Ncc Regulatory News (NCC)

18 Apr 2008 07:00

NCC Group PLC18 April 2008 18 April 2008 NCC Group plc Interim Management Statement NCC Group plc (LSE: NCC or "the Group"), the international, independent providerof Escrow Solutions, Assurance Testing and Consultancy, is today publishing aninterim management statement covering the period from 1 December 2007 to 17April 2008. The Group's overall trading performance continues to be in line with the Board'sexpectations and its integration of Escrow Europe, the Netherlands-basedEuropean Escrow Solutions provider acquired in January 2008, is progressingwell. All divisions have continued to see good growth and Group revenues grew by 42%for the period, which represents an increase of 17% on a like for like basis,excluding the recently acquired businesses. Group Escrow Solutions renewals are now forecast to be £11.1m for this financialyear (November 2007: £10.6m) including Escrow Europe. Group termination ratescontinue to be below 10% for contracts and beneficiaries. UK Escrow Solutions has continued to grow, especially in Escrow VerificationTesting. During the period the UK Escrow Sales team has undergone a significantreorganisation, the benefits of which will be seen in the final period of thecurrent financial year and thereafter. Globally the Group now has in excess of 25,000 beneficiaries to Escrowagreements. There are now 14,892 beneficiaries to the UK agreements, excludingminimum annual fees, (November 2007: 14,400). Total Escrow Verification Testingorders are currently £2.0m of which £1.6m is in the UK (November 2007: £1.5m). The Assurance Testing division has seen continued good sales growth with strongorders and renewals for the businesses. Ethical Security Testing has an orderbook of £3.6m (November 2007: £3.0m) as market demand continues to increase forhigh quality Ethical Security Testing. The Load and Performance Testing business monitoring renewals are more than£3.5m for the current financial year (November 2007: £3.5m) and the renewal rateremains greater than the planning assumption of 90%. The Consultancy division order book is very strong, especially for informationsecurity services and stands at £2.5m (November 2007: £2.0m). Group Share Options charges are likely to be £0.9m for the year ended 31 May2008 due to the correction of previous misinterpretation against an expectationof £0.6m. The Group will be included in the FTSE techMARK All Share Index at the earliestpossible opportunity. Overall the Group remains on course to deliver another year of strong growth forthe year ended 31 May 2008. The Group expects to publish its preliminaryresults for the year in early July. Enquiries: NCC Group (www.nccgroup.com)Rob Cotton, Chief Executive 0161 209 5432 College HillAdrian Duffield/Kate Norton 020 7457 2020 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange