Trading Statement

5 Sep 2005 07:00

PayPoint PLC05 September 2005 PayPoint plc Trading Statement The directors of PayPoint plc are pleased to announce that profits before taxare running ahead of expectations. Strong growth in transaction volumes for prepaid energy, bill payment and mobiletop-ups, particularly those carried out on retailers' own till systems, haveresulted in better than expected turnover growth. Going forward, mobile top-upgrowth is expected to slow down. Gross margins have declined as predicted, largely as a result of the growth inIrish mobile top-up revenues, where PayPoint is principal in the transactionwith the consumer and therefore includes the full value of the top-up inturnover and the cost in cost of sales. The migration of mobile top-up transactions from PayPoint terminals to certainmultiple retailers' own till systems has now started, but one multiple retailerhas not completed the software development necessary for the change to takeplace, although this is expected during the second half of the year. Mobiletop-ups on retailers' own till systems produce lower revenues for PayPoint. Theimpact of this migration and other factors such as depreciation, will tend tomake the split of the first half and second half profits more evenly balancedthan last year. Operating margins (earnings before interest and taxes expressed as a percentageof revenue) have increased despite the additional cost of strengthening themanagement team for future growth. Enquiries FinsburyRollo HeadDon Hunter020 7251 3801 About PayPoint PayPoint is a leading branded payment collection network used, primarily, forthe cash payment of bills and services and prepayments for mobile telephones andenergy meters. There are over 13,000 retail outlets using PayPoint's paymentterminals. PayPoint began trading in 1996 and initially collected payments through itsnetwork of retail agents for its founder client investors, who included BritishGas, BT, BBC TV Licensing, London Electricity (now part of EDF Energy) and fourwater companies. It now has more than 500 clients including many of the UK and Ireland's majorenergy, cable, mobile and fixed line telephony companies. Its blue chip clientlist also extends to numerous water companies, local authorities and housingassociations and a growing transport and travel base. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange