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FFASTFILL PLC - 13th May, 2004
Preliminary Results For The Year Ended 31 March, 2004

FFastFill plc ('FFastFill' or the 'Company'), a leading application service provider for trading and risk management in electronic markets, announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2004.

Highlights

• Revenue growth up 93% to £2.65m (2003: £1.37m)
• Operating loss on continuing activities reduced to £2.3m (2003: £4.5m)
• Cash at 31 March 2004 £0.967m
• Placing in April 2004 raised £4m (net of expenses)
• Application Services offering launched in London and three customers signed
• Service management approach implemented and software and service delivery quality improved
• Sales team and prospect list strengthened
• The company is pleased to announce a new funding package of £1.2m, including a new equity fundraising of £780k and the signing of a leasing arrangement, which will release £420k of capital in May 2003.

For further information, please contact:
FFastFill plc - Tel: (020) 7665 8900
Keith Todd, Executive Chairman
Caroline Harrison, Company Secretary

Hansard Communications
Adam Reynolds - Tel: (020) 7245 1100 or Mob: 07785 908 158

Rostron Parry
John Parry - Tel: (020) 7490 8062

CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

Introduction
It has been a year of real progress in which we implemented our declared strategy by launching our Applications Service and signing the first customers. I want to thank the investors who are supporting us through this transitional period and the staff who have made the progress possible

Twelve months of further progress
The past twelve months have again been challenging but much has been achieved:

• We have achieved revenue growth of 93% to £2.65m.
• Operating loss on continuing activities was reduced from £4.5m to £2.3m.
• We have launched our Application Services offering in London and have signed three customers.
• We have implemented our service management approach and have improved our software and service delivery quality.
• We have strengthened our sales team and prospect list.
• We have successfully continued our program of quarterly software functionality releases and now have an even richer functional software offering.
• We have, as result of the recent placement, not only strengthened the balance sheet but also the institutional support for the company.

Operating loss from continuing operations was £2.316m (2002/3 £4.5m). All software development costs are written off, as are infrastructure build costs. We have continued to keep tight control of costs despite the pressure resulting from a number of large bids that we are pursuing. There were £137k of exceptional expenses relating to the closure of the Paris office.

The cash balance at 31 March was £967k. This excluded the receipt of the cash from the £4m placing, which was approved at the April EGM. The cash (net of expenses) was received on 28 April. The institutional backing for this placing will also indirectly help the company in its sales activity.

Operational review
Strategy:
The implementation of our strategy to deliver applications as a service to the futures and options market has made good progress. This has been against a background where the market has increasingly accepted the validity of the service proposition. Whilst we expect new competition to emerge for our application service we believe the leadership position we have established gives us a strong market advantage.

Business Development:
We have extended and strengthened our sales team to take advantage of the market opportunity that we now have. We are pursuing a number of large (relative to our size) opportunities, which will be decided during the next few months. These are time consuming and costly but demonstrate how far we have come in establishing the credibility of the company to deliver its strategy. We are hopeful of some further news in the near future.

Service:
The service management approach has been implemented and we are continuing to develop additional capabilities to improve our service quality even further. This includes the work on our customer service portals and our own management portal. In addition we are building into our software releases increased service monitoring. The process of improving service quality to levels above those currently accepted as the norm for the industry will be continuous.

Application:
We have completed four software releases this year, each of which has extended functionality and improved software quality. Our trading software now connects to 13 exchanges including the much talked about Eurex US. Despite the significant increases in software functionality and our investment in our next generation software architecture, which will go on general release this year, we have been able to reduce development costs due to the efficiency and cost effectiveness of our Prague development operation.

USA:
We have continued to make progress in the US. We have been gradually increasing our profile in Chicago and are planning a major sales drive during the next twelve months to bring the full Applications Service offering to this major market.

Staff:
We have a small but highly skilled team at FFastFill in London, Chicago and Prague who are committed to the transformation of the group. The progress could not have been made without their commitment. The board and I are sure that the shareholders would like to thank them for their efforts.

Corporate Development:
The market place has a number of companies who supply products and services to our target customer base, many of whom have niche offerings and many of whom are small. The executive management and the board continue to review opportunities to enhance the prospects of the company though acquisition. The board believe that the executives have the experience to evaluate and implement appropriate consolidation opportunities.

Governance:
The board appointed two new non-executive directors during the year and now have four non-executive directors and two executive directors. The senior independent non-executive chairs the remuneration and audit committees.

Although the group is in the strongest financial position since I became Chairman at the end of 2002, I have, with my co-executive directors Nigel Hartnell and Jim Oliff, voluntarily agreed to waive a total of approximately £100,000 in salary over the next six months as a further demonstration that the team will continue to manage the group prudently in the interest of the shareholders. My salary will be £12,500 over this six month period.

Outlook
The financial services market is a tough place to sell into but one that offers significant opportunity for those who get it right. I am pleased with our progress and the scale of the opportunity that we have, but it will take patience and hard work to capture it. I am confident of success.

Keith Todd
Executive Chairman
12 May 2004

NOTES

1. Basis of Accounting
The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with applicable accounting standards.

2. Going concern
During the year, the group made losses of £2.5 million (2003: £4.6 million) and had net assets at 31 March 2004 of £231,000 (2003: £210,000). As disclosed in the Chairman's Statement on pages 2 and 3, the directors have taken steps to reduce operating losses and they are optimistic that revenues will increase significantly in the year ended 31 March 2005, which will further reduce these losses.

In addition, since the year end, the company has raised £4 million (before expenses) by the placing of 57,142,857 new ordinary shares of 1p, at 7p per share. The company will use the net proceeds to provide further working capital and strengthen the company's balance sheet in support of major sales opportunities.

On this basis, the directors have prepared the accounts on the going concern basis. The accounts do not include any adjustments that would arise if this basis were inappropriate.

3. Tax on Loss on Ordinary Activities
The Company has no liability to UK Corporation tax as the Company made a loss for the purposes of UK Corporation Tax.

4. Loss per share and diluted loss per share
Loss per share is calculated by dividing the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders for each year amounting to £2,546,000 (2003: £4,635,000) for the year ended 31 March 2004 by 74,297,011 (2003: 46,124,866), being the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during each year.

For the purposes of dilution, share options are non-dilutive.

5. Statement of Movement on Shareholders’ Funds

6. Financial Information
The financial information set out in the announcement does not constitute the Company's statutory accounts. Information relating to the year ended 31 March 2003 is derived from the statutory accounts for that year, which have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditors' report on those accounts was unqualified and did not contain a statement under section 237(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 1985. The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2004 have been audited and the accounts will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies after the Company's Annual General Meeting.

7. Annual Report and Accounts
The Annual Report and Accounts will be posted to shareholders and will also be available from the Company's registered office at 1-3 Norton Folgate, London E1 6DB.

8. Dividends
The directors are unable to recommend the payment of a dividend.

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