ADVFN Regulatory News (AFN)

11 Oct 2005 07:30

ADVFN PLC11 October 2005 Embargoed for release until 7.30 a.m. Tuesday 11th October 2005 ADVFN PLC ('ADVFN' or 'the Company') Preliminary Results for the Year Ended 30 June 2005 ADVFN, Europe's number one stocks and shares website, today announcespreliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2005. Highlights: • First full year's net profit of £1.01M (2004: £254K loss) • Net profit per ordinary share of 0.23p (2004: 0.06p loss) • EBITDA profits up 21% to £678K (2004: £560K) • ADVFN user numbers up 46% to over 540,000 (2004: 370,000) • Total user numbers across all group media properties up 159% to 960,000 (2004: 370,000) and further increased to over 1,200,000 by the report date • Up to the report date we have added £5.5M of off-balance sheet shareholder value with ADVFN Japan and ALL IPO Clement Chambers, Managing Director of ADVFN commented: "The year to June 2005 has seen a transformation in ADVFN, which has nowachieved profitability as well as significantly increasing its product offeringsand other interests. I am pleased to be reporting a strong set of results withrecord figures across profit, EBITDA, sales, traffic and customer acquisition.We have also added significant value off balance sheet with the flotation of ALLIPO, the creation of ADVFN Japan and the implied value of our new webproperties. Consequentially opportunities are becoming available to us across abroad spectrum and we believe we are in a new phase of development which willsee ADVFN capitalise on its platforms and go from strength to strength over thenext 12 - 18 months. The ADVFN properties, including Fotothing and CupidBay, are generating in excessof one million registrations a year at current rates of customer acquisition andrecent corporate actions in the internet sector, which have seen manysignificant transactions, suggest that ADVFN is positioned to add significantshareholder value. With ADVFN's accelerating global presence and its successfulweb property strategy I am excited about our prospects for the coming year." FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: ADVFNClement Chambers, Managing Director clemc@advfn.comMichael Hodges, Chairman mikeh@advfn.comFrancesca De Franco, PR francescad@advfn.com 020 7070 0932 Chairman's Statement I am very pleased to be able to announce our first full year's profit of £1.01Mcompared to last year's restated loss of £254K. If you have used the ADVFN website recently you may well have noticed the manynew features which have been added. Since June 2004 we have continued to expandour world exchange offerings and have introduced data from a number of newcountries and markets including: Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Canada,Switzerland, Singapore, Archipelago, GTIS Forex, Mexico, Chile, Australia,Spain, Italy, India, Thailand, China, Indonesia and Japan. We have very recentlyopened our new site ADVFNGold (www.advfngold.com), which is specificallydesigned for gold and other metals and provides worldwide coverage of platinum,silver, copper and diamond stocks. We are very excited with this as it is anactive and topical market In our interim statement I mentioned that we were starting to look for possibleacquisitions. We recently purchased Fotothing (www.fotothing.com) - a photoblogging site. Since joining the ADVFN group the site, which allows people toupload their pictures for friends, family and online communities to see, hasexpanded to over 35,000 and its rate of growth is increasing daily. This is notthe only acquisition we have looked at and I hope to be able to announce thecompletion of a larger deal shortly. Cupidbay (www.cupidbay.com), which was purchased in July 2004, has grownstrongly since it joined the group. It now has nearly 600,000 members from allover the world up from 200,000 last December. It is also very encouraging tonote that at any point in the day thousands of people are actively using theservice. We now own 48% of ALL IPO PLC (www.allipo.com) following the transactionannounced last November. The first stage in getting ALL IPO operational was toreceive approval from the FSA which we announced during August 2005. Itsbusiness has now started, with ALL IPO successfully completing its first IPOthrough the system. Although a small transaction, this allowed ALL IPO to provethe concept and ensure all its systems were in place and working successfully.ALL IPO has also recently received approval to passport its services into 11European countries and, once established, I believe this will be a very activepart of the group. ADVFN Japan was formed during the year and following the raising of Y501,000,000for initial working capital, we now own just over 29% of the new business givinga derived value of over £10M for the whole or £3M for our share. ADVFN Japan nowhas a very impressive list of shareholders based in Japan and I hope this willsoon lead to some interesting announcements. During the past year the staff at ADVFN has grown allowing us to develop moreand better products which I trust our users have been able to benefit from. Iwould like to thank the whole ADVFN team for their hard work and effort. Michael J HodgesChairman10 October 2005 Managing Director's Review Operating Review Net profits after tax for the year were £1.01M compared to a loss last year of£254K as restated on turnover up 12% at £3.3M. We also have our first fullyear's earnings per share of 0.23p compared to last year's loss of 0.06p pershare. Our EBITDA has continued its growth up by 21% to £678K from last year's£560K, as can be seen from the table below: 2005 2004EBITDA - Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exceptional items £'000 £'000 Profit / (loss) before tax - per accounts 1,001 (261) Amortisation 260 260Depreciation 621 573Exceptional item - Impairment 1,027 -Exceptional item - profit on sale of subsidiary (2,202) -Net interest (29) (12) EBITDA 678 560 Our results have been helped by the exceptional profit gained on the sale of asubsidiary in connection with the launch of ALL IPO PLC and have been partlyoffset by the exceptional loss of £1.03M arising from an impairment review wherewe have prudently decided to write off a significant amount of our websitedevelopment costs which leaves our balance sheet in good shape going forward. These results are very encouraging, especially considering the continuedinvestment we have made in growing our platform and our brand across many moreinternational markets. We are also very pleased with the continuing growth inour user numbers - up 46% from 370,000 at June 2004 to over 540,000 at June2005. During the year we have strengthened our platform and position as Europe'sleading stocks and shares website and are now also working to establishourselves in many new markets. We have a joint venture business firmlyestablished in Japan to exploit opportunities in the Japanese and Korean marketsand this business has already independently raised £2.5M to finance its futuregrowth. We are currently finalising a joint venture for the Brazilian market andare in negotiations for similar ventures in other areas. Current Trading Since June our user base has continued to expand and has already grown from540,000 to over 580,000.Much of our turnover is long-term business, be it subscriptions or advertising.This profile gives us a solid and dependable base on which to grow. Advertisingcontinues to perform well and subscriptions continue to develop along expectedlines. The company is at full strength and staffed to grow and many of ouroverheads are focused on projects which will drive ADVFN forward in the comingperiods. Prospects It is pleasing to note that our performance is not a function of pastinvestments, but has been achieved against a background of record investment inADVFN's future. The past year has seen a significant investment of time, effortand resources in ADVFN's future; both in expanding ADVFN's core offering and inacquiring or creating additional properties and interests which arecomplementary. Our expectations are that we will continue to grow along the lines of pastperformance and that we will increasingly stand to benefit from upside potentialfrom opportunities we are creating both in new content and market expansion.While we are enjoying exciting developments, we continue to be carefulincrementalists and as such have no plans for any high cost forays intouncharted territory. We look forward to the next 12-18 months with optimism as we believe ADVFN isnow well placed to build upon the strong base it has created and expect it willbe a most eventful period for the company. Clement ChambersManaging Director10 October 2005 Consolidated Profit and Loss Accountfor the year ended 30 June 2005 2005 2005 2004 2004 Note £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 as as restated restated Turnover 3,303 2,951 Cost of sales (182) (128) Gross profit 3,121 2,823 Administrative expensesExceptional item - impairment loss (1,027) -Other administrative expenses (3,252) (3,144)Total administrative expenses (4,279) (3,144) Operating loss (1,158) (321) Exceptional item: Profit ondisposal of subsidiary 2,202 - Share of operating losses of associate (72) - Profit on sale of investments - 48 972 (273) Net interest 29 12 Profit/(loss) on ordinaryactivities before taxation 1,001 (261) Tax on profit/(loss) on ordinaryactivities 11 7 Profit/(loss) on ordinaryactivities after taxation 1,012 (254) Earnings/(loss) per ordinary 2shareBasic 0.23p (0.06p)Fully diluted 0.22p - All operations are continuing. Statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses 2005 2004 £'000 £'000 Profit/(loss) for the financial year 1,012 (254)Prior year adjustment (273) -Total gains and losses recognised since last financialstatements 728 (254) Balance Sheetsat 30 June 2005 Group Company Group and company 2005 2005 2004 Note £'000 £'000 £'000 as restatedFixed assetsIntangible assets 281 281 541Tangible assets 1,180 820 1,139Investments 2,150 20 - 3,611 1,121 1,680Current assetsDebtors 655 1,049 544Investments 13 13 -Cash at bank and in hand 1,824 1,790 530 2,492 2,852 1,074Creditors: amounts falling duewithin one year (974) (974) (667) Net current assets 1,518 1,878 407 Total assets less current liabilities 5,129 2,999 2,087 Creditors: amounts falling due afterone year (12) (12) - 5,117 2,987 2,087 Capital and reservesCalled up share capital 4,618 4,618 4,070Share premium account 5,403 5,403 3,933Profit and loss account (4,904) (7,034) (5,916) Shareholders' funds - equity 3 5,117 2,987 2,087 The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors on 10 October2005. Consolidated Cash Flow Statementfor the year ended 30 June 2005 2005 2004 Notes £'000 £'000 as restated Net cash inflow from operating activities 4 951 414 Returns on investment and servicing of financeInterest received 48 13Interest paid (19) (1) 29 12 Taxation - 311 Capital expenditurePayments to acquire tangible fixed assets (1,666) (956)Payments to acquire investments (33) -Proceeds from disposal of fixed asset investment - 110 (1,699) (846) Net cash outflow before financing (719) (109) FinancingIssue of ordinary share capital 2,139 18Share issue costs (121) -Capital element of finance leases and hirepurchase (5) -contracts repaidNet cash inflow from financing 2,013 18 Increase/(decrease) in cash 5,6 1,294 (91) Notes for the year ended 30 June 2005 1. General The financial information herein does not constitute statutory accounts asdefined in section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The financial information has been extracted from the group's 2005 statutoryfinancial statements upon which the auditors reported on 10 October 2005. Theiropinion is unqualified and does not include any statement under section 237 ofthe Companies Act 1985. The accounts have been prepared in accordance withapplicable accounting standards and under the historical cost convention. Copies of the annual report are being posted to shareholders and copies will beavailable from the company's registered office at 642a Lea Bridge Road, Leyton,London, E10 6AP. 2. Earnings/(loss) per ordinary share The calculation of the basic earnings or loss per share is based on the earningsattributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted average numbers ofshares in issue during the year. The calculation of diluted earnings per share is based on the basic earnings pershare, adjusted to allow for the issue of shares and the post tax effect ofdividends and/or interest, on the assumed conversion of all dilutive options andother dilutive potential ordinary shares. Reconciliations of earnings and weighted average number of shares used in thecalculation are set out below. 2005 2004 Number Earnings Number Loss of per of per Profit shares share Loss shares share £'000 '000 p £'000 '000 p as as restated restated Profit/(loss) forthe year 1,012 (254)Weighted averagenumber of shares 439,932 406,304Basicearnings/(loss)per share 0.23p (0.06p) Number of sharesunder option 45,478 -Number of sharesthat would havebeen issued ataverage market value (20,096) -Dilutedearning/(loss) pershare 1,012 465,314 0.22p (254) 406,304 (0.06p) 3. Reconciliation of movements in shareholders' funds 2005 2005 2004 2004 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 as as restated restated Profit/(loss) for the financial year 1,012 (254)Net receipts from issues of shares 2,018 18Net increase/(decrease) inshareholders' funds 3,030 (236)Shareholders funds - a previously stated 2,360 2,421Prior year adjustment (273) (98)Shareholders' funds at 1 July 2004 -as restated 2,087 2,323Shareholders' funds at 30 June 2005 5,117 2,087 4. Reconciliation of operating loss to net cash inflow from operating activities 2005 2004 £'000 £'000 as restated Operating loss (1,158) (321)Exceptional item - impairment loss 1,027 -Amortisation 260 260Depreciation 621 573Increase in debtors (100) (138)Increase in creditors 301 40Net cash inflow from operating activities 951 414 5. Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds 2005 2004 £'000 £'000 Increase/(decrease) in cash for the year 1,294 (91)Inception of new finance leases and hire purchase agreements (23) -Cash outflow from capital repayments of hire purchase agreements 5 -Movement in net funds in the year 1,276 (91)Net funds at 1 July 2004 530 621Net funds at 30 June 2005 1,806 530 6. Analysis of movements in net funds At Cash flow Non-cash items At 1 July 2004 30 June 2005 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Cash in handand at bank 530 1,294 - 1,824Finance leasesand hirepurchaseagreements - 5 (23) (18) 530 1,299 (23) 1,806 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange