Earthport Regulatory News (EPO)

17 Jan 2008 07:00

Earthport PLC17 January 2008 17th January 2008 Earthport plc ("Earthport" or the "Company") 1st Half Trading Update for Fiscal 2008 Earthport, (EPO.L) the specialist electronics payment company, is pleased toannounce the 1st Half Trading Update (from 1 July 2007- 31December 2007) for thefiscal year ending 30 June 2008 (the"Period"). In the Period, the Company achieved unaudited revenue of £1.1m, an increase of173% compared with £403,000 for the same period last year and an increase of 57%compared with £700,000 for the 2nd Half of the fiscal year ending 30 June 2007.Transactions have increased month on month during the Period. Earthport's major objective during the second half of this year is to capitaliseon the opportunities, which began at Sibos 2007 as well as through other keyintroductions and are now part of a substantial pipeline. The Company isactively progressing these opportunities towards closure. This is not the onlyarea of development for Earthport and negotiations are progressing with othermajor business opportunities. These activities are in line with Earthport'soverall strategy of increasing its revenue from international bank transfers andForeign Exchange transactions. Several new clients have been signed during the Period, predominately from theMulti Level Marketing (MLM), Remittance and Leisure sectors. In additionexisting clients have advised Earthport that they will be increasing their levelof business, both by enlarging the number of territories and by the addition offurther functionality. The figures quoted above do not include revenue fromthese increases or from any new clients, which have been signed during theperiod. Mike Harrison, Executive Chairman commented, "The figures quoted above areobviously encouraging. The Company is expanding its banking coverage in responseto increased customer demand as well as concentrating on costs and continuallydeveloping our product. The Outlook section of the recently released 2007 Reportand Financial Statements stated "The follow through from the inclusion on theIBM stand at Sibos 2007, is particularly encouraging and several major projectsare being actively pursued, each with the distinct possibility of leading totransformational change." We believe that these activities are on track to reacha successful conclusion." James Bergman, Executive Director of Sales and Marketing, stated, "We aresatisfied that existing and new signed customers will ensure that we reachprofitability. However, as stated above, our major objective during the secondhalf of this year is for us to close the available opportunities in thesubstantial pipeline, which has been established in the internationalbank-2-bank transfer market. We are encouraged by the interest in Earthport frommajor international financial institutions." -End- Earthport plc Mike Harrison, Executive Chairman +44 (0)20 7220 9700 James Bergman, Executive Director of Sales and +44 (0)20 7220 9700Marketing Dawnay, Day Corporate Finance Nick Lovering +44 (0)20 7509 4570 Dawnay, Day Corporate Broking Adam Pollock +44 (0)20 7630 4100 Financial Dynamics Jonathon Brill / Annie Evangeli +44 (0)20 7831 3113 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange