Ithaca Energy Regulatory News (ITH)

24 Sep 2008 14:00

The following statement will be read by Sir Trevor Chinn, Chairman of ITIS Holdings plc ("ITIS" or the "Company"), at the AGM to be held at the offices of ITIS, Station House, Stamford New Road, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 1EP at 2.00pm today, 24th September 2008. 

"Trading in the UK in the first half of our financial year has been difficult as a result of high fuel prices leading to less traffic congestion and the impact on our RDS-TMC revenues of the rapid decline of car sales since June. It has also proved challenging to replace the revenues from the two contract losses announced last year. 

We have reduced costs at Trafficlink and believe that the consolidation in the radio industry will further strengthen our performance in that market. We remain confident that we can build on a very successful operation to continue to enhance the quality of our traffic information and our product offerings. 

Our international business continues to develop at a fast pace and we have made significant investments in people and operations to enable us to capitalise on the demand for our services. Operations in Asia have been progressing well, particularly in China and Singapore. We have begun to deploy our technology in Ireland, South Africa and Australia. We continue to receive regular enquiries from all over the world and are at various stages of positive negotiation in a number of countries. We are confident we will start to see the benefits of this investment next year.

The Company remains cash positive with a strong balance sheet enabling us to continue our planned investment programme in order to maintain our clear market leadership position, providing our customers with high quality and innovative traffic information. Whilst the cyclical downturn has led to challenging market conditions in the UK, we remain excited about the significant market potential around the world for traffic information, especially in some of the fast developing countries where we already have a presence."