Board has been pleased
with the initial level of interest it has received from prospective buyers and
looks forward to the successful conclusion of the sale process. As a part of
this process Wilmington sold WDIS, its circulation management business, in May
2007. The performance of these non-core businesses are required to be shown as
discontinued in the results for the year ended 30 June 2007.
Elsewhere in the Group the process of investing in the launch of new products
and the ongoing development of new initiatives continues. We continue to pursue
our strategy of concentrating on our core professional markets and developing
clusters of complementary activities within these markets.
The Board is pleased to announce that International Compliance Training, a
business within its CLT Group (Legal & Regulatory division), has been asked to
assist in developing a significant range of training and assessment programmes
for the International Compliance Association (ICA) in Singapore. ICA has been
appointed by the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) together with the
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore Workforce Development
Agency (WDA), as the Lead Provider of Financial Industry Competency Standards
accredited training and assessment programmes in the field of compliance. The
CLT Group will significantly increase its investment in compliance programmes to
assist the ICA. We anticipate that this investment will show positive returns in
the year ending 30 June 2009 and beyond.
Outlook
The Board is encouraged by Wilmington's good performance in 2007 and is
confident that its strategy of focusing on key professional business markets
will result in further progress this financial year.
Given the continued strength of the Group's balance sheet reflecting the strong
cash flows of the Company, the Board has assessed the capital required to
support the ongoing plans for profitable growth and its ordinary dividend
payments, and has decided that it will buy back initially up to GBP5m of its
ordinary shares by market value in the coming months. It is intended that the
share buy-back programme will start on 23 July 2007 and involve a rolling share
buy-back programme within the limits approved by shareholders at the Company's
Annual General Meeting on 15 November 2006. It is intended that any shares
purchased will be transferred into treasury.
Wilmington expects to announce its preliminary results for the year ended 30
June 2007 in mid September 2007.
- Ends -
For further information, please contact:
Wilmington Group PLC 0207 422 6800
Charles Brady, Chief Executive
Basil Brookes, Finance Director
Weber Shandwick Financial 0207 067 0700
Nick Oborne
Notes to Editors
Wilmington Group plc is one of the UK's leading providers of information and
training for professional business markets. The Group provides training,
arranges industry events and publishes magazines, directories, databases and
special reports focused primarily on its three principal sectors of Legal &
Regulatory, Healthcare and Media & Entertainment. Capitalised at approximately
£190 million, Wilmington floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
Latest directors dealings
- 6 hours ago ASOS
- 7 hours ago MJ Gleeson
- 7 hours ago Rolls-Royce Holdings
- 7 hours ago Crest Nicholson Holdings
- 8 hours ago Naked Wines