Gb Group Regulatory News (GBG)

19 Jul 2007 12:00

GB Group PLC19 July 2007 19 July 2007 GB Group PLC ("GB", "Group" or "the Company") AGM TRADING UPDATE AND FIRST QUARTER INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT At GB's Annual General Meeting held today, John Walker-Haworth, the Chairman,provided the following update on the Group's trading after the first quarter ofthe new financial year. Under the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency rules, GB Group Plcis required to publish Interim Management Statements ("IMS"). This update alsoserves as the first IMS of the Company for the period from 1 April 2007 to 19July 2007. Overview Group revenue to the end of June was £3.7m (2006: £3.1m), an increase of 19% onthe previous year. Cash balances at 30 June 2007 (pre-dividend) were £5.3million (March 2007: £5.2 million). The Group's overall trading performance for the first quarter was ahead of ourexpectations reflecting a good performance in GB's traditional business areas.Revenue performance in GB's DataAuthentication business, which provideselectronic identity verification solutions, was £1.3m, approximately 20% up onthe same period last year but broadly in line with the preceding quarter to 31March 2007. DataAuthentication GB's pipeline of major opportunities is encouraging and we expect to continue toclose a good proportion of these during the course of the year although, basedon current trends of longer sales lead times and the time taken to integrateDataAuthentication's solutions, this is likely to be at a slower rate thaninitially expected. In addition to growth from new clients, we expect our existing customers toincrease their volume of usage. For instance, in the UK, we expect that therecent announcement of O2 (a GB client) as the UK's exclusive distributor ofiPhone will have a positive impact on GB's volumes later in the year. DataIntegrity and DataSolutions Revenue performance in DataIntegrity and DataSolutions in the first quarter isahead of the same period last year despite operating in challenging andcompetitive markets. The improved performance includes a substantial contractwith Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs, the success of which was due to theGroup's strategy to develop and introduce web-based solutions that providereal-time availability of data. Outlook We are pleased to end the first quarter ahead of our expectations at a Grouplevel and with a robust balance sheet and resources to continue to grow ourbusiness. The rate of growth for the Group is dependent on growth in ourDataAuthentication business which, in turn, is expected to be weighedsignificantly towards the second half of the year. Accordingly, we need toremain cautious about the full year outcome in the light of our first quarterexperience and pending further evidence of the market shift away from existingpaper based methods to electronic methods of identity verification. - Ends - For further information, please contact: GB Group plc Richard Law, Chief Executive 01244 657333 Mona Navin-Mealey, Finance Director Weber Shandwick Financial 020 7067 0700 Richard Hews Hannah Marwood Website www.gb.co.uk Notes to Editors About GB Group plc GB Group plc provides a range of products and services to enable organisationsto capitalise on their greatest asset - their customers. GB has expertise acrossa range of sectors and is able to transform customer data into valuableinformation, enabling clients to truly fulfil the strategic objective of "knowyour customer" and in doing so make better, more informed decisions. We are constantly improving our products and services by applying our corevalues of Innovation, Quality and Excellence. This has been demonstrated overthe course of the last year by the launch of ID3-Check (TM), GB's internationalidentity verification service and by the launch in January 2007 by DataIntegrityof online services which replace the periodic supply of data on disk to the realtime availability of data via a web-based delivery solution. Know Your Customer ("KYC") Many people will be aware that there is a regulatory requirement in theFinancial Services sector for organisations to "Know Your Customer". We believethat knowing your customer is fundamental to all businesses, not just those infinancial services, and GB has three complimentary offerings enabling ourclients to achieve that. These are • DataAuthentication helps businesses validate personal identity information and provides anti-fraud solutions to fight crime. • DataIntegrity helps companies capture and maintain accurate customer contact data, an essential foundation for any profitable customer relationship. • DataSolutions empowers companies to consolidate and analyse customer data from various sources, enabling them to make better, more informed decisions. Established since 1989, GB's core competencies combined with industry sectorknowledge have enabled the company to deliver significant value to organisationssuch as DSG International, Scottish Power and Lloyds TSB in helping them derivemaximum value from their customer relationships and sustain real advantage overtheir competition. GB Group is supported by its key relationships with major organisations withwhom it works on major initiatives (an example being British Telecom), togetherwith a team of highly talented and motivated staff successfully deliveringbusiness solutions. GB Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (www.gb.co.uk). DataAuthentication, GB's fastest growing business area, specializes inelectronic ID verification through its URU (TM) and ID3-Check (TM) services. About URU (TM) URU is an online identity verification service which was developed jointly withBT and is DataAuthentication's principle offering. URU, which is powered by GB'sID3(TM)search engine and decision making technology, provides access to GB'scomprehensive range of identity data and BT's high capacity web delivery. Ithelps organisations to protect themselves from the growing problem of identitytheft and fraud, which is estimated to cost the UK economy over £1.7 billion perannum. URU enables companies subscribing to the service to make an instantdecision whether to accept the identity claimed by any given individual andconfirm their age in seconds. URU works by cross checking personal information provided by an individual atthe point of acquisition against a comprehensive range of datasources to confirmthat an individual is who they claim to be, live where they claim to live andmeet certain minimum legal age requirements. No personal data is disclosed by the reference databases and as a result URU iscompliant with the Data Protection Act. URU also provides a valuable audit trail demonstrating that the necessary checkshave taken place, thereby helping companies comply with legislation, includingthe 2nd European Money Laundering Directive, Proceeds of Crime Act and MinimumLegal Age requirements of certain industry sectors. The addition of data from CallCredit also enables users of URU to incorporatecredit reference data. As a result of legislation, new opportunities and social responsibilityrequirements, the market for online ID verification is significant and growing.Although an estimated 0.5 billion manual ID checks are conducted annually in theUK, less than 6%* of these are currently performed electronically.(* figures as at November 2006) URU has demonstrated that online checks are more effective, less expensive andmore robust. The market is moving towards online checks as fraudulent documents become evermore sophisticated, more readily available and more difficult to check manually.It is estimated that by 2010, the market for online ID checks could be 0.3billion checks per annum. GB works closely with trade and industry associations, such as the Finance andLeasing Association, the Remote Gambling Association and the FinancialTechnology Research Centre, to advise businesses that more robust processes canprevent financial crime. We have worked closely with the Gaming Industry toaddress social issues such as underage gambling and addiction and our SocialResponsibility Consultancy helps Gaming operators formulate best practice tocomply with regulatory requirements and improve profitability. About ID3-Check (TM) ID3-Check is an international online identity verification service developed byGB's DataAuthentication business. It is a hybrid international version of thetechnology underpinning URU, GB's joint project with BT which is now the UK'sleading online age and identity verification service. The service helps organisations to protect themselves from the growing globalproblem of identity theft and fraud. ID3-Check enables organisations subscribingto the service to make an instant decision whether to accept the identityclaimed by an individual and confirm their age in seconds. ID3-Check can confirmthe age and identity of some 800 million individuals in 25 countries includingAustralia, Canada, the USA and most Western European countries. ID3-Check works by cross checking personal information provided by an individualat the point of acquisition against a comprehensive range of data sources toconfirm that an individual is who they claim to be, live where they claim tolive and meet certain minimum legal age requirements. No personal data is disclosed by the reference databases and as a resultID3-Check is compliant with Data Protection laws. ID3-Check also provides a valuable audit trail demonstrating that the necessarychecks have taken place, thereby helping companies comply with internationallegislation, As a result of legislation, new opportunities and socialresponsibility requirements, the market for online ID verification acrossborders is significant and growing. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange