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Tel: +44(0)1270-611600
Email: info@ilxgroup.com
International Learning Xchange

News

ILX Group PLC

25 June 2007

2007 PRELIMINARY RESULTS

ILX Group plc ('ILX'), the AIM quoted business education and training company, announces Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 March 2007, another year of significant growth.

Financial Highlights:

  • Turnover up 49.6% to £10.34m (2006: £6.91m)
  • Acquisitions contributed £3.34m turnover and £1. 40m operating profit
  • Operating profit up 58.0% to £1.58m (2006: £1.00m)
  • Profit before tax up 44.9% £1.36m (2006: £0.94m)
  • Adjusted earnings per share of 5.94p (2006: 6.29p)
  • Strong cash generation during the year – operating cash flow of £1.98m (2006: £0.95m)
  • Dividend of 0.75p (2006: 0.75p) – payable to shareholders on the register at 27 July 2007

Corporate Highlights:

  • £12.3m acquisition of Corporate Training Group (CTG) on 26 July 2006
  • Group reorganised into two divisions: CTG and Best Practice
  • Trading at CTG has been excellent with good order book visibility
  • Core areas of Best Practice performed well with 26% growth in E-learning
  • Full integration of poorly performing Mount Lane and Customer Projects
  • Larger contract wins due to Best Practice combined offering of computer based training, classroom training and project management implementation consultancy services

In summary, Ken Scott, Chief Executive of ILX Group plc, said:

“ Both our operating divisions are capable of achieving high levels of growth and have significant challenges and opportunities for the year ahead. In particular the opportunities for overseas expansion and the iLearning developments are very exciting.

Our primary focus for the first half is to deliver strong interim results to underline the growth in the businesses and demonstrate that the changes made within the Best Practice division have borne fruit.

 Our strategy continues to be to build a sizeable training and software business in the vocational training market, achieved through organic growth and by earnings enhancing acquisitions. Despite the setbacks during 2006/7 we have continued to deliver overall profit growth and remain well placed to capitalise on the base that has been built to date.”

For further information, please contact:

ILX Group plc

Parkgreen Communications Ltd

Charles Stanley Securities

Ken Scott , Chief Executive

Paul McManus

Philip Davies

Tel: 020 7371 4444

Tel: 020 7479 7933

Tel: 020 7953 2457

 

Mob: 07980 541 893

 

http://www.ilxgroup.com

 

Chairman’s Statement

For the year ended 31 March 2007

I am pleased to present the results for the year ended 31 March 2007 .

ILX Group plc has experienced another year of significant change and growth as the company continues to expand by way of organic growth and through acquisitions. The company’s ability to provide a wide offering of high quality classroom training, e-learning, and consultancy remains a very powerful proposition, and with the acquisition of The Corporate Training Group this proposition has been broadened to include high level financial and banking training in addition to the existing portfolio of project and service management courseware .

Nevertheless, whilst the company saw operating profit growth of 58% year-on-year, we did not deliver fully to expectations, as previously announced in the trading update on 13 April 2007 , due primarily to underperformance in the Mount Lane and Customer Projects acquisitions. This has been addressed through a restructure that sees these businesses even more fully integrated within the company’s Best Practice division.

Financial results

Turnover for the year was £10,340,406 (2006: £6,913,255) delivering an operating profit of £1,579,553 (2006: £1,000,725). Net profit for the year was £1,107,348 (2006: £1,699,430) representing basic earnings per share of 6.45p (2006: 16.39p). However, the underlying adjusted earnings per share figure is 5.94p (2006: 6.29p), as explained further in the Chief Executive’s review.

I am pleased to announce that your board has approved the issue of the company’s second dividend which will be at 0.75p per share (2006: 0.75p per share), and will be paid subject to shareholder approval at the company’s forthcoming AGM.

Acquisitions

On 26 July 2006 the company purchased The Corporate Training Group Ltd (“CTG”), a leading financial training company. The company was purchased for £12.3 million, in cash and shares, of which £2.5 million was contingent upon meeting performance criteria for the year ended 31 March 2007 which have now been met, and of which £2.5 million remains contingent upon certain performance criteria for the year ended 31 March 2008 .

CTG was started in 1996 by its current management team and is based in Clerkenwell, London . It provides in-house financially focused classroom training courses to major global organisations, and has grown to be regarded as one of the leading companies in its sector. It has an impressive blue chip client base, predominantly in the investment banking sector, where ongoing training requirements are of particular importance. It benefits from a large and highly visible order book, arising from the strength of the customer relationships and the nature of the courses that it operates.

The CTG business has historically been seasonal in that its busiest period is from July to November, with August as the peak training month, reflecting the graduate and associate training programmes undertaken for major investment banks. In future years this should complement our current seasonality which has been until now heavily weighted to the December to March period.

Investor newsletters

The company continues to have in excess of 3,000 shareholders on the register and the board reiterates its hope that this will become a considerable advantage to the company, helping improve liquidity in the shares. With this in mind, the company continues to provide regular updates to shareholders by way of periodic newsletters. Their purpose is to give additional information on the group, its people and its challenges as it grows and matures.

I would strongly encourage shareholders to attend the AGM, to be held on Friday 20 July 2007 , if at all possible. This provides an excellent opportunity not only for you to meet and quiz the directors, and some of the management team, but also for us to receive feedback from you as investors.

Shareholder discount scheme

The company now caters for the training requirements not only of corporate bodies but also a very large number of individuals. The idea of a shareholder discount scheme has been raised a number of times and I am pleased to announce that we continue to offer a 10% discount on all training courses, and a 20% discount on software products, to all shareholders holding at least 1,000 shares at the time of purchase. The discount is applicable to private individuals only for open course enrolments and single user licences.

Directorate Change

John Davies resigned from the board in January this year having served as a non-executive director since the company floated as Time2Learn plc in 2000.

At the same time Paul Virik joined the board as non executive director. He brings with him a wealth of experience spanning over 30 years leading a broad range of professional and business to business publishing operations across Reed Elsevier in the UK and US, spanning magazine publishing, conferences, exhibitions, directories and major internet developments. He has led operations across diverse markets including IT, Agriculture, Aviation, Social Work, Legal, Electronics, Hospitality, Human Resources, and Construction. His focus has always been on long term sustainable market leadership through teamwork, innovation and customer focus.

Paul takes over from John as a member of the remuneration committee and chairman of the audit committee.

I would like to warmly welcome Paul to the company and also to thank John for his service and contributions to the company over the last six years.

Prospects

Whilst some areas of the business within the Best Practice division have experienced difficulties in the last year, these issues have now been fully addressed and the early signs, a series of new and repeat contract wins, are most encouraging. CTG meanwhile continues to go from strength to strength with further growth for the year ahead already coming through in terms of customer bookings; in addition the development of a series of e-learning products to complement the classroom offering is well under way.

There remains work to do to ensure all elements of the business continue to grow and to rebuild investor confidence, but the prospects nevertheless remain excellent.

Finally, I would like to formally welcome the staff and management of CTG, and once again to thank all ILX Group employees for their dedicated efforts over a year which has at times been difficult. We look forward to a strong performance and a successful year in 2007/8.

Paul Lever

Chairman

22 June 2007

Chief Executive’s Review

For the year ended 31 March 2007

Introduction

Our strategy continues to be to build a significant vocational training business both through organic growth and by making earnings enhancing acquisitions. The year to 31 March 2007 has seen significant steps taken both through the acquisition of The Corporate Training Group Ltd (“CTG”), taking us into a new and exciting marketplace, and the integration of the other six individual businesses into one consolidated Best Practice division. The final integration of the last two of these businesses, Customer Projects and Mount Lane , took place in the six weeks immediately following the year end. Whilst the year has seen disappointing results in some areas, overall we have delivered another year of significantly increased turnover and profit.

Financial Results

Profit for the year

The company delivered turnover of £10,340,406 for the year (2006: £6,913,255) and an operating profit of £1,579,553 (2006: £1,000,725). This growth resulted primarily from the acquisition of CTG, which contributed turnover of £3,338,850 during the 8 months post acquisition. Revenues from continuing business were flat despite a full year’s trading from both the Mount Lane and Customer Projects acquisitions; the company’s core computer-based training and blended products continued to show strong growth in the year, but this was offset by disappointing performances in other areas. Particular trends in the company’s trading are identified later in this review.

