Idox Group Regulatory News (IDOX)

29 May 2013

Idox plc

Trading Update

Idox plc (AIM: IDOX, 'Idox' or the 'Company'), a leading independent supplier of software and services to the UK public sector and global engineering information markets, announces a trading update for the six months to 30 April 2013.

The Company is encouraged by the underlying progress made in all of its businesses during the first half and continues to be excited by the multiple growth opportunities available to it. However, in light of a slower than expected first half of the year, the Board now thinks it is prudent to anticipate full year EBITDA is likely to be no less than £18 million, which reflects uncertainty of timing as to when those opportunities will crystallise.

The UK Public Sector business has continued to increase its market share in its core markets, with the sale of 50 new systems in the financial year to date. We continue to promote and have been successful in growing our version of managed and hosted services while partnering with local government to deliver cost savings and improved services. We have completed contracts with the smallest unitary council, the Isles of Scilly and larger councils, such as, Hart District Council, Canterbury City Council, Sandwell MBC and North East Lincolnshire. These contracts are worth a total of £1.6m over the next five years.

The Company has been awarded a further local government reorganisation contract in Durham, replacing 18 competitor systems and has been appointed the sole solutions provider for Planning and Building Control at Rossendale Borough and Sefton Metropolitan Borough Councils.

The division is now starting to bid for contracts outside the UK in all its areas of expertise and has recently been awarded a framework agreement by the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government for an election contract.

Within the Engineering Information Management (EIM) division, the enterprise sales pipeline for the business has grown significantly since the start of the financial year; however closed order values are lower than in the first half last year, which included two large enterprise deals. The division has seen growing interest in its off premise McLaren OnAir offering and SaaS based solutions. Recurring revenues in the division have increased by 18% to 58%. In the first half McLaren launched its virtual Business Process Outsourcing offering for document control. This has attracted strong interest and our first contract, worth £0.4m for the first 12 months has been signed in May. The division has continued to expand its global sales coverage and is on track to deliver multilingual and global 365-day support for its enterprise solutions.

Whilst the Information Solutions business has seen slower than expected growth, due to reductions in Dutch grant rates and UK Government spending, it has maintained content subscription revenues, forged new partnerships and expanded its geographical coverage across the Netherlands during the period.

The acquisitions made in recent months have been fully integrated into the business and are on plan to deliver against their acquisition cases.

The Group expects to announce interim results for the 6 months to 30 April 2013 on 25 June 2013.

Richard Kellett-Clarke, CEO of Idox said:

"Across all material parts of the business we have built a stronger and more diversified pipeline and we continue to move forward with new innovations and improvements to services. Whilst the first half performance is disappointing and has been impacted by delays in new Engineering Information Management licence sales in particular, we believe we remain very well positioned."

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About Idox plc 

Idox plc is a supplier of specialist document management collaboration solutions and services to the UK public sector and increasingly to highly regulated asset intensive industries around the world in the wider corporate sector.

Its Public Sector Software Division is the leading applications provider to UK local government for core functions relating to land, people and property, such as its market leading planning systems and election management software. Over 90% of UK local authorities are now customers. The Group provides public sector organisations with tools to manage information and knowledge, documents, content, business processes and workflow as well as connecting directly with the citizen via the web.

The Engineering Information Management Division delivers engineering document control, project collaboration and facility management applications to many leading companies in industries such as oil & gas, architecture and construction, mining, utilities, pharmaceuticals and transportation around the world.

Through the Information Solutions Division Idox also supplies, predominantly to the public sector, decision support content such as grants and planning policy information as well as related specialist services. In addition the Group provides knowledge and content management skills to customers through its TFPL branded recruitment division.

The Group employs over 500 staff located in the UK, the USA, Europe, India and Australia.For more information see www.idoxplc.com