Chesterfield Sp Regulatory News (CSC)

22 Dec 2008 07:00



22 December 2008

Netb2b2 plc

Preliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2008

Netb2b2 plc ('Netb2b2' or 'the Group'), the digital communications business, today announces its preliminary unaudited results for the year ended 30 June 2008.

Enquiries, please contact:

Geoffrey Griggs

Netb2b2 PLC

020 7689 8800

Azhic Basirov / Siobhan Sergeant

Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited

Tel: 020 7131 4000

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Introduction

The year ended 30 June 2008 has been a year of transition.  

Both during and since the year end we have been reviewing our overhead structure and we continue to reduce headcount and simplify our structure.

As part of this progress we regret to announce that following six years of service as Group Managing Director, Andy Gannon has decided to step down with effect from 22 December 2008. 

We would like to place on record our sincere thanks for his leadership, commitment and perseverance over this period and we wish him well in his several other business interests.

Financial and operational review

Group turnover has increased to £7.4 million (2007: £6.7m). Unfortunately the problematic major project, alluded to last year has resulted in a litigation claim which has been settled since the year end for £400,000 payable in instalments over the next 3 years. This prior period item has been fully provided for in these accounts. Prior to this claim and the provision for goodwill impairment, the Group managed to record a considerably lower full year loss after tax of £17,000 (2007: £236,000) and it traded profitably in the final quarter. The loss per share was 17.9p compared with 6.5p in 2007. 

Good progress continues to be made in resolving the deficit resulting from a pension fund operated by a liquidated subsidiary of the Group and a further write back of the amount previously provided has been made.

We are pleased to report that cScape grew its revenues by 15% year on year and acquired a number of new blue chip clients during the period which offer a fair degree of promise in the medium term. cScape has also recently signed two new 3 year contracts with significant long term clients.

In addition cScape's Customer Engagement Unit gained greater prominence in its field and produced two influential reports, the second online "Customer Engagement Survey" and "Winners and Losers".

cScape, because of its Microsoft skills, was also chosen by Microsoft to create a global demo site for Sharepoint.

Blue Sky Hosting continues to provide good returns with a solid trading result. The adoption of the VMWare platform and the subsequent partnership has enabled Blue Sky to further enhance its value proposition increasing its capacity for 24 x 7 operation without a disproportionate increase in infrastructure costs. 

IBM continue to position Blue Sky Hosting as one of their top Domino Hosting partners and this position is now well complemented by a strong Microsoft and Open Source offering. We have recently seen sustained support from existing customers such as Riverford and indeed the return of APTN to the fold after having "in-sourced" their infrastructure some 3 years ago.

Although Fernhart had a disappointing bottom line result it won a number of new clients during the period including in the public sector. 

ITM had a reasonable trading year although it continues to operate in a challenging business environment.

In view of the above it is considered prudent to provide in full for impairment of the goodwill relating to Fernhart and ITM and this has resulted in a charge for the year of £1,026,000 (2007: £160,000).

Outlook

Unfortunately the general economic outlook for 2009 looks challenging but the effects of this on the Group will be mitigated to some extent through our strong position in chartered membership organisations and our long term hosting contracts. 

Keith Young  22 December 2008 

Chairman

  UNAUDITED GROUP PROFIT & LOSS ACCOUNT

Year ended 30 June 2008

All turnover and results arose from continuing operations apart from the non-operating exceptional items which relate to the closure of discontinued operations.

No separate statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses has been presented as all such gains and losses have been dealt with in the profit and loss account.

  UNAUDITED GROUP BALANCE SHEET

As at 30 June 2008

  UNAUDITED GROUP CASHFLOW STATEMENT

Year ended 30 June 2008

3. EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS

6. ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET DEBT