Jan 31, 2010

Interim results for the six months ended 31 January 2010


Next Fifteen Communications Group plc ("Next Fifteen" or "the Group"), the global public relations consultancy group, today announces its results for the six months ended 31 January 2010.

Financial Highlights:

  • Revenues increased by 2% to £34.2 million (2009: £33.5 million)
  • Profit before tax increased by 44% to £2.08 million (2009: £1.44 million)
  • Earnings per share increased by 51% to 2.58p (2009: 1.71p) (see note 7)
  • Interim dividend increased by 5.6% to 0.475p per share (2009: 0.45p)
  • Net debt of £1.4m following £4.3m of acquisition related payments in the period
  • EBITDA increased to £3.6m from £2.6m in the comparative period

Corporate Progress:

  • Acquired 100% of New York based M Booth & Associates, a leading consumer focused PR consultancy
  • Acquired 55% of the marketing communications trading subsidiaries of Upstream Asia to create Bite Asia
  • Acquired a further 30% of US policy communications business, 463 Communications, taking Group stake to 70%
  • Created new digital consultancy, Project Metal
  • Expanded relationship with a number of clients including HP and won new retained clients including Harmon International, Schneider Electric, Bloom Energy and NetFlix.

Commenting on the results, Chairman of Next Fifteen, Will Whitehorn, said:

"This was always going to be an unusual period for comparing results as the global recession didn’t really hit our business until January 2009 and thus had little impact on the comparative period.  That said, the business has now recovered to pre-recession revenue levels and is headed in a positive direction.  Given current trading, the Board is confident that we will meet our targets, which would result in a record year for the Group.”

 

 

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