Webis Regulatory News (WEB)

18 Dec 2007 09:55

Webis Holdings PLC18 December 2007 Webis Holdings plc (formerly betinternet.com plc) Trading Update and Additional Funding The board of Webis Holdings plc ("the Company"), the global on-line gaminggroup, is pleased to announce that the Company's trading for the first sixmonths of its financial year was in line with expectations, with a profit beingachieved at an operational level. Within the last six weeks, the Company has seen a return to previous levels ofturnover and revenue within its pari-mutuel business, European WageringServices, and we now anticipate good levels of growth in the remainder of thefinancial year. We have now established multiple solutions for both deposit andwithdrawals and these solutions are meeting the expectations of our globalcustomer base. The sportsbook business has benefited from the software release that wasintroduced in October, which included enhancements to our horse racing product.In addition, the opportunity to include Asian Handicaps in multiple bets hasbeen well received by our customers and this has led to a significant increasein the overall turnover on higher margin multiple bets. All of our sportsbook prices are now being actively marketed through one of themain odds-comparison websites and we plan further promotional activity relatedto our horse racing product in the new calendar year. The revenue from the casino and fixed-odds games products continues to grow andaccounted for 60% of the sportsbook's total revenue in the period. The Company's overheads have also been further reduced by approximately 5% as wecontinue to add more efficient processes in all areas of operation, without anyimpact on our customers' experience. We expect these reductions to continue inthe second half of the financial year. In relation to the Company's investment in Global Coresports, the board has beenreviewing this situation closely and is now of the view that, in the absence offurther funding, Global Coresports has insufficient funds to continue to trade.Accordingly, our investment has been fully written down which will result in anexceptional charge of £314,000 in our interim results for the period to 25November 2007. Both the sportsbook and pari-mutuel businesses are operating at full strengthand the board anticipates a stronger second half performance. The board is also pleased to announce that it has secured an additional £425,000of funding from its majority shareholder, Burnbrae Ltd, subject to approval bythe relevant regulatory authorities. These funds will be used for workingcapital, further website development and marketing. For further information: Webis Holdings plcGarry Knowles, Managing Director Telephone: 01624 698141 Evolution Securities PlcJoanne Lake Telephone: 0113 243 1619 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange