Wilmington Regulatory News (WIL)

20 Jul 2007 07:00

Wilmington Group Plc20 July 2007 20 July 2007 WILMINGTON GROUP PLC PRE-CLOSE PERIOD STATEMENT Wilmington Group plc ("Wilmington" or the "Group"), the professional informationand training group, today issues its pre-close period statement in respect ofthe year to 30 June 2007. Trading performance for the year to 30 June 2007 is anticipated to be in linewith the Board's expectations and, boosted by acquisitions, significantly aheadof the year to 30 June 2006. This reflects the continued success of our strategyof focussing on selected professional business markets where we can develop arange of complementary information and training activities. We anticipate that strong growth in both turnover and profits will come from allour core divisions where excellent progress has been made. The information andpublishing activities have continued to benefit from the growth in e-revenuesand are expected to produce excellent levels of profitability. Our trainingbusinesses are expected to have generated profits at the higher end of theBoard's expectations with strong performances from all major business areas. We announced on 6 June 2007 that the Board had conducted a strategic review ofthe business and concluded that Wilmington should focus on its core ProfessionalMarkets business and dispose of non core activities. The Board has been pleasedwith the initial level of interest it has received from prospective buyers andlooks forward to the successful conclusion of the sale process. As a part ofthis process Wilmington sold WDIS, its circulation management business, in May2007. The performance of these non-core businesses are required to be shown asdiscontinued in the results for the year ended 30 June 2007. Elsewhere in the Group the process of investing in the launch of new productsand the ongoing development of new initiatives continues. We continue to pursueour strategy of concentrating on our core professional markets and developingclusters of complementary activities within these markets. The Board is pleased to announce that International Compliance Training, abusiness within its CLT Group (Legal & Regulatory division), has been asked toassist in developing a significant range of training and assessment programmesfor the International Compliance Association (ICA) in Singapore. ICA has beenappointed by the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) together with theMonetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore Workforce DevelopmentAgency (WDA), as the Lead Provider of Financial Industry Competency Standardsaccredited training and assessment programmes in the field of compliance. TheCLT Group will significantly increase its investment in compliance programmes toassist the ICA. We anticipate that this investment will show positive returns inthe year ending 30 June 2009 and beyond. Outlook The Board is encouraged by Wilmington's good performance in 2007 and isconfident that its strategy of focusing on key professional business marketswill result in further progress this financial year. Given the continued strength of the Group's balance sheet reflecting the strongcash flows of the Company, the Board has assessed the capital required tosupport the ongoing plans for profitable growth and its ordinary dividendpayments, and has decided that it will buy back initially up to GBP5m of itsordinary shares by market value in the coming months. It is intended that theshare buy-back programme will start on 23 July 2007 and involve a rolling sharebuy-back programme within the limits approved by shareholders at the Company'sAnnual General Meeting on 15 November 2006. It is intended that any sharespurchased will be transferred into treasury. Wilmington expects to announce its preliminary results for the year ended 30June 2007 in mid September 2007. - Ends - For further information, please contact: Wilmington Group PLC 0207 422 6800Charles Brady, Chief ExecutiveBasil Brookes, Finance Director Weber Shandwick Financial 0207 067 0700Nick Oborne Notes to EditorsWilmington Group plc is one of the UK's leading providers of information andtraining for professional business markets. The Group provides training,arranges industry events and publishes magazines, directories, databases andspecial reports focused primarily on its three principal sectors of Legal &Regulatory, Healthcare and Media & Entertainment. Capitalised at approximately£190 million, Wilmington floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange