Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.

Less Ads, More Data, More Tools Register for FREE

Pin to quick picksAltitude Group Regulatory News (ALT)

Share Price Information for Altitude Group (ALT)

London Stock Exchange
Share Price is delayed by 15 minutes
Get Live Data
Share Price: 39.50
Bid: 38.00
Ask: 41.00
Change: 3.00 (8.22%)
Spread: 3.00 (7.895%)
Open: 36.00
High: 41.00
Low: 39.00
Prev. Close: 36.50
ALT Live PriceLast checked at -

Watchlists are a member only feature

Login to your account

Alerts are a premium feature

Login to your account

Half Yearly Report

22 Sep 2011 07:00

RNS Number : 7006O
Altitude Group PLC
22 September 2011
 



 

22 September 2011

 

Altitude Group plc

("Altitude" or the "Company" or the "Group")

 

Unaudited Interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2011

 

Altitude Group plc (AIM: ALT), the provider of information and technology services to the promotional products industry, announces its interim results for the six month period ended 30 June 2011.

 

Financial Highlights:

·; Revenue from continuing operations increased by 12% to £2.46m (H1 2010: £2.19m)

·; Gross profit increased 21.5% to £1.69m (H1 2010: £1.39m)

·; Adjusted operating profit* from continuing operations increased by 26% to £0.36m (H1 2010: £0.28m)

·; Adjusted Basic earnings per share** increased by 53% to 1.21p (H1 2010: 0.79p)

·; Pro forma net cash £1.08m (H1 2010: £0.2m) after £2.17m realised in July from the disposal of the PPD

 

* before amortisation of intangibles, non-recurring administrative expenses and share-based payment charges

** excluding non-recurring administrative expenses and profit on sale of discontinued operation

 

 

Operational Highlights:

·; Disposal of the Promotional Products Division ("PPD") to MBO team for £6.27m (mixture of cash and debt) in June 2011

·; Acquisition and integration of "Technologo" in March 2011, and "The Logo Network" in May 2011

·; Establishment of Trade Only Inc USA Sales and Support facility in place

·; Clear product roadmap in place with significant developments underway

·; Strong growth in USA customer base - first major US client, iPromoteU, on track for 4th quarter launch

 

Martin Varley, Chief Executive Officer of Altitude Group plc, commented: "2011 has so far been a crucial year for the Group, with the disposal of the Promotional Products Division transforming Altitude into a purely information and technology services focused company. We continue to move further into the North American market, which offers great potential for the Company. Our trade exhibition, the Trade Only National Show, continues to grow at an impressive rate and the 2011 show in January saw an increase in attendance of 20% on 2010.

 

"These latest figures show the Company to be moving in the right direction and we are very excited about taking Altitude Group plc to the next level. We are therefore confident of meeting market expectations for the full year."

 

Enquiries:

 

Altitude Group plc

Colin Cooke (Chairman) Tel: 0870 224 6677

Martin Varley (CEO) Tel: 07912 599 012 (UK)

Tel: +1 305 639 0252 (US)

Merchant Securities (Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Lindsay Mair / Simon Clements Tel: 020 7628 2200

 

Walbrook PR

Jack Rich (Media enquiries) Tel: 020 7933 8788

Jack.rich@walbrookpr.com

Paul Cornelius (Investor enquiries) Tel: 020 7933 8794

Paul.cornelius@walbrookir.com

 

 

 

Chief Executive's Statement

 

Following the disposal of the Promotional Products Division, we have reviewed the optimum structure for the Group and the resources necessary for the efficient and cost effective management of the business. By way of background, the current premises are the offices in Manchester and Sheffield, with a total of 30 employees, the Toronto facility that houses the Technologo business with 12 employees and the current office in Anaheim, California with 5 employees.

 

To further simplify the business structure, we have employed a Financial Controller in each of our Manchester and Anaheim offices to manage and report on the results for the UK and North America respectively.

