Eckoh Technologies Regulatory News (ECK)

Eckoh PLC

("Eckoh" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Trading Update

Eckoh plc (AIM:ECK), the global provider of secure payment products and customer contact solutions, today announces that trading for the 12 months ended 31 March 2016 was in line with market expectations, with revenue and margin growing by over 20% for the third year in succession.

The Company has continued to make excellent progress in the US. Eckoh has now secured 14 contracts for its secure payments solutions, nine of which have been signed in the 2016 financial year, illustrating the growing momentum in the market. In January, the Group also signed its first contract through its US channel partner, West Corporation, with the retail subsidiary of a major global media and entertainment group.

Furthermore, Product Support Solutions, Inc ("PSS"), the US-based company which Eckoh acquired in November 2015, performed well during its first four months as part of the Group and has already secured a number of new contracts, including a $2m contract with a global communications company. Following the successful integration of PSS Eckoh now has a unified US operation with two complementary lines of business, Secure Payments and Customer Contact Solutions, with the PSS activities forming a substantive part of the latter. As part of the strengthening of the company's senior team, Eckoh has recently appointed a new Senior Executive Vice President to head up all US sales and the Group remains well placed for further progress in the new financial year as it continues to address the significant market demand.

In the UK, Eckoh continues to demonstrate its market leading position with a range of new clients and contract renewals signed in the period. This includes a new contract to provide secure payment services to Thames Water, the UK's largest water and wastewater services provider, and a new five-year contract with one of the Group's largest existing customers, Ideal Shopping Direct, a leading multi-channel home shopping retailer in the UK and US.

Since the launch of Eckoh's tokenisation payments solution in May last year a number of contracts have already been secured, and the recently awarded UK patent for the solution, alongside the increasing interest in data security, will further underpin the strong sales pipeline in the new financial year and beyond.

Eckoh's balance sheet remains robust, supporting the Company's ongoing growth ambitions, both organic and via complementary acquisitions. The Board looks forward to providing a further update at the time of full year results, which will be announced on 14 June 2016.

Nik Philpot, CEO of Eckoh, commented, "This has been another great year of progress for Eckoh. We have consolidated our US presence growing both organically and through our PSS acquisition and we expect significant future growth to come from the US market. Meanwhile in the UK it has been another strong performance with a raft of new client wins, the retention of our largest clients and the recent patent grant for our next generation payment product. With interest growing globally for our solutions our sales pipeline is stronger than ever going into the new financial year and we are well placed for continued growth."

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About Eckoh plc

Eckoh is a global provider of secure payment products and customer contact solutions, supporting an international client base from its offices in the UK, US and Australia.

Our Haloh Suite of secure payments products, which can be hosted in the Cloud or deployed on the client's site, removes sensitive personal and payment data from contact centres and IT environments. The products offer merchants a simple and effective way to reduce the risk of fraud, secure sensitive data and become compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards ("PCI DSS") and wider data security regulations. Eckoh has been a PCI DSS Level One accredited Service Provider since 2010, processing over $1 billion in card payments annually. 

Eckoh's customer contact solutions enable enquiries and transactions to be performed on whatever device the customer chooses, allowing organisations to increase efficiency, lower operational costs and provide a true omni-channel experience. We also assist organisations in transforming the way that they engage with their customers by providing support and transition services as they implement our innovative customer contact solutions.

Our large portfolio of clients come from a broad range of vertical markets and includes government departments, telecoms providers, retailers, utility providers and financial services organisations.

For more information go to www.eckoh.com