SDL.L Regulatory News (SDL)

SDL plc

Year end Trading Update

Maidenhead, U.K. - Tuesday 21 January 2014: SDL plc ("SDL" or "the Company": LSE: SDL), a leader in Customer Experience Management solutions, today announces expected revenues and profits for the year ended 31 December 2013.

Revenue is expected to be in a range of £265.8m to £266.3m (2012: £269.3m) compared with consensus expectations of £262.1m. Profits before taxation and amortisation of intangible assets, one-off costs relating to historic Trados litigation and restructuring costs ("PBTA") for the period are expected to be in the range of £8m to £8.3m (2012: £37m), compared with consensus expectations of £7.3m. Net debt in the business at the end of the period was £2m (2012: net cash of £6.3m). Operating cash flow was very robust, however capital expenditure and tax and dividend payments resulted in cash outflow for the year.

To enable SDL to deliver long term profitability and growth, the Company has gone through significant re-structuring to provide better customer, product and cost alignment. A number of key executive hires have been made and a new sales and marketing organisation has been created. This has resulted in both savings gained from restructuring coupled with investments in R&D, sales & marketing and infrastructure. Actions undertaken during 2013 to create SDL's aligned Customer Experience Management (CXM) strategy and restructuring include:

· Restructured from a divisional product focus to a single SDL Customer Experience focus, reducing cost and improving efficiency

· Key senior appointments made to help execute SDL's CXM vision

· Aligned sales structure to accelerate the sale of CXM solutions

· Marketing investments to raise awareness of the SDL brand and enhance CXM sales

· Significant continued investment in R&D to deliver fully integrated CXM product suite

· A remodelled Operations, Finance and HR infrastructure to streamline processes

SDL's product portfolio and new operational structure demonstrates its commitment to delivering better customer experience across all devices, geographies, channels and languages.

SDL expects to announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2013 on 18 March 2014 when further details will be provided.

Commenting on today's announcement, Mark Lancaster, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"2013 was focused on re-building SDL to allow us to deliver our CXM vision. We now have a high quality executive leadership team, strengthened our go to market sales and marketing approach, invested in systems and infrastructure to support our business goals and aligned costs with revenue potential. The result is a new infrastructure to accelerate delivery of our Customer Experience Management vision. We are confident that, following a year of significant change and investment, SDL is well positioned to drive growth and shareholder value in 2014 and beyond."

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