 

This leaner approach removes the need for a full time Finance Director, during this next phase of the Group's development. As a result, David Smith will step down from the Board at the end of October 2011. However, he will continue to provide assistance to the Board until the end of November 2011.

 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank David for all his hard work over the past two years. He has made a substantial contribution to the Group and his dedication has helped reshape the Group into a focused information and technology business. We all wish David every success for the future.

 

Strategy

 

Whilst the concentration has clearly been on the promotional products area, we are seeing interest for an integrated web store and order management solution for small businesses generally. The USA has around 25 million small businesses, clubs and associations accounting for 51% of GDP and 54% of job creation. Today there are limited low cost options for a fully integrated business management technology solution, and this has encouraged us to explore suitable partnerships to provide us with access to a large number of small business operators.

 

Irrespective of such partnerships, we plan to launch what we internally call our 'Vanilla' solution later in 2012, where we will offer a comprehensive 'Cloud' business management solution for small businesses for as little as $49 per month. Our plan is to target an initial selection of ten business sectors and make available a wide choice of templates for each of these. A user that signs up will be able to add his or her own products, instantly publish to a web site, receive orders, manage inventory and use comprehensive marketing tools and CRM to drive sales, all from their iPad or laptop no matter where they are in the world.

 

Additionally, we are seeing high levels of interest from related niche markets such as Print, Office Supplies and Uniforms. We will continue to explore opportunities in these areas with companies that have ready-made user bases that would benefit from bolting on our solution in exchange for a revenue share arrangement.

 

Product Development

 

Our product roadmap for the coming 12 months is well defined and includes a number of enhancements, new features and added functionality. In addition to this, we have now undertaken three new major pieces of development.

 

1. Native iPad and iPhone apps. The decision to develop a 'Native' app rather than web apps was taken following extensive research and discussion with key customers and prospects. We have contracted with the same User Experience (UX) company in San Francisco to design this for us that worked on our 'Vision' launch, and this project is under way. We have additionally contracted with one of our existing providers to produce the software that will feed the UX and integrate fully with our 'Cloud' solution. By developing the app in this way, users will be able to manage their whole business with nothing more than a subscription to Trade Only Vision, and an iPad. The app will be released into Beta prior to the year end with a soft launch planned for PPAI Expo, our major marketing push for the year that takes place January 4-6th 2012 in Las Vegas. More than 10,000 visitors are expected to attend.

 

We expect to commence development of the Native Android app in Q2 2012, and we will monitor the popularity of Blackberry devices within our customer base before making that investment.

 

2. Our web solution for distributors, Trade Only 'STORE', is growing in popularity quickly, helped by the easy-to-use management tools that allow drag-and-drop design ensuring that anyone can make changes, add pages, special offers or even a blog. Our analysis of other products on the market encourages us to believe that we have the highest level of functionality in the promotional products niche with the current specification. We do however want to put further distance between our solution and any impersonators, so in the next six weeks we will complete the development that adds full shopping cart checkout facilities to the stores, with integrated Sales Tax calculations and instant FedEx and UPS freight calculations. These functions are currently unavailable as part of an integrated solution, with competing products unable to offer the customer confidence that the price quoted will be the total, including shipping and sales tax, when paying online.

 

3. The final piece of additional development is the ability for our solutions to instantly integrate with Quick Books, the leading small business accounting solution in North America. Much like Sage in the UK, Quick Books offers a wide range of accounting packages both as a local client, and online. Many of our prospects are familiar with Quick Books and therefore it is an easier transition for them to maintain this area for their accounting, and integrate this with our Web Site, Product Research, CRM and ERP solution.

 

The total additional cost for this development is in the region of $750,000 and we expect that the cost of external development in 2012 to be around $1 million and will be funded from cash flow.

 

Trading

 

Our first major USA client, iPromoteU (IPU), is on track for a full launch in the 4th quarter with a Beta group set to go live in the next eight weeks. IPU affiliates have an option to subscribe for the basic order management piece at $25 per month, or enjoy the benefits of the integrated product research, web site, CRM and order management elements for an additional payment. More than 300 affiliates opted to upgrade to the premium package while we promoted a special offer of $75 per month for the early adopters. We are continuing to attract additional affiliates with the current pricing of $100 per month per affiliate.

