CBUY.L Regulatory News (CBUY)

10 Feb 2006 10:56

@UK PLC10 February 2006 @UK PLC Pre Close Trading Statement - year to 31 December 2005 @UK PLC ("@UK"), a leading developer of software solutions to facilitatee-procurement, today provides the following pre-close trading update for theyear to 31 December 2005. The Board anticipates that the Group's results forthe year will be in line with its expectations. Since Admission to AIM in December 2005, @UK has made good progress. The keyfocus over the next few months is to recruit staff and sign up localauthorities, NHS authorities and other local government procuring departments.Thereafter @UK will concentrate on enabling the suppliers to interact with theprocurement departments of these public sector bodies. Recruitment of the additional staff required is well under way; employee numbersare now 50, an increase of around 20 in the last two months, with new members ofthe sales, support and technical teams. With additional staff andinfrastructure in place @UK is now about to start the major drive on supplierenablement for its local authority customers. The Company is making good progress in recruiting public sector organisations totake up it e-commerce trading solutions, with 38 public bodies which haveadopted them to date, up from the previously disclosed figure of 23. EastRenfrewshire has recently been signed up, the first local authority in Scotland.Two of the leading NHS Trusts in England, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals andUniversity Hospital Birmingham, have also now been secured. @UK expects to announce its preliminary results for the year to 31 December 2005in mid April 2006. 10 February 2006 Enquiries @UK PLCLyn Duncan, Managing Director 0118 963 7000John Aiken, Finance Director 0118 963 7000 College HillAdrian Duffield 020 7457 2020 Notes to Editors (www.ukplc.net) @UK PLC is a leading developer of software solutions to facilitatee-procurement, the trading of products and services between purchasers, such aspublic sector bodies, and suppliers, such as SMEs as well as larger companies.@UK listed on AIM in December 2005. The Company's approach is to work with the public sector on seeking the mostefficient way to engage suppliers so that they link to an 'e' based marketplace. In developing its solution, @UK has also worked closely with partnerssuch as Sage, which has a strong position in the SME market place, and CapitaEducation Services, which has a dominant position in the supply of managementinformation systems to schools in England and Wales. The Company has developedan attractive, low-cost, value for money offer for the suppliers of goods andservices to the public sector. The Company's offering to the public sector purchasing bodies enables them totrade with SME suppliers through a 'closed market place'. A closed market placegives the public sector client the ability to control which of the suppliersthat the users within the public body are allowed to trade with and integrateswith that organisation's back office systems. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange