AMO.L Regulatory News (AMO)

28 January 2013

AMINO TECHNOLOGIES PLC

FINAL RESULTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 NOVEMBER 2012

Amino Technologies plc ("Amino" or the "Company"; stock code: AMO), the Cambridge-based leader in digital entertainment solutions for IPTV, OTT and in-home multimedia distribution, announces audited results for the year ended 30 November 2012 which demonstrate strong growth in profitability and cash.

Overview:

Financial results

- Gross profit up 20.8% to £17.5m (2011: £14.5m)

- Underlying Gross margins up 9.3 percentage points to 42.0% (2011: 32.7%)

- EBITDA of £6.2m, an increase of 42.2% (2011: £4.4m)

- Operating profit of £2.8m (2011: loss of £0.6m)

- Underlying revenue down 6.1% to £41.7m (underlying 2011: £44.4m; reported 2011: £51.8m) reflecting continued focus on profitability

- Year-end net cash 21.3% higher at £17.1m (2011: £14.1m)

- Proposed final dividend of 3p, an increase of 50% (2011: 2p) with an expectation of continued dividend growth of no less than 15 per cent per annum for each of the next two years

Operational highlights:

- Strong focus on operational management

o Improved execution delivered by new, refreshed management team

o Strong working relationships maintained with supply chain partners

o Primary technology facility located in the Cambridge area from 2013 to achieve productivity improvements

- Strengthening the Amino product range

o Innovative new products launched

o More focused portfolio range proving key differentiator against competitors

o Aminet software stack now integrated across entire product range

o Technology roadmap to ensure faster development of market-leading solutions

- Continued delivery to existing and new markets

o Consistent demand for products in our key markets

o Signed agreement to supply tier one European operator with Live media gateway platform

Commenting on the results, Keith Todd CBE, Non-Executive Chairman, stated:

"Amino has performed strongly in 2012, and we have seen significant increases in both profit and cash flow, alongside material improvements in its operational execution. This has allowed us to sharply increase shareholder returns.

Moving into 2013, we will continue to target growth which is both high margin and cash flow generative, leveraging off a simplified supply chain and more targeted product range. Whilst exercising a suitable degree of caution, we are well positioned to meet its expectations for the financial year ahead."

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Chairman's statement

The Company's focus on profitable growth, cash generation and operational execution has delivered a good result this year. It is very pleasing to announce a proposed increased full year dividend of 3p for the year ended 30 November 2012.

At the start of the year, the Board made it clear that the Company's stronger, more focused product range - supported by exacting operational performance standards - would be the platform on which to build profitable growth.

The Company has delivered against this strategy, with encouraging results and significant early traction for new innovative products launched during the year. Important improvements have been made to operational performance, where lead times for product delivery have been reduced and cost reductions achieved. This has, in turn, fed through to margin growth. Cash generation has been particularly strong and the Company enters 2013 with a significantly improved cash position despite the rise in shareholder returns.

Relationships with key partners have been enhanced and in both established and emerging markets, the Company has secured a good mix of recurring, new and returning business across its product range. It was encouraging to see the positive reception to newer products continue, post period end, at CES, the major annual consumer technology show that took place in Las Vegas earlier this month. The clear acceptance seen from visitors at the show reconfirmed our view that the Company's strategy is closely aligned with customer requirements and market direction.

This performance is testimony to the new management team, which has provided a refreshed and rigorous impetus to the Company's financial and operational performance. It is also important to recognise the efforts of the wider Amino staff who have worked hard this year to deliver these good results. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank them for their commitment.

Dividend

In line with guidance at the full year results for 2011, when the Company announced its maiden dividend, the Board now intends to introduce a progressive dividend policy. The Board is pleased to recommend a full year dividend of 3p (FY 2011: full year dividend of 2p) for the year ended 30 November 2012, a 50 per cent increase year on year, with an expectation to provide both an interim and full year dividend moving forward. Furthermore, the Board expects this dividend to grow by no less than 15 per cent per annum for each of the next two years.

Subject to shareholder approval at the annual general meeting to be held on March 27, 2013, the dividend will be payable on 15th April 2013, to shareholders on the register at 2 April 2013 with a corresponding ex-dividend date of 27 March 2013.

Outlook

Amino has performed strongly in 2012, and seen significant increases in both profit and cash flow, alongside material improvements in its operational execution. This has allowed the Company to sharply increase shareholder returns. Moving into 2013, the Company will continue to target growth which is both high margin and cash flow generative, leveraging off a simplified supply chain and more targeted product range. Whilst exercising a suitable degree of caution, the Company is well positioned to meet its expectations for the financial year ahead. 

Chief Executive's statement:

At the end of my first full year as Chief Executive, I am pleased to report continued momentum in our three key areas of strategic focus. In what has been a turbulent year for the industry - with the effects of natural disasters in the prior year affecting key areas of the supply chain - it is gratifying to see that Amino has emerged as a more focused, lean and innovative business with an enhanced position in target markets.

Customers and markets:

The Company's markets are dynamic and exciting with operator and service provider requirements evolving rapidly to meet consumer demand for new kinds of entertainment experiences. What was leading edge 18 months ago - for example, in the provision of "over the top" (OTT) capability for the delivery of content over the open Internet - is now a standard feature requirement. The ability to provide multiscreen delivery of content around the home to the TV, mobile device or laptop is also shaping customers' service offerings and, in turn, product definition.

Amino's ability to innovate, particularly in OTT, has positioned the Company to capitalise on this changing landscape. Demand for products in the Company's key markets, such as North America and Western Europe, has been consistently good during the year. Repeat orders from long-term customers made a solid contribution to performance. The continued rollout of fibre-to-the-home in several addressable markets has opened up new opportunities as operators seek to capitalise on increasing bandwidth and its delivery capabilities for advanced pay TV and OTT services.

Performance in other regions has been more mixed with for example the continued consolidation in the Russian market impacting sales. However, in emerging markets such as Latin America, the Company is making good progress and continues to develop strong commercial relationships with a number of key service providers.

Encouragingly, new products launched during the year - such as the Live media gateway platform - are beginning to gain traction with a significant new contract to supply a tier one European operator announced in December 2012.

Focused "win back" campaigns have also yielded positive results - particularly in North America but also in other markets as well. The Amino "brand", with its hallmarks of software and hardware quality, innovation and reliability - and exceptionally low product return rates - is proving a key differentiator against competitors, including new market entrants. The availability of a lower specification device aligned to the demands of emerging markets has also been critical in securing significant contracts where service provision is highly cost-driven, particularly in Eastern Europe.

Products:

Amino has developed a clear and compelling portfolio, offering products that are aligned with a defined range of market price points. During the year, it was decided to focus all product development around the proven Aminet software stack which has been at the core of the Company's research and product development for over 10 years.

As well as the IPTV/OTT range, Aminet is now the key pay-TV component in the Live media gateway which was launched at IBC 2012. This cost-optimised product, which has already enjoyed early market traction with a European tier-one operator, aligns trusted Aminet pay-TV performance and the latest Intel® chipset alongside an Android-driven environment for the deployment of television-based applications and OTT services.

The Company continues to develop strong partnerships with its extensive ecosystem - particularly with Intel® - and has closely aligned its technology roadmap to ensure customers continue to benefit from market-leading products and solutions.

Operational performance:

Continuous improvement in operational performance has underpinned the Company's solid delivery against its margin improvement targets. Coupled with a focus on higher margin opportunities, the ability to consistently execute against internal lead time improvement targets and "cost down" initiatives - without compromising quality - has been a hallmark of the Company during 2012.

Strong working relationships with supply chain partners have been critical in mitigating the impact on hard disk drive (HDDs) supply caused by the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand in late 2011. The Company experienced minimal disruption and modest short-term price rises for HDDs settled down to normal industry levels with minimal impact on pricing and margin.

To further improve operational efficiency, the Company's technical research and development capabilities will now be focused in Cambridge with the Swedish office scheduled to close early in 2013. The Company expects to achieve productivity improvements from single site working.

Our priority:

The Company remains focused on its customers, product innovation and operational performance into 2013. Innovation is central to Amino's proposition and will continue to drive product development as the Company strives to develop and grow its addressable markets.

Donald McGarva

Chief Executive Officer

Chief Financial Officer's report

Results for the year

The Company's continued focus on securing higher margin business and on delivering continual operational improvements has led to an increase in Gross profit by £3.0m to £17.5m, (2011 £14.5m)

After adjusting for the initial leading Tier 1 customer order of 50,000 units at nil margin recognised in 2011, revenue for the full year was £41.7m - or 6.1% lower than that achieved in 2011 (2011: £51.8m; Underlying 2011: £44.4m)

The underlying sales performance reflects strong sales generated during the period from customers in the Netherlands, where sales were £3.7m higher than in 2011. This strong performance was offset by lower underlying sales to our leading Tier 1 customer in Italy, which were £4.2m lower following the phasing of deliveries concentrated in 2011. Whilst, there is limited further demand for our premium product with this customer, there are ongoing discussions around the opportunity for the supply of a lower functionality product.

As identified at the end of 2011, unsettled conditions in the Russian market have continued. The structural issues identified at the end of 2011 remain unresolved and, as a consequence, this market has remained challenging. Sales in Russia were £2.0m lower than those achieved in 2011.

In Eastern Europe, however, the Company has seen some encouraging and positive progress, securing two contract wins during the period for the delivery of HD products in this region. These tenders were won as a result of the new lower cost, lower functionality product announced at the end of 2011, designed specifically to tackle highly competitive market dynamics in Eastern Europe and Latin America. As a result of this progress, the performance for the rest of the world was maintained and sales were in line with those achieved in 2011

Reported gross margin increased by 14 percentage points from 28.0% in 2011 to 42.0% in 2012. Adjusting for the initial Italian order of 50,000 units at nil margin recognised in the prior year, gross margin has increased by 9.3 percentage points to 42.0% (H1 2011: 32.7%).

This margin improvement is due to a combination of:

·; Increased migration to new IPTV product which provides better economies of scale, flexibility and more focused operational performance

·; Continued focus on supply chain including simplifying product design, focus on product cost reduction, eliminating or reducing manual processes which has led to a reduction in unit costs hence lifting the overall margin

·; Provision of £0.8m for legacy stock in 2011 which depressed the prior year margin by around 2%

The well-documented supply chain issues that affected the wider industry during 2011 have had minimal impact on Amino's performance and component costs have also remained under control. Customer lead times have been significantly reduced and improvements made to product packaging, further improving service levels and reducing costs.

Operating expenses before amortisation and depreciation have increased by £1.2m to £11.3m (2011: £10.1m) through compensation for loss of office, incentivisation of staff and a lower capitalisation rate of product development costs in 2012.

Shortly after the year end, the announcement to close the Swedish office was made. This will improve operational efficiency by locating research and development resource to a single site in Cambridge. This will result in closure costs of around £0.8m. Additional headcount will be required in Cambridge therefore this closure is not expected to generate significant cost savings.

Year-end headcount was 105 (2011: 118) and the average number of employees during the year totalled 114 (2011: 120)

EBITDA at £6.2m is £1.8m higher than the prior year (2011: £4.4m). The launch of new products during 2011 has resulted in a corresponding increase in amortisation of £0.8m during the year. In addition, in 2011, an impairment charge of £2.3m was incurred relating to the goodwill on the Swedish business acquired in 2009. The group returned to operating profit during the year, which at £2.8m is £3.4m better than the prior year (2011: loss of £0.6m).

Balance sheet

Total equity was £22.4m at the year-end (2011: £20.6m) which is equivalent to 43.1p per share (2011: 38.2p) of which £17.1m (2011: £14.1m), or 32.8p per share (2011: 26.2p per share), is represented by net cash balances.

Net current assets are £17.6m (2011: £14.6m), the principal components of which are net cash balances of £17.1m (2011: £14.1m), trade and other receivables of £7.9m (2011: £10.4m), stock of £2.1m (2011: £4.0m) and trade and other payables of £9.6m (2011: £14.0m). 

·; 71% of trade receivables at 30 November 2012 are insured (2011: 71%). Trade receivables over 60 days at 30 November 2012 but not provided for amounted to £0.1m (2011: £0.3m) demonstrating the Group's strong debtor management

·; The reduction in stock levels and trade and other payables at the year-end was largely due to year-end supply chain management.

The group's focus on profitable underlying revenue growth, tight cost control, and strong working capital management, has delivered further improvements in the Company's cash balance, which stood at £17.1m (2011: £14.1m). This £3.0m improvement is despite total cash outflows of £1.0m in respect of dividend payments in the first half of 2012.

At the balance sheet date, the Group had forward foreign exchange contracts to convert €1.25m into GBP at average exchange rates of €1.2371 and SEK 6.0m at SEK 10.7811 (2011: €2.0m at average conversion rate of €1.1385). £6.0m (2011: £3.1m) of net current assets is denominated in US dollars and £1.5m of assets (2011: £1.5m) in Euro.

At 30 November 2012, the Group has approximately £37m of unrecognised tax losses and other timing differences available to carry forward to set against future taxable profits. In addition, losses of £2.8m are recognised by the deferred tax asset of £0.6m. At the current taxation rates, the unrecognised deferred tax asset is £9.0m.

Equity

The issued share capital of the Group is 57.9m (2011: 57.9m) ordinary shares, of which 5.1% were held by the Employee Benefits Trust and 4.9% held in treasury by the company following the purchase of 2.8m shares during the prior year, leaving 52.2m shares held external to the group.

Julia Hornby

Chief Financial Officer

Consolidated Income Statement

For The Year Ended 30 November 2012

All amounts relate to continuing activities.

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

For The Year Ended 30 November 2012

Consolidated Balance sheet

As At 30 November 2012

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

For The Year Ended 30 November 2012

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Shareholders' Equity

For The Year Ended 30 November 2012

1. Basis of preparation

The preliminary announcement for the year ended 30 November 2012 has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as adopted by the EU, IFRIC interpretations and with those parts of the Companies Act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under IFRS.

The financial information set out above, which was approved by the Board on 28 January 2013, is derived from the full Group accounts for the year ended 30 November 2012 and does not constitute the statutory accounts within the meaning of section 434 of the Companies Act 2006. The Group accounts on which the auditors have given an unqualified report, which does not contain a statement under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006 in respect of the accounts for 2012, will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies in due course.

2. Geographical external customer revenue analysis

For this disclosure revenue is determined by the location of the customer.

3. Profit/(Loss) per share

The calculation of basic earnings per share is based on profit/(loss) after taxation and the weighted average of ordinary shares of 1p each in issue during the period. The Company holds 2,844,857 of its own shares in treasury and these are excluded from the weighted average above. The basic weighted average number of shares also excludes 2,913,581 shares held by the EBT.

For diluted earnings per share, the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue is adjusted to assume conversion of all dilutive potential ordinary shares. The Group has only one category of dilutive potential ordinary shares; those share options where the exercise price is less than the average market price of the Company's ordinary shares during the year. There is no dilutive effect on unadjusted loss per share in respect of the year ended 30 November 2011 as the Group was loss making.

The profit attributable to ordinary shareholders excluding exceptional items disclosed for the year ended 30 November 2011 is derived by adding back the exceptional impairment of £2,279,251 disclosed on the face of the income statement.

4. Trade and other receivables

Other receivables comprise rent deposits.

5. Trade and other payables

6. Cash generated from operations

Ends