 

Suppliers are continuing to sign up for the tools that will allow them to add their product data to the portal. We are making excellent progress with this part of the launch as suppliers recognise the potential benefits of operational efficiency gains available from orders being in a more factory ready state when received by their sales department. Our legacy ERP solution, which has been in use in the UK for nine years and is aimed at suppliers and manufacturers, is attracting high levels of interest and has the potential to directly connect the distributors and suppliers from quote to shipping - a major step towards a complete trading platform.

 

We have recently agreed terms with Press a Print (PaP), an operator in the business opportunities sector of the promotional products market. They have recently explored all alternatives for an integrated solution and chose Trade Only ahead of many more established companies. This deal provides for Trade Only to operate web sites and product research for their 600 current business operators, alongside the installation and implementation of a full CRM/ERP and US GAAP accounting platform for their business.

 

Within the arrangement, Trade Only are provided access to the current and past PaP operators to share with them the benefit of utilising the complete Trade Only 'Vision' solution to help run their business.

 

Within the UK, where our market is more established, we have been working to launch the new software platform into our existing customer base and into new prospects. Recent product demonstrations at our roadshow events were well attended and we achieved good levels of sign up on the day.

 

The catalogue market in the UK continues to mature and we have again grown the user base for our Spectrum product in 2011. We see this as an important component of the overall package that we provide to distributors, along with the business management tools.

 

Our trade show for the promotional products industry, The Trade Only National Show, continued to see record attendance. January's show broke the attendance record for the fifth straight year, with almost 3,000 people in attendance, an increase of 20% against 2010. For the 2012 show we have extended into the additional halls now available in the IBEX facility in Coventry and we expect good growth on space sold and further increases in visitor numbers. Sales of space are ahead of the same period last year and we expect to sell out before the year end.

General

 

It has been well documented that we were forced to defend litigation by ASI in relation to our acquisition of certain assets of Toronto based Technologo. This was settled on 6 June 2011 with no payments made by either party. However, the USA legal system resulted in our attorneys plus related costs totalling almost $300,000. ASI continues to use the services of Technologo and is contracted to do so until the end of June 2012 on a normal trading arrangement.

 

Employees

 

It seems almost mandatory now in a report of this type to thank everyone for their hard work. We have always done just that, but it minimises in some way the incredible effort that our team has put in that has resulted in us becoming a focused information and technology business with tremendous opportunities. Many of our employees work at a pace that is above and beyond anything that is expected, across time zones spanning 8 hours and often dashing through airports heading for the next 'red-eye'.

 

We thank you all with the utmost gratitude.

 

Outlook

 

We have achieved much in the last 18 months: the business has a clear direction, no channel conflict, our customer base is growing and we have made our first steps in the substantial USA market. We have no doubt at all that the market potential is as large as we could ever have imagined and our most pressing problem going forward is likely to be how we balance these many opportunities and prioritise them appropriately.

 

2011 has so far been a crucial year for the Company, with the disposal of the promotional products division transforming Altitude into a purely information and technology services focused company. We continue to move further into the US market, which offers fantastic potential for the Company, and our trade exhibition, the Trade Only National Show, continues to grow at an impressive rate.

 

These latest figures show the Company to be moving in the right direction and we are very excited about taking Altitude Group plc to the next level. We are confident of meeting market expectations for the full year.

 

Martin Varley

Chief Executive Officer

 

 

 

 

 

Consolidated income statement

for the six month period ended 30 June 2011

Unaudited

Unaudited

30-Jun-11

31-Dec-10

30-Jun-10

£'000

£'000

£'000

Revenue

2,456

2,934

2,189

Cost of sales

(764)

(941)

(796)

Gross profit

1,692

1,992

1,393

Administrative costs

(1,630)

(1,835)

(1,131)

Adjusted Operating Profit

358

219

284

Amortisation of customer related intangibles

(79)

0

0

Non recurring administrative expenses

(197)

0

0

Share based payment charges

(20)

(61)

(22)

Total operating profit

63

158

262

Finance income

0

0

0

Finance expenses

0

0

0

Profit before tax

63

158

262

Taxation

0

0

0

Profit from continuing operations

63

158

262

Profit from discontinued operations

307

347

41

Profit for the period

370

505

303

Profit per ordinary Share (pence):

- Basic

0.88

1.32

0.79

- Diluted

0.87

1.31

0.78

Shares

42,043

38,203

38,203

 

There were no recognised gains or losses in the period other than the profit for the period and therefore no statement of recognised income and expenses is presented.

 

 

 

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

for the six month period ended 30 June 2011

Share

Share

Retained

Capital

Premium

Earnings

£'000

£'000

£'000

Opening

153

5,293

(463)

Share Issue

15

866

Result

370

Share based payments

20

Closing

168

6,159

(73)

 

Consolidated balance sheet

as at 30 June 2011

Unaudited

Unaudited

30-Jun-11

31-Dec-10

30-Jun-10

£'000

£'000

£'000

Non-current assets

Property, plant & equipment

79

253

296

Intangibles

1,608

128

144

Goodwill

273

2,550

2,621

Long-Term Loan Receivable

4,000

0

0

5,960

2,931

3,061

Current assets

Inventories

0

1,284

1,514

Trade and other receivables

2,771

3,111

3,713

Current taxes

0

0

00

Cash and equivalents

0

1,533

156

Total current assets

2,771

5,927

5,382

Total Assets

8,731

8,858

8,443

Current liabilities

Bank overdrafts

(1,120)

0

0

Trade and other payables

(1,354)

(3,691)

(3,384)

Current taxes

(3)

(0)

(20)

(2,477)

(3,691)

(3,404)

Non current liabilities

Trade and other payables

0

(9)

0

Deferred consideration

0

(176)

(297)

0

(185)

(297)

Total liabilities

(2,477)

(3,875)

(3,701)

Net assets

6,254

4,983

4,742

Called up share capital

168

153

153

Share premium

6,159

5,293

5,293

Earnings

(73)

(463)

(704)

6,254

4,983

4,742

 

 

Consolidated cash flow statement

for the six month period ended 30 June 2011

Unaudited

Unaudited

30-Jun-11

31-Dec-10

30-Jun-10

£'000

£'000

£'000

Operating activities

Profit for the period

370

505

303

(Profit) on sale of discontinued operations

(59)

0

0

Depreciation

19

287

162

Amortisation intangible assets

79

36

20

(Profit)/Loss on disposal of assets

0

(7)

0

Net finance expense

0

6

4

Share based payment charges

20

61

22

Operating cash flow before changes in working capital

429

888

511

Movement in inventories

(532)

128

(177)

Movement in trade and other receivables

(388)

(198)

(800)

Movement in trade and other payables

(193)

251

(73)

Operating cash flow from operations

(684)

1,069

(539)

Interest paid

0

(6)

(4)

Income taxes

3

0

13

Net Cash Flow from Operating Activities

(681)

1,063

(530)

Investing activities

Purchase of plant and equipment

(34)

(92)

(9)

Disposal of plant and equipment

0

7

0

Payment of deferred consideration

(176)

(50)

0

Disposal of undertakings

(1,004)

0

0

Acquisition of undertakings

(1,627)

(129)

(54)

Net Cash Flow from Investing Activities

(2841)

(264)

(63)

Financing Activities

Proceeds from issue of share capital

877

0

0

Net payments on hire purchase contracts

(8)

(39)

(24)

Net Cash Flow from Financing Activities

869

(39)

(24)

Net Decrease in Cash and Cash Equivalents

(2,653)

760

(617)

Opening cash

1,533

773

773

Closing cash

(1,120)

1,533

156

 

 

 

Responsibility statement

 

The Board confirms that to the best of its knowledge :

·; The condensed set of financial statements has been prepared in accordance with IAS34 'Interim Financial Reporting' as adopted by the EU;

·; The interim report includes a fair review of the information required by :

DTR 4.2.7R of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules, being an indication of important events that have occurred during the six months ended 30 June 2011 and their impact on the condensed set of financial statements, and a description of the principal risks and uncertainties for the remaining six months of the year; and

DTR4.2.8R of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules, being related party transactions that have taken place in the six months ended 30 June 2011 that have materially affected the financial position or performance of the entity during that period.

The directors who served during the period are:

Colin Cooke (Non-Executive Chairman)

Keith Willis (Non-Executive Director)

Barry Fielder (Non-Executive Director)

David Dannhauser (Non-Executive Director)

Martin Varley (Chief Executive Officer)

David Smith (Group Finance Director)

 

Notes to the half yearly financial information

1. Basis of preparation

This consolidated half yearly financial information for the half year ended 30 June 2011 has been prepared in accordance with IAS 34, 'Interim financial reporting' as adopted by the European Union.

The consolidated half yearly report was approved by the board of directors on 21 September 2011.

The financial information contained in the interim report does not constitute statutory accounts and does not include all of the information and disclosures required for complete financial statements. Statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2010 have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. The auditors' report on those accounts was unqualified, did not include a reference to any matters to which the auditors drew attention by way of emphasis without qualifying their report and did not contain a statement made under Section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

There were no recognised gains or losses in the six month period ended 30 June 2011 other than the profit for the period and therefore no statement of recognised income and expenses is presented.

The half-year results for the current and comparative period are unaudited.

 

Accounting policies

The condensed, consolidated financial statements in this half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 June 2011 have been prepared using accounting policies and methods of computation consistent with those set out in the Annual Report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2010, except as described below. In preparing the condensed financial statements, management are required to make accounting assumptions and estimates. The assumptions and estimation methods were consistent with those applied to the Annual Report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2010.

Operating Segments

The Group determines and presents operating segments based on the information that internally is provided to the Board of Directors, which is the Group's chief operating decision maker ("CODM").

An operating segment is a component of the Group that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses, including revenues and expenses that relate to transactions with any of the Group's other components. An operating segment's operating results are reviewed regularly by the CODM to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and for which discrete financial information is available.

IFRS 8 requires consideration of the CODM within the Group. In line with the group's internal reporting framework and management structure, the key strategic and operating decisions are made by the Chief Executive Officer, who reviews internal monthly management reports, budget and forecast information as part of this. Accordingly the Chief Executive Officer is deemed to be the CODM.

Under IFRS 8 "Operating Segments" the Group has determined that it has one reportable segment.

 

IFRS 8 has been applied to aggregate operating segments on the grounds of similar economic characteristics. This position will be monitored as the Group develops.

 

 

Profit from Discontinued Operations

 

Unaudited

Unaudited

30-Jun-11

31-Dec-10

30-Jun-10

£'000

£'000

£'000

Revenue

6,441

15,640

7,908

Cost of sales

(4,453)

(10,959)

(5,484)

Gross profit

1,988

4,681

2,424

Administrative costs

(1,737)

(4,327)

(2,379)

Adjusted Operating Profit

267

583

260

Amortisation of customer related intangibles

(15)

(30)

(15)

Non recurring administrative expenses

0

(200)

(200)

Total operating profit

252

353

45

Profit on Sale of Discontinued Operations

59

0

0

Finance expenses

(4)

(7)

(4)

Profit before tax

307

347

41

Taxation

0

0

0

Profit for the period

307

347

41

 

 

 

 

Basic and diluted earnings per ordinary share

 

The calculation of earnings per ordinary share is based on the profit or loss for the period divided by the weighted average number of equity voting shares in issue.

 

Unaudited

Unaudited

30-Jun-11

31-Dec-10

30-Jun-10

Earnings (£000)

228

505

303

Weighted average number of shares ('000)

42,043

38,203

38,203

Fully diluted weighted average number of shares ('000)

42,599

38,679

38,573

Basic earnings per ordinary share (pence)

0.88p

1.32p

0.79p

-------------

-------------

-------------

Diluted earnings per ordinary share (pence)

0.87p

1.31p

0.78p

-------------

-------------

-------------

 

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
IR BIGDCUBDBGBB
Date   Source Headline
1st May 20247:00 amRNSPre-Close Trading Update
5th Jan 20246:06 pmRNSDirector/PDMR Dealing
12th Dec 20236:04 pmRNSDirector/PDMR Dealing
11th Dec 20237:00 amRNSHistoric Related Party Transactions
30th Nov 20237:00 amRNSHoldings in Company and Director Dealing
28th Nov 20237:00 amRNSInterim Results
24th Nov 20237:00 amRNSInvestor Presentation
27th Oct 20237:00 amRNSTrading Update and Director Share Awards
15th Sep 20237:00 amRNSResult of AGM
18th Aug 20237:00 amRNSPosting of Annual Report and Accounts
26th Jul 202312:00 pmRNSInvestor Presentation via Investor Meet Company
25th Jul 20237:00 amRNSAudited Final Results and Notice of AGM
20th Jul 20237:00 amRNSNotice of Results
8th Jun 20237:00 amRNSPre-Close Trading Update
11th Apr 20234:43 pmRNSDirector Dealing
29th Mar 20237:05 amRNSDirector Dealing
29th Mar 20237:00 amRNSHoldings in Company and Director Dealing
28th Mar 20234:35 pmRNSPrice Monitoring Extension
28th Mar 20232:05 pmRNSSecond Price Monitoring Extn
28th Mar 20232:00 pmRNSPrice Monitoring Extension
28th Mar 202311:05 amRNSSecond Price Monitoring Extn
28th Mar 202311:00 amRNSPrice Monitoring Extension
28th Mar 20237:00 amRNSMajor Contract Wins and Trading Update
16th Feb 20237:00 amRNSHolding(s) in Company
14th Feb 20234:40 pmRNSSecond Price Monitoring Extn
14th Feb 20234:35 pmRNSPrice Monitoring Extension
14th Feb 20232:05 pmRNSSecond Price Monitoring Extn
14th Feb 20232:00 pmRNSPrice Monitoring Extension
14th Feb 20237:00 amRNSTrading Update
17th Jan 20237:00 amRNSAltitude Group PLC at Industry’s Largest Shows
9th Dec 20227:00 amRNSAltitude Group to Present at MelloMonday
29th Nov 20221:59 pmRNSInvestor Presentation
29th Nov 20227:00 amRNSInterim Results
22nd Nov 20227:00 amRNSTrading Update
31st Oct 20227:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Dealing
28th Oct 20227:00 amRNSGrant of Options
25th Oct 20227:00 amRNSTrading Update
15th Sep 202212:54 pmRNSResult of AGM
6th Sep 20222:40 pmRNSOnline Access to AGM
5th Aug 20227:00 amRNSInvestor Presentation
2nd Aug 20227:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
28th Jul 20227:00 amRNSAudited Final Results and Notice of AGM
17th Jun 20227:00 amRNSDirector Dealings, Exercise & Grant of Options
31st Mar 20227:00 amRNSTrading Update & Secured Credit Facility
11th Feb 20227:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Dealing
10th Feb 20227:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Dealing
1st Dec 20217:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Dealings
30th Nov 20217:00 amRNSInterim Results
25th Nov 20217:00 amRNSHolding(s) in Company
24th Nov 20217:00 amRNSBoard Changes and Trading Update

Due to London Stock Exchange licensing terms, we stipulate that you must be a private investor. We apologise for the inconvenience.

To access our Live RNS you must confirm you are a private investor by using the button below.

Login to your account

Don't have an account? Click here to register.

Quickpicks are a member only feature

Login to your account

Don't have an account? Click here to register.