Communisis PLC Regulatory News (CMS)

21 January 2016

Communisis plc

("Communisis" or the "Group")

Trading Update

Leading provider of personalised customer communication services, Communisis plc (LSE: CMS), issues its trading update for the financial year ended 31 December 2015.

Andy Blundell, Chief Executive, commented:

"We have delivered an improvement across all performance metrics during 2015. Growth at Communisis will continue to be fuelled by demand for our integrated marketing services and we are delighted to announce the renewal of our contract with Barclays; one of our biggest clients. Current activity, together with our new business pipeline mean that we are making a strong start to 2016."

Adjusted operating profit is expected to be in line with current expectations at approximately £18m: up 12% year-on-year, or 17% year-on-year on a constant currency basis. Associated improvements are also expected to be delivered in both basic and adjusted earnings per share.

Focus on cash generation and active management of working capital during the year has enabled the Group to deliver free cash flow of approximately £12m: double the prior year figure. Net debt is in line with expectations at £40m.

These results represent a sixth consecutive year of improvement in Group performance, underpinned by multi-year contractual arrangements and increasingly embedded client relationships. Barclays, one of the Group's largest clients, has renewed its contract with Communisis for marketing print and direct mail services for three years from January 2016, with the option of a further two year extension.

By segment, Produce has continued to take advantage of its market leading position, particularly in the provision of outbound transactional services. Legal & General has become a new client for the Group, following signature of a three year contract for printed matter and print logistics services, which will commence in April 2016. In addition, long-standing client, Centrica, has extended its outgoing transactional communication services contract for a further three years until December 2018, with an option to extend by a further two years. This, alongside an increased focus on driving operational efficiencies and cost savings has ensured continuation of profitable growth in this area of the business.

Deploy has continued to grow strongly in EMEA, with 2015 seeing an increase in the number of overseas clients served by this segment. The current new business pipeline with brand owners is encouraging. Communisis will open its latest international hub in Dubai in March 2016, in response to requests from existing clients for help in this region. The Dubai initiative will be supported from inception by pilot activity in the healthcare sector.

In Design, the outlook for the year ahead is positive. Our focus is on organic growth and identifying opportunities to offer clients support from this segment as part of a package of services. Life, our acquired shopper marketing agency, is starting to see benefits from synergies with the Group's existing clients: these benefits, coupled with the impact of wins secured in the second half of the year, lead us to expect an increasing contribution from Life from this point forward. Our agency, PSONA, has secured an extension to its existing retained relationship with RBS in Business and Corporate & Commercial banking marketing. Communisis Data Intelligence has been awarded a two year retainer by a prominent leisure organisation for the provision of campaign management, analytics and consultancy services.

The Group will issue Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2015 on 3 March 2016.

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About Communisis

Communisis is a leading provider of personalised customer communication services that specialises in helping clients communicate with their customers more effectively and more profitably in fast-changing markets.

Communisis has a reputation for production excellence and innovation and is trusted by many leading, consumer-facing brands to design, produce and deploy multi-channel personalised customer communications accurately, securely, reliably and at scale.

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