Imagination Technologies Group Regulatory News (IMG)

25 Jul 2007 07:00

Imagination Technologies Group PLC25 July 2007 25 July 2007 Imagination Technologies Group plc Interim Management Statement Imagination Technologies Group plc ('Imagination', LSE: IMG), a leading providerof System-on-Chip (SoC) Intellectual Property (IP) is today issuing its firstInterim Management Statement for the period from 1 April 2007 to 24 July 2007.The Group's AGM is also being held today. Imagination continues to make good progress in both its Technology business andin its PURE Digital business. Following on from the strong progress in licensing revenue last year, interestin our products in the Technology business continues to be strong. This isdespite expectations of overall growth in the semiconductor market remainingmodest in the short-term. This high-level of interest is driven by the directrelevance and competitiveness of our technologies in the key established andemerging markets. This position is further underpinned by the growing demand forour IP resulting from silicon integration trends and the need for our partnersto deliver fully integrated devices with increased functionality. We are seeingstrong demand for our broadening base of technologies across an increasingnumber of semiconductor companies, including tier-one, medium-sized and start-upcompanies. The strengthening of our global sales organisation in recent years isalso enabling wider customer engagements. The nature of our licensing arrangements with key semiconductor partners isincreasingly becoming strategic and in addition we are now also seeingengagements with key systems companies who are directly designing silicondevices using our technology into their end-user products. The applications for our technologies are continuing to progress across ourtarget market sectors, as demonstrated by the recent licensing agreement withthe global semiconductor company NEC Electronics Corporation for our PowerVRdisplay technologies in the AV market. Whilst we have not yet received formal volume and royalty statements from ourlicensing partners for the first quarter of the current financial year, therecent launch of high profile handsets from major manufacturers, such as theNokia N95, Motorola MOTORIZR Z8, and other established or new suppliers, givesus confidence that we should see continued growth in chip volume and royaltyrevenue in this market sector. Demand is being driven by the increasingrequirement in such devices for the capabilities that our graphics and videotechnologies enable, such as improved user interfaces, internet content support(e.g. Adobe Flash) gaming, video-playback and map/navigation handling. Acrossthe year, we also expect this to be complemented by on-going progress in volumegrowth in our other existing market segments such as digital radio/audio andautomotive markets where we have leading positions, as well as further progressin emerging segments such as mobile TV, digital TV, Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) andMobile Internet Device (MID) markets. PURE Digital has continued to grow its market share in the digital radio marketand remains the number one radio supplier in the UK. As we progress through thecurrent year, PURE Digital will continue to strengthen its offering in existingareas and also release a more diversified range of products targeting othersegments. In this respect, in addition to seeing upgraded models with increasedfunctionality and an environmentally-friendly capability, branded EcoPlus, incurrent market segments, PURE Digital will release digital radios for theautomotive market and also next-generation products that offer Internet radioand connectivity. We believe the latter will, in due course, provide PURE withseveral new market opportunities, not only from a geographic perspective butalso in terms of business model. The move for countries to follow the UK's leadin switching from analogue to digital radio is progressing with severalcountries deciding to utilise the new DAB+ standard. We expect PURE to play astrong role in these markets as they emerge. The performance of the PURE business is heavily dependent on the Christmasperiod and plans are well advanced from a development, procurement and productranging perspective for strong growth from PURE for this important period. Whilst it is still early in the year, we remain confident that all aspects ofour business should continue their momentum and progress and that the businesswill perform in line with our expectations. ENQUIRIES: Imagination Technologies Group plc Tel: 01923 260 511Hossein Yassaie, CEOTrevor Selby, CFO College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020Adrian Duffield/Ben Way This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange