UK Oil & Gas Regulatory News (UKOG)

5 Oct 2006 07:01

Sarantel Group PLC05 October 2006 Embargoed until 7am 05 October 2006 Sarantel Group PLC ('Sarantel') Year End Trading Update Sarantel, the leading manufacturer and supplier of filtering antennas forwireless devices, today provides a trading update for its financial year ended30 September 2006. Full details of the Preliminary results will be announced onTuesday 28 November 2006. Revenues for the full year are expected to be not less than £4m (2005: £2.8m),an increase of 43% over the previous year. As announced on 20 July 2006, demandfor Sarantel's satellite radio antennas has been below previous expectations,adversely impacting revenue. However, as also previously stated, Sarantel has received initial productionorders for its new GPS antenna from two major electronic companies. We aredelighted to announce that Hewlett Packard (HP) is one of those electroniccompanies, having selected Sarantel's GPS antenna for their recently launchediPAQ rx5000 Travel Companion series. This is a significant win for Sarantel andclearly demonstrates how its antenna technology can provide unrivalledperformance, which enables its customers to develop clearly differentiated handportable products. As of 30 September 2006 the company had cash balances of £5m of which £1.3m iscommitted to secure asset financing obligations. On 20 July 2006 the companyannounced that it was reviewing its cost base. As a result, the company isrestructuring the organization to bring costs in line with the current level ofdemand. A consultation process to reduce staffing levels has begun and theprocess will be completed by the end of November. A further update will be givenin due course. These measures, together with the successful completion of the capacityexpansion programme, will significantly reduce Sarantel's monthly cashutilisation rate in 2007. For further information please contact: Sarantel Group PLC 01933 670560Geoff Shingles, Chairman / David Wither, CEO www.sarantel.com Ambrian Partners 020 7776 6410Tim Goodman Smithfield 020 7360 4900Sara Musgrave/Tania Wild Notes to Editors About Sarantel: Sarantel designs, manufactures and sells patented, ceramic, filtering antennasfor use in portable wireless devices. These antennas allow a clearer signal thanconventional antennas whilst reducing the amount of energy absorbed by the bodyby approximately 90 per cent. They also simplify system design, thus allowingdesign standardisation and reduced time to market and cost for manufacturers.Sarantel's antennas significantly improve the performance of wireless systems byincreasing their range and effective bandwidth. The company supplies antennas to the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) marketand the North American satellite radio market and Sarantel's antennas have beensuccessfully designed into Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), laptops andPersonal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Sarantel's antenna technology is alsocapable of servicing multiple high volume markets such as wi-fi, 3G andBluetooth. Sarantel listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange, on 2ndMarch 2005 and is included in the IT Hardware sector (93) within theTelecommunications equipment sub-sector (938) and has a RIC code of SLG.L This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange