27th November 2007
Supporta Half Yearly Report
Supporta Positive Half yearly report is released for the six months ended 30 September 2007
Our Financial Highlights include:
Revenue up 29% to £24.35m(H1 2006: £18.84m)
Operating Profit* up 128% to £1.56m(H1 2006: £0.68m)
Profit Before Tax* up 284% to £0.90m(H1 2006: £0.24m)
EPS* up 140% to 1.2p(H1 2006: 0.5p)
Order Book of £88m, up 9%from 31st March 2007
OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Supporta Care
Organic revenue up 6%
Organic operating profit* up 58%
Operating margin* increased from 7.5% to 11.2%
6,400 hours in new contract wins
Order book stands at £68m
New regional management team
Supporta Professional Services
Creation of Supporta Professional Services
Annualised cost reduction of c.£1.7m arising from new structure
First contract for Property Portal
Department for Transport property recording review contract
Organic operating profit* up 10%
John Jasper, Chief Executive, said:
"I am extremely pleased with the performance in the first six months of the year. Our Care business is operating in a buoyant market and has delivered an exceptional profit performance during the first six months of this year. Our Professional Services business is well placed to grow now with a new management team to lead it forward. Trading in the year to date is in line with management expectations and we believe the Group is well positioned to deliver organic growth in the full year."
The summary Chief Executive's Statement is below however a full report can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website:INVESTOR RELATIONS
Chief Executive's Statement
I am delighted to introduce you to the half yearly report for the Group for the six months ended 30 September 2007.
The business has continued to deliver a strong performance during the first six months of the financial year. A number of the initiatives that have helped the company achieve these results include:
Significant new contract wins
New Care System implementation
New Care Regional Management Team and Professional Services Management Team
Creation of Supporta Professional Services
Annualised run-rate cost reduction of approximately £1.7m
Today's results are presented for the first time using the recognition and measurement principles of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
The main impact of the IFRS implementation has been the treatment of goodwill arising on acquisitions. Goodwill previously arising under UK GAAP has been allocated between goodwill and other intangible assets. Under IFRS goodwill is no longer amortised, whilst goodwill now allocated as an intangible asset is amortised over its useful economic life. Goodwill is now subject to an impairment test at each balance sheet date.
Group profit before tax* in the six months to 30 September 2007 improved by 284% principally as a result of improved underlying trading. Profit after tax has been impacted by an exceptional tax charge in relation to the disposal of the payroll business amounting to £690k.
We announced previously the disposal of our payroll business in May 2007 for £3.7m in cash (£2.7m net of transaction expenses and expected taxation charge).
Supporta Care
Supporta Care has delivered an exceptional set of results showing a 58% increase in organic operating profits* on 6% organic revenue growth. Operating margins* improved to 11.2% compared to 7.5% in the same period last year and 9.9% in the year ended 31 March 2007. This improvement was driven by increasingly higher value and more specialised service provision, better cost control and lower PLC recharges.
Supporta Care has also had an exceptional six months of contract wins including 6,400 hours from the following:
Harrow 4,000 hrs
Liverpool 1,000 hrs
Bristol Extracare 500 hrs
Kensington & Chelsea 900 hrs
All other contracts should begin service delivery in the second six months of the financial year, with the exception of Liverpool which commenced in July 2007.
The order book for Supporta Care stands at £68m at the beginning of November 2007, an increase of 10% over the six months ended 30 September 2006. This excludes the impact of the Harrow and Kensington & Chelsea contracts which are currently being finalised with the relevant authorities.
Supporta Professional Services
Supporta Professional Services operating profit* improved compared to the six months ended 30 September 2006 as a result of improved performance from the acquisitions made in the year ended 31 March 2007. Operating profits were up on an organic basis by 10% on organic revenue reduction of 7%.
The last six months have been used to set the foundations of a solid growth platform. Following the acquisitions of TerraQuest, Bay Associates and Datacare in 2007 these businesses were merged with our existing property and services businesses to form "Supporta Professional Services" in May this year.
Since then a new management structure has been implemented to maximise the opportunities for leveraging our customer base and to enable us to offer a more comprehensive range of products to our customers.
The Professional Services division continues to develop innovative new products. Our property portal allows large land owners to track and manage their property assets through a comprehensive online database system. Our site identification service gives developers access to developable land opportunities within defined boundaries with developer defined criteria. We expect to continue to develop and market these and other similar products in the future.
Corporate Development
Stephen Whiting, who was Managing Director of Supporta Professional Services and Company Secretary, will be leaving the business at the end of November to pursue opportunities outside of the Group. The Board wish him well with his future endeavours. Michael Curran, currently Deputy CEO, will take over the role of leading Professional Services forward and Simon Birks is appointed as Company Secretary. Simon is a qualified solicitor and has over two years service with the Group most recently as Group Commercial Manager.
Outlook Statement
Trading in the year to date is in line with management expectations and we believe the Group is well positioned to deliver organic growth in the full year.
John Jasper, Group Chief Executive, 27th November 2007
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