Wilmington Regulatory News (WIL)

9 Jul 2009 07:00



9 July 2009

Pre Close Period Statement

Wilmington Group plc ('Wilmington' or 'the Group') today announces its pre close trading update.

Trading Performance

Trading performance for the year to 30 June 2009 is expected to be in line with the Board's expectations at the time of the Interim Management Statement in May.

The Group's Professional Publishing and Information business is expected to have met the Board's expectations during the seasonally important quarter to 30 June 2009 and over the full year has proved largely resilient.

The Group's Professional Training and Events business has faced a very challenging trading environment, particularly in the legal and financial sectors. Whilst the underlying trading performance is significantly lower than the prior year, performance in the quarter to 30 June 2009 is expected to have shown some stability with the benefits of cost reduction initiatives taken earlier in the year beginning to come through.

Dividend

The Board intends to maintain the dividend for the full year at 7p per share.

Outlook

Many parts of the Group have produced robust trading performances and we are starting to see the benefit of cost savings and efficiencies resulting from earlier management initiatives. We indicated in May that we were continuing to monitor our structure and cost base to align them with the market conditions and to create the best platform to exploit market recovery. Since then we have been able to implement further measures to increase our operational efficiency. 

The Board expects that the challenging economic conditions which we have been experiencing will continue for at least the first half of the new financial year.

We have a strong balance sheet, low gearing and significant unutilised committed bank facilities until 2012. We remain focused on optimising short term performance in difficult economic conditions whilst seeking strategic acquisition opportunities to generate additional shareholder value. The Board believes the professional market sector will provide a good environment for medium and long term growth.

Accounting Policies

The Group's accounting policies are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that they align with current best practice. The results of the latest review have been discussed and agreed with our auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, who where appointed during the year. In the light of the growing importance of online product distribution it has been decided that online directory advertising revenue, which historically was recognised on publication, will now be recognised over the period that the advertisement remains online. Hard copy advertising revenue will continue to be recognised on publication. The impact of this change on the income statement for the year ended 30 June 2008 is to reduce revenue and profit before tax by £0.2m. 

It has also been decided that two further technical changes will be made, neither of which will impact our adjusted earnings measures. The movement in the provision for the future purchase of minority interests was previously treated as an adjustment to goodwill. To the extent that this movement relates to the unwinding of the discount on the provision it will now be reflected in the income statement as a finance charge over the discounting period. Secondly, a deferred tax asset relating to the amortisation of non qualifying intangible assets acquired prior to April 2002 which was first recognised on the transition to IFRS, whilst remaining a potential asset, will no longer be recognised on the consolidated balance sheet. The bulk of this asset had already been written off on the disposal of the trade magazines in the year ended 30 June 2008.

None of the above changes have a cash impact on the Group. As a result of these changes, at 30 June 2008 the net assets of the Group are reduced from £66.3m to £61.3m of which £3.8m reflects the increase in the online directory deferred revenue. The previously reported profit before tax and adjusted profit before tax for the year to 30 June 2008 are reduced from £12.1m to £11.3m and £17.1m to £16.9m respectively. Earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations for the year to 30 June 2008 are reduced from 9.30p to 8.32p and 13.49p to 13.35p.

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Notes to Editors

Wilmington Group plc is one of the UK's leading providers of information and training for professional business markets. The Group provides training, arranges industry events and publishes directories, databases, magazines and special reports for a variety of markets including the legal, health, accounting, pension, charities and financial sectors. Capitalised at approximately £94 million, Wilmington floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995.