Net profit for the year was £ 1,107,348 (2006: £1,699,430 ), giving basic earnings per share of 6.45p (2006: 16.39p). The underlying earnings per share is 5.94p (2006: 6.29p), and on that basis the 2007 performance represents a 5.6% fall on an enlarged base of 17.18 million weighted average shares (2006: 10.36 million).

The underlying figure is calculated by stripping out £92,716 in costs of a one-off nature relating to reorganisations of the company’s ongoing activities, and from the 2006 figures the one-off recognition of a tax asset, relating to tax losses that are available to offset against future profits, before applying a notional tax charge of 30% to both years.

The directors recommend payment of a dividend of 0.75p per share. This dividend will be paid to shareholders on the register at 27 July 2007 , subject to shareholder approval at the company’s AGM.

The company has utilised £1.21 million of tax losses during the year. Unrelieved tax losses of £1.78 million remain available to be offset against future profits.

Acquisitions

CTG was purchased on 26 July 2006 for £12.3 million, in cash and shares, of which £5.0 million is deferred and contingent. The contingent consideration, which is payable 40% in cash and 60% in cash or shares at the company’s option, is payable in two instalments on or before 30 June 2007 and on or before 30 June 2008 .

Of the cash paid, the sum of £700,000 was ring fenced within an escrow account to be released on or before 30 June 2008 , provided that the average annual pre-tax profit of CTG over the two-year period ended 31 March 2008 exceeds £1.149 million. This will now be released in July 2007 based on the profits of CTG for the year ended 31 March 2007 and the extent of bookings for the year ended 31 March 2008 .

The first instalment is calculated as 9 times the excess of CTG’s pre-tax profits for the year ended 31 March 2007 over £1.149 million. This payment is capped at £2.5 million and the first £1.0 million is to be made in cash with the remainder in cash or ordinary shares at the company’s option. This first instalment is now payable in full based on CTG results for the year ended 31 March 2007 ; the precise split of cash and shares will be determined shortly.

The second instalment, which is capped at £5.0 million less the amount of the first instalment, is calculated as a total of 9 times the amount by which CTG’s pre-tax profits for the 2 year period ended 31 March 2008 exceed the sum of £2.576 million, less the amount of the first instalment.

Earn-out agreements were also in place on the acquisitions of Mount Lane Training and Implementations Solutions Ltd and Customer Projects Ltd during the year, which finished on 31 March 2007 . Both divisions fell significantly short of their earn-out targets and hence none of the amounts previously provided for in respect of these acquisitions will be payable. This is shown in the parent company accounts as an adjustment to the cost of investments and in the consolidated accounts as an adjustment to goodwill.

Cash generation and net debt

Cash generated from operating activities during the year was £1,982,198 (2006: £953,192), a conversion rate of 125% (2006: 95%) of profit from operations. The cash conversion was boosted by the significant level of debtors and accrued income that was acquired with CTG in the height of their busiest period and collected post acquisition. Nevertheless, the generation of almost £2 million in operating cash flow highlights the strong cash generation from the business.

Net cash from operating activities, which is stated after interest paid in relation to working capital facilities and corporation tax, was £1,860,712 (2006: £752,178). The tax payments totalling £96,858 (2006: £187,307) again relate entirely to pre-acquisition tax balances on acquired companies. Corporation tax balances payable in the coming year, relating to the pre-acquisition profits of CTG, are £130,773.

Net cash used in investing activities was £6,116,171 (2006: £1,186,117). The company spent £5,780,079 (2006: £839,914) on the cash elements of acquisitions (net of cash balances received) primarily in relation to CTG but also a small balance of deferred consideration on Customer Projects Ltd. The company also spent £198,945 on product development (2006: £474,305) relating to new products launched during the year or expected to be launched in the first half of the new financial year, and £163,646 (2006: £90,402) on capital expenditure, particularly in relation to investment in new computer hardware and systems to support group-wide IT over our four locations and an increasing demand from customers for hosted solutions.

Net cash from financing activities was an inflow of £4,453,019 (2006: £408,226), including £2,400,467 in increased borrowings (2006: £255,247 reduced borrowings) and £2,478,045 representing net proceeds from an issue of new ordinary shares, at a price of 80p, to help finance the CTG acquisition.

At the end of the year the company had cash balances of £843,686 (2006: £646,126) and total bank debt of £3,221,228 (2006: £820,761). The company’s net debt position at the end of the year was therefore £2,377,542 (2006: £174,635), a multiple of 1.4 times EBITDA for the year.

Best Practice Division – Business Review

Reorganisation

In last year’s Chief Executive’s Review I announced that the company was reorganising its four separate divisions into one Best Practice division, effective from April 1 2006 . This was a natural evolution of the acquisition process and designed to enable the company to focus on its core areas and key customers more effectively, through the combination of particularly the Key Skills and Mindscope brands but also Intellexis and Computa-Friendly.  

As a result of this, the company’s sales team was consolidated during the year to allow them to offer solutions across the division’s range of products. The technical and development teams were also brought together to gain efficiencies and ensure maximum focus on the division’s growth products. The administration of all the company’s service business was brought together at a new office in Theale Lakes Business Park , just off the M4. As part of this process, we ceased to provide desktop applications training in order to allow us to focus on our core area of accreditation-led training. Finally, the individual trading names were dropped during the year and the division now trades simply as ILX (International Learning Xchange) Group plc.

Mount Lane and Customer Projects, acquired in November 2005 and February 2006 respectively, were included in the Best Practice division but as separately managed entities under the terms of their earn-outs. These have been fully integrated following the year end as covered later in this report.  

Performance

Whilst the major core areas within the Best Practice division in 2006/7 performed well, the overall result was disappointing. The table below shows that whilst the core project and service management revenues grew by 19%, other revenues fell by 32%.
  

Turnover by subject

 

Year ended 31.3.2007

Year ended 31.3.2006

 

Growth%

£

%

£

%

PRINCE2 and other project management

16%

4,353,713

63%

3,753,760

54%

ITIL and service management

34%

1,005,114

14%

747,364

11%

Core Best Practice subjects

19%

5,358,827

77%

4,501,124

65%

IT and migration

-32%

632,253

9%

933,862

14%

Finance for non-financial managers

-45%

574,571

8%

1,045,898

15%

Non-subject revenues

1%

435,905

6%

432,371

6%

Other revenue streams

-32%

1,642,729

23%

2,412,131

35%

Total revenue

1%

7,001,556

100%

6,913,255

100%


Within the core Best Practice areas, as detailed below, e-learning showed strong growth of 26%. Classroom revenues fell by 1% overall but by 10% in the first half of the year, largely as a result of some customer service issues which were addressed by the consolidation of the administrative team at Theale. In the second half of the year revenues recovered and indeed grew by 10% over the previous year; thus providing additional momentum into 2007/8.   Revenues from consultancy and sale of books both increased substantially but from very low bases.  

Core Best Practice by product/service type

 

Year ended 31.3.2007

Year ended 31.3.2006

 

Growth%

£

%

£

%

e-Learning

26%

3,109,522

58%

2,468,511

55%

Classroom

-1%

1,818,863

34%

1,838,364

41%

Consultancy

109%

306,774

6%

147,043

3%

Books

162%

123,668

2%

47,206

1%

Total revenue

19%

5,358,827

100%

4,501,124

100%

Trading outside of the core Best Practice areas was disappointing; whilst a drop in finance for non-financial managers sales was anticipated, the poor performance from Mount Lane , primarily due to the loss of that division’s Commercial Director, was not. The long sales cycle for Mount Lane ’s range of products has meant that although a replacement is now in place it has taken some while to build up the sales pipeline, and as previously announced a number of deals expected to close in the year were delayed. The outlook for the future growth of the self-help and desktop migration areas remains promising however, particularly with the forthcoming launch of Microsoft Vista, and we are cautiously optimistic for a recovery in sales.

Geographic and product split

The chart below shows that the division continues to derive almost half its revenues from sales of software licences and a third from classroom training. The remainder is made up from consultancy, software development, and other revenue streams including recharges of expenses.

Turnover by product/service type

 

Year ended 31.3.2007

Year ended 31.3.2006

 

Growth%

£

%

£

%

e-Learning

5%

3,413,325

49%

3,265,753

48%

Classroom

4%

2,402,148

34%

2,306,841

33%

Consultancy

20%

341,094

5%

284,586

4%

Software development

-34%

376,266

5%

567,913

8%

Recharges and other

-4%

468,723

7%

488,162

7%

Total revenue

1%

7,001,556

100%

6,913,255

100%


The division continues to derive most of its revenues from the UK , as follows:  

Turnover by geographical sector

 

Year ended 31.3.2007

Year ended 31.3.2006

 

Growth%

£

%

£

%

UK

1%

6,176,360

88%

6,092,440

88%

Mainland Europe

-2%

569,795

8%

578,724

8%

North America

-45%

63,387

1%

116,179

2%

Other

52%

192,014

3%

125,912

2%

Total revenue

1%

7,001,556

100%

6,913,255

100%

The directors see the current lack of overseas sales as a major opportunity for future growth.

Post year-end action

Following the year end a number of changes have taken place within the Best Practice division.   Firstly, the integration of the Mount Lane and Customer Projects divisions has been swiftly completed following the below-par performance from these businesses. The company has exercised its break clause in the lease of its premises at Wyvol Court and relocated Mount Lane staff to other existing premises. Additionally, the Theale administration team has taken over responsibility for all services delivery including the consultancy provided through Customer Projects and the migration training previously provided through Mount Lane . The resulting cut in premises and headcount has reduced administrative expenses within the Best Practice division by approximately 7%.   The full integration of the division’s consultancy arm has given the combined sales force the ability to better address opportunities across the range of the division’s services and to bid for larger contracts. I was therefore delighted that the company announced in May details of new and repeat contract wins totaling approximately £1 million, at least three of which were as a direct result of the combined approach.   As mentioned earlier the directors see overseas expansion as a major opportunity for future growth, and I am therefore excited to report on two recent management changes.   Martyn Kinch, who for the past two years has headed the Best Practice division, steps into a new role as International Sales Director (non-statutory). Martyn’s considerable energy and sales expertise has helped drive the growth first in Key Skills and then the Best Practice division, and we are excited about the considerable opportunities for overseas business that have to date not yet been fully addressed.   This leaves a vacancy and I am delighted to confirm that we have appointed Tony Glass as Managing Director (non-statutory) of its Best Practice division, with effect from June 18. Tony, aged 53, was previously EMEA Sales Director of SkillSoft; a NASDAQ quoted leading provider of e-learning and performance support solutions for global enterprises, governments, education and small to medium-sized businesses. Tony joined SkillSoft in March 2001 and has been credited with growing sales revenue substantially over a sustained period. He joins ILX from a background of extensive experience in the training industry and particularly in product marketing, customer retention and in managing successful sales operations.  

Marketplace and prospects

The marketplace within which the Best Practice division operates remains highly fragmented and is increasingly competitive, as a result of a number of more traditional IT training businesses turning to more profitable specialist subjects such as PRINCE2 and ITIL in order to boost their margins.   The division’s strategy is to continue its focus on e-learning as the preferred product, particularly at the less advanced stages of the various subjects, but to make available a full service offer that effectively provides a “one-stop shop” that can offer accredited e-learning, classroom, and consultancy services. Classroom training supports the e-learning in particular for the more advanced stages of the subjects and remains available as a stand-alone to those customers who, for whatever reason, prefer the instructor-led approach. Consultancy can help to identify the customers’ learning requirements as well as to ensure that the expected benefits of the training are fully delivered.   We believe this approach is compelling as the combination and integration of offerings is unique in the marketplace and the e-learning element allows significant pricing flexibility for our customers. Customers who will accept e-learning products, although growing as a proportion of the market, remain in the minority. Accordingly we will continue to invest in research and development and in our core development team to ensure that our products remain of the highest quality. In addition we will continue to own the intellectual property for all our products, thus ensuring the necessary control.   The continued fragmentation of the marketplace remains an opportunity for future acquisitions should the right opportunity arise.  

Corporate Training Group – Business Review

Background

CTG was acquired on 26 July 2006 . These results therefore reflect just over eight months’ trading from the new division.

CTG is headed up by Peter Evans , who has a PhD from the London School of Economics and qualified as a chartered accountant with Moore Stephen s in 1988. He founded the business with colleagues having previously been the UK Managing Director of a well known accountancy training business. Peter has worked with numerous global investment banks and multinational corporations developing and delivering specialist training programmes with a generic focus on equity valuation and shareholder wealth creation.

The business provides in-house financial training to major international organisations, primarily through its small team of twelve highly qualified trainers, with a particular focus on graduate training for major investment banks. I would like to echo the Chairman’s sentiments and welcome Peter and his team to the company.

Performance

Trading at CTG has been excellent. Turnover for the year ended 31 March 2007 , including the 4 months’ pre-acquisition trading, was £4,679,138, an increase of 41% over its last published results of £3,318,538 for the year ended 31 December 2005 . The division has experienced increases in both market size and in market share. CTG offers very good visibility to the group with significant revenues for the current financial year already booked and continuing to show strong growth.

As reported in the company’s interim results the graduate training programmes that form a key element of CTG’s business have reached record levels in 2005 and 2006 and graduate intakes for 2007 already look to exceed this. This in turn has led to much higher demand for follow on continuous professional development courses. Mobility of staff between banks is also at record levels and this in turn feeds through with an increase in contact referrals from bankers who have moved and now want high quality training in their new companies.

New expanding areas include wealth management, and private banking, with a number of our clients investing in this area. We are also seeing private equity firms starting to seriously invest in skills training, in particular financial modelling, as well as accountants and lawyers being recruited as lateral hires who need immediate training to get them up to speed.

Geographical split

As with the Best Practice division the bulk of the revenues are UK based. This again represents an excellent opportunity for growth and we are currently pursuing a number of options.

Turnover by geographical sector

 

Year ended 31.3.2007

 

 

£

%

UK

 

3,230,987

97%

Overseas

 

107,863

3%

Total revenue

 

3,338,850

100%

Marketplace and prospects

The strategy for CTG is threefold: to continue optimizing its pole position as the training provider of choice for the UK investment banking community; to introduce elements of state-of-the-art e-learning into this market to meet existing strong customer demand; and to grow the business overseas.

The UK and international capital markets are buoyant at present and we expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. We have consistently maintained an excellent reputation with our customers for high quality training, and in order to maintain this quality and the levels of growth we need to ensure we retain and recruit the very best trainers. Staff turnover for the last few years has been zero and two additional trainers have been recruited in June 2007 to meet the strong demand.

A key driver for the acquisition of CTG was the desire of both CTG and ILX Group to enter the market for e-learning products within the investment banking space. The combination of CTG’s extensive intellectual property and subject matter expertise, and the company’s existing experience in developing world-class learning software, is now coming together with the development of a next-generation suite of learning products, called iLearning, that will mirror and complement the quality classroom training already delivered by CTG. Initial customer reaction to prototypes has been extremely favourable and we expect to start launching these during the year.

Finally, as stated earlier, there is considerable opportunity to capitalise on the value of the CTG brand in overseas markets, and we continue to investigate suitable structures and partners to assist us in this area.

Summary and prospects

Both our operating divisions are capable of achieving high levels of growth and have significant challenges and opportunities for the year ahead. In particular the opportunities for overseas expansion and the iLearning developments are very exciting.

Our primary focus for the first half is to deliver strong interim results to underline the growth in the businesses and demonstrate that the changes made within the Best Practice division have borne fruit.

Our strategy continues to be to build a sizeable training and software business in the vocational training market, achieved through organic growth and by earnings enhancing acquisitions. Despite the setbacks during 2006/7 we have continued to deliver overall profit growth and remain well placed to capitalise on the base that has been built to date.

Ken Scott

Chief Executive

22 June 2007

Consolidated and Company Income Statement

For the Year ended 31 March 2007

 

 

Year ended 31.3.2007

Year ended 31.3.2007

Year ended 31.3.2007

Year ended 31.3.2006

 

Notes

Continuing

Acquisitions

TOTAL

TOTAL

 

 

£

£

£

£

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revenue

2

7,001,556

3,338,850

10,340,406

6,913,255

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost of sales

 

(3,093,673)

(1,394,983)

(4,488,656)

(2,335,574)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gross profit

 

3,907,883

1,943,867

5,851,750

4,577,681

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distribution Costs

 

(275,709)

(10,325)

(286,034)

(227,548)

Administrative expenses excluding depreciation and amortisation

 

(3,371,085)

(528,024)

(3,899,109)

(3,302,092)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earnings before interest, tax and depreciation and amortisation

 

261,089

1,405,518

1,666,607

1,048,041

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depreciation

 

(81,284)

(5,770)

(87,054)

(47,316)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operating profit

2

179,805

1,399,748

1,579,553

1,000,725

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interest receivable and similar income

 

 

 

26,499

12,073

Interest payable and similar charges

 

 

 

(241,344)

(71,123)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Profit before tax

 

 

 

1,364,708

941,675

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tax

 

 

 

(257,360)

757,755

Profit for the year attributable to equity shareholders

 

 

 

1,107,348

1,699,430

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earnings per share – from continuing operations and acquisitions

4

 

 

 

 

Basic

 

 

 

6.45p

16.39p

Diluted

 

 

 

6.33p

15.08p

Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2007

 

 

As at 31.3.2007

As at 31.3.2006

Assets

 

£

£

Non-current assets

 

 

 

Property, plant and equipment

 

232,554

132,872

Intangible assets

 

22,779,845

12,386,146

Deferred tax asset

 

534,000

789,000

Total non-current assets

 

23,546,399

13,308,018

 

 

 

 

Current assets

 

 

 

Trade and other receivables

 

2,660,587

2,031,070

Cash and cash equivalents

 

843,686

646,126

Total current assets

 

3,504,273

2,677,196

 

 

 

 

Total assets

 

27,050,672

15,985,214

 

 

 

 

Current liabilities

 

 

 

Trade and other payables

 

(1,743,352)

(1,317,742)

Deferred consideration

 

(1,000,000)

(236,869)

Tax liabilities

 

(644,582)

(417,086)

Bank loans

 

(1,098,372)

(146,429)

Total current liabilities

 

(4,486,306)

(2,118,126)

 

 

 

 

Non-current liabilities

 

 

 

Provision for contingent consideration

 

(1,000,000)

(270,000)

Hire purchase creditor

 

-

(3,048)

Bank loans

 

(2,122,856)

(674,332)

Total non-current liabilities

 

(3,122,856)

(947,380)

 

 

 

 

Total liabilities

 

(7,609,162)

(3,065,506)

 

 

 

 

Net assets

 

19,441,510

12,919,708

 

 

 

 

Equity

 

 

 

Issued share capital

 

1,938,576

1,283,329

Share premium

 

11,813,335

7,248,037

Shares to be issued – contingent consideration

 

3,000,000

2,030,000

Own shares in trust

(1,824,692)

(1,082,192)

Share option reserve

 

258,281

199,616

Buyback reserve

 

1,177,819

1,177,819

Retained earnings

 

3,078,191

2,063,099

Total equity

19,441,510

12,919,708

The financial statements were approved by the board of directors and authorised for issue on 22 June 2007 . They were signed on its behalf by:

J A Pickles , Director

K P Scott , Director

Consolidated and Company Cash Flow Statement

For the year ended 31 March 2007

 

 

Year
ended
31.3.2007

Year
ended
31.3.2006

 

 

£

£

Profit from operations

 

1,579,553

1,000,725

Adjustments for:

 

 

 

Profit on disposal of non-current assets

 

-

(9,861)

Depreciation and amortisation

 

87,054

47,316

Share option charge

 

62,659

108,750

Movement in trade and other receivables

 

457,349

(821,795)

Movement in trade and other payables

 

(204,417)

628,057

Cash generated from operating activities

 

1,982,198

953,192

 

 

 

 

Interest paid

 

(24,628)

(13,707)

Tax paid

 

(96,858)

(187,307)

Net cash generated from operating activities

 

1,860,712

752,178

 

 

 

 

Investing activities

 

 

 

Interest received

 

26,499

12,073

Proceeds on disposal of property, plant and equipment

 

-

206,431

Purchases of property, plant and equipment

 

(163,646)

(90,402)

Expenditure on product development

 

(198,945)

(474,305)

Acquisition of subsidiaries (net of cash acquired)

 

(5,780,079)

(839,914)

Net cash used by investing activities

 

(6,116,171)

(1,186,117)

 

 

 

 

Financing activities

 

 

 

Post-completion dividends paid

 

(82,411)

-

Increase in / (repayment of) borrowings

 

2,400,467

(255,247)

Repayment of finance lease obligations

 

(10,362)

-

Net proceeds of share issue

 

2,478,045

720,796

Interest paid

 

(236,470)

(57,323)

Dividend paid

 

(96,250)

-

Net cash from financing activities

 

4,453,019

408,226

Net change in cash and cash equivalents

 

197,560

(25,713)

 

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents at start of year

 

646,126

671,839

Cash and cash equivalents at end of year

 

843,686

646,126

Notes to the Preliminary Results
For the Year ended
31 March 2007

1. Results

The financial information set out in this preliminary announcement does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985.

The summarised balance sheet at 31 March 2007 and the summarised income statement, summarised cash flow statement and associated notes for the year then ended have been extracted from the Group's financial statements.

The comparative financial information for the year ended 31 March 2006 is based on an abridged version of the group's published financial statements for that period, which contained an unqualified audit report and which have been filed with the Registrar of Companies.

The statutory accounts for 2007 will be finalised on the basis of the financial information presented in this preliminary announcement and will be delivered to the registrar of companies following the company's annual general meeting.

2. Accounting Policies

The prinicipal accounting policies of the Group are set out in the Group's 2006 Annual Report and Financial Statements. The policies have remained unchanged for the year ended 31 March 2006 .

3. Segment reporting

The Group operates in one business segment; that of supply of training and consultancy solutions. The operations are monitored by the geographic regions of UK , Mainland Europe, North America , and Other ( Asia , Middle and Far East , Africa , and South America ). Tax assets and liabilities and the intangible asset for product development capitalised are excluded from segment assets and liabilities. All other assets and liabilities are maintained and managed centrally and are apportioned between the regions on a pro-rata basis below.

4. Earnings per share

The calculation of earnings per share is calculated by dividing profit attributable to shareholders of £1,107,348 (2006: £1,699,430) by the weighted average number of shares in issue during the year of 17,179,200 (2006 10,363,803).

Diluted earnings per share is adjusted for outstanding options and the average option price using an average interest saving of 8.0%.

5. Dividend

The directors recommend payment of a dividend of 0.75 pence per share, subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting on 20 July 2007 . This dividend will be paid on 15 August 2006 to shareholders on the register at 27 July 2007 . The ordinary shares will become ex-dividend on 25 July 2007 . These financial statements do not reflect this dividend payable, which will be accounted for in the statement of changes in equity as an appropriation of retained earnings, in the year ended 31 March 2008 .

6. Annual Report

The annual report will be sent to shareholders shortly and will also be available from the Company’s registered office at 1 London Wall, London EC2Y 5AB.

For the year ended 31 March 2007

UK

Mainland Europe

North America

Other

Total

 

£

£

£

£

£

 

 

 

 

 

 

Segment revenue

9,407,348

611,303

63,387

258,368

10,340,406

Segment result

5,063,499

329,033

34,118

139,066

5,565,716

Central costs

 

 

 

 

(3,986,163)

Operating profit

 

 

 

 

1,579,553

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capital additions

169,886

11,039

1,145

4,666

186,736

Depreciation and amortisation

79,199

5,146

534

2,175

87,054

Segment assets

24,609,781

1,599,177

165,821

675,893

27,050,672

Segment liabilities

6,922,557

449,837

46,644

190,124

7,609,162

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the year ended 31 March 2006

UK

Mainland Europe

North America

Other

Total

 

£

£

£

£

£

 

 

 

 

 

 

Segment revenue

6,092,440

578,724

116,179

125,912

6,913,255

Segment result

3,833,639

364,159

73,105

79,230

4,350,133

Central costs

 

 

 

 

(3,349,408)

Operating profit

 

 

 

 

1,000,725

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capital additions

79,668

7,568

1,519

1,647

90,402

Depreciation and amortisation

41,698

3,961

795

862

47,316

Segment assets

14,542,804

945,011

97,990

399,409

15,985,214

Segment liabilities

2,788,893

181,226

18,792

76,595

3,065,506

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