Inspirit Energy Regulatory News (INSP)

18 May 2006 11:00

Inspace Plc18 May 2006 Press Release 18 May 2006 Inspace plc ("Inspace" or "the Company") Result of AGM Inspace plc (AIM:INSP), the property based support services business that hasestablished itself as one of the UK's leading repair and maintenance serviceproviders, confirms that all the resolutions put to shareholders at theCompany's Annual General Meeting held today were duly passed. At the meeting,Executive Chairman, Colin Enticknap, made the following statement: "2005 was a good year for Inspace. We became established as a credible,stand-alone business; we successfully floated on AiM; we delivered recordresults ahead of consensus forecasts; and we grew our order book by over 60% toreach £450 million. But having said all this, we are certainly not complacent.We have ambitious plans for the future, and we recognise that there is stillmuch to be done if we are to meet our aspirations. "Our main challenge will be to secure the balance of our workload need for 2006,and create a solid platform for continued growth into 2007. We continue to seesocial housing as the main driver of that growth. Last year we doubled thescale of our social housing branch infrastructure providing a bespoke service tolocal authority and registered social landlord customers, which reinforced ourposition as one of the leading specialist providers to the sector. We intend tocapitalise on this position in what we expect to remain a substantial and robustmarket for the foreseeable future. "Alongside a growing core of well performing repair and maintenance contracts,where we have already developed an enviable track record, we now aim to becomeequally adept at securing and delivering substantial capital programmes. In theshort term, the Decent Homes initiative is likely to receive a significantproportion of that capital investment, but there are early signs that we may seea subtle shift in Government policy, with longer term investment favouring moreradical estate regeneration initiatives, capable of delivering integratedcommunities as well as improved housing stock. If so, we may see the largerregistered social landlords becoming increasingly important alongside ourtraditional local authority customer base. "In non-housing terms, the realignment programme launched late last year willcontinue to take priority. With structures and systems being realigned, and newsupporting technology being developed, we expect this investment to realiseefficiency improvements as we move into 2007. In parallel, we expect to see aprogressive increase in the proportion of non-housing workload undertaken forpublic sector customers, as we start to convert opportunities from our growingsales pipeline into secured orders. "Whilst this planned shift in weighting towards the public sector bringsincreased visibility, it also brings increased sensitivity to the seasonality inpublic sector spending patterns, where we typically see a degree of caution inspending during the final January to March quarter of the local authority cycle. We have therefore modified our profit flow model, for 2006 and also forsubsequent years, to show our first half years delivering between 35% and 40% offull year aspirations. "We remain on track to meet consensus 2006 forecasts. We are determined tobuild a portfolio of quality work, capable of delivering realistic andsustainable levels of margin; our pipeline remains healthy; we are attuned toour market; we are flexible to respond to changing patterns; and we look forwardto announcing important successes as we move through the year." - Ends - For further information:Inspace plcColin Enticknap, Executive Chairman Tel: +44 (0) 1462 678 910colin.enticknap@inspace.co.uk www.inspace.co.uk Seymour PierceMark Percy, Corporate Finance Tel: +44 (0) 20 7107 8000markpercy@seymourpierce.com www.seymourpierce.com Media enquiries:AbchurchHenry Harrison-Topham Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700henry.ht@abchurch-group.com www.abchurch-group.com Notes to editors Inspace plc is a property based support services business that has establisheditself as one of the UK's leading social housing repair and maintenance serviceproviders. For the year ended 31 December 2005, it recorded turnover of £147.5million and its order book stood at £450 million stretching as far as 2020. The Company has three complementary areas of activity: Partnerships provides repair, maintenance and improvement of social housingstock which includes maintenance of building fabric, maintenance of engineeringservices reinstatement of void homes, minor capital projects and Decent Homesimprovement works under regeneration schemes. Maintain provides repair, maintenance and improvement of public and corporatesector non-housing real estate. Maintain is one of the UK's largest fabricmaintenance businesses delivering an integrated 24/7 reactive service andplanned maintenance & minor capital works with a national infrastructure acrossEngland, Scotland and Wales. Maintain also offers mechanical and electricalmaintenance capable of stand alone or integrated service delivery to suitcustomer requirements. Complete provides interior design, installation and furnishing of corporate andpublic sector non-housing real estate. The design led service offers itscustomers an integrated 'one stop' solution. There are natural synergies withMaintain's customer base. Industry forecasts show a steady social housing repair and maintenance marketover the next 15 years, running at around £4 billion per annum. These forecastsillustrate the constant need for repairing and improving housing stock. Theprivate non-residential repair and maintenance market was indicated to be worthapproximately £14 billion in 2004, representing approximately 32.1 per cent ofthe total UK repair and maintenance market. Further information on Inspace can be found at www.inspace.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange