Last checked at 16 Jul 2009 07:00
16 July 2009
Tribal Group plc
Trading Update Statement
Tribal Group plc ("Tribal" or the "Group"), a leading provider of consultancy, support and delivery services to the public sector in the UK and internationally, provides the following
update on trading in advance of its half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2009, which will be announced on Tuesday 18 August 2009.
During the first half of the year, the Group has made progress across many areas of operation, including health, our inspections and children's services businesses and the development of our international activities. We have continued to see softer trading conditions in the regeneration and further education markets and, more recently, we have seen an increase in the competitive pressures in some of our consulting-related businesses. We have taken further action to reduce operating costs (at no extra cost to that previously estimated) and now expect to realise annualised cost savings of more than £6m.
As previously reported, the Group's financial performance this year will have a second half bias, reflecting the costs of the restructuring programme undertaken in the first half of the year, and the investment in new business initiatives which will help support future growth. We continue to expect our results for the full year to be in line with our expectations.
During the period, we have maintained a good level of contract wins and our committed income has increased substantially. New business activity remains good, particularly in education and health. Our international operations continue to develop and we are pleased to announce the recent signing of a £4m contract with the University of Sydney to supply student administration software; this will provide our education business with an important reference site in the Australasian market.
Operating cash conversion in the first half of the year has been strong and the Group is securely financed, with net debt at the end of June below £17m against total bank facilities of £46m, of which £40m are committed until June 2012.
Whilst we continue to see more challenging conditions in certain of our UK markets, we remain well-positioned to support public sector reform and the change that will be required in a tighter fiscal environment.
End
For further information, please contact:
Tribal Group plc Tel: 020 7323 7100
Peter Martin, Chief Executive
Simon Lawton, Group Finance Director
Weber Shandwick Tel: 020 7067 0721
Nick Oborne, Stephanie Badjonat, James White
Editors' note:
Tribal provides a range of consultancy, support and delivery services focused on improving the delivery of public services in the UK and internationally. Our core markets are in education, health, housing and regeneration, central government and local government. Tribal employs over 2,300 staff and its shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange (TRB).
Links: Tribal Group plc website: www.tribalgroup.co.uk
This Statement has been prepared for and is addressed only to our shareholders as a whole and should not be relied on by any other party or for any other purpose. Tribal, its directors, employees, agents or advisers do not accept or assume responsibility to any other person to whom this Statement is shown or into whose hands it may come and any such responsibility or liability is expressly disclaimed. This Statement may contain forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement has been made by the directors in good faith based on the information available to them up to the time of approval of this Statement and should be treated with caution due to the inherent uncertainties, including both economic and business risk factors, underlying such forward-looking information. To the extent that this Statement contains any statement dealing with any time after the date of its preparation, such statement is merely predictive and speculative as it relates to events and circumstances which are yet to occur and therefore the facts stated and views expressed may change. Tribal undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.