Uk Oil & Gas Regulatory News (UKOG)

12 Oct 2005 07:00

Sarantel Group PLC12 October 2005 Embargoed until 7:00 12 October 2005 Sarantel Group PLC ("Sarantel") Year End Trading Update Sarantel, the leading manufacturer of revolutionary filtering antennas forwireless devices, today provides an update for its financial year ended 30September 2005. Full details of the preliminary results will be released on 30thNovember 2005. The Company is pleased to announce that it shipped 937,000 units in thefinancial year ended 30 September 2005 (2004: 170,000 units), up 451% year onyear. Turnover is expected to be not less than £2.8 million (2004: £0.8million), representing more than a three fold increase on the previous year andloss before tax will not exceed £5.6 million* (2004: £3.8 million). Cashbalances at the year end totalled £13.0 million. As stated previously, the Company aimed to ship at least 1 million units in theyear. This target was dependent upon the successful installation of newequipment in March to boost capacity, and as announced in April, thisinstallation was delayed by over three months by two key suppliers. It isimportant to note that demand remained strong and there were more thansufficient orders in place to exceed the Company's goal of 1 million units,which will be achieved by mid October. During the second half, Sarantel continued to identify new businessopportunities in its core GPS market and achieved new design wins with customersin Europe and Asia. Notably, the Company demonstrated its ability to diversifyits customer base and penetrate other high growth markets beyond GPS when itreceived the largest single order in its history for 300,000 units. This win wasfor a new and rapidly growing North American market. The Company expects toderive most of its revenues from the GPS market and this new market during 2006.Both of these markets are dynamic, early stage and rapidly growing and thereforedifficult to forecast in the near term. The Company intends to consolidate production processes on the generation ofproduction equipment now installed at Sarantel. In this financial year, capacitywill be increased by adding to this existing set of production equipment. Thismeasured approach will enable the Company to improve productivity and ensurethat it can develop a scaleable platform for the future. The Company istargeting year on year revenue growth in the 2006 financial year in excess ofthat achieved in 2005. *including a one-off charge of £0.3 million for additional depreciation arisingon a change in the estimated useful life of certain categories of fixed assets. David Wither, Chief Executive Officer said: "The Company has made enormous progress during the past year and the entire teamis working very hard to build a solid foundation for future growth. Demand inour core GPS market remains robust and we expect strong growth to continue as weenter a new and rapidly growing market in North America during this financialyear. I am confident that we are well on track to successfully execute the longterm strategy for the Company." For further information please contact: Sarantel Group PLC www.sarantel.comDavid Wither, CEO/Sitkow Yeung, CFO 01933 670560Smithfield 020 7360 4900Sara Musgrave Pictures are available for the media to view and download from www.vismedia.co.uk About Sarantel Sarantel designs, manufactures and sells patented, ceramic, filtering antennasfor use in portable wireless devices such as PDAs, laptops and 3G mobiledevices. Its current focus is on producing antennas for the GPS market, whichallow a clearer signal than conventional antennas whilst reducing the amount ofenergy absorbed by the head by approximately 90 per cent. The antennas simplifysystem design, thus allowing design standardisation and reduced time to marketand cost for manufacturers. As well as GPS, Sarantel's antennas are designed to service Wi-Fi, 3G andBluetooth platforms that are expected to be a key element in the future successof mobile network operators and device manufacturers. Sarantel's antennas cansignificantly increase the range and effective bandwidth of Wi-Fi devices andSarantel is planning to commence high volume delivery of its antennas into thesatellite radio market within the next 12 months. Sarantel listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange, on 2ndMarch 2005 at an issue price of 82p. Sarantel is included in the IT Hardwaresector (93) within the Telecommunications equipment sub-sector (938) and has aRIC code of SLG.L This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange