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FFastFill plc (the
"Company") - 24th May, 2006 Preliminary
results for the year ended 31 March 2006
FFastFill FFastFill plc (‘FFastFill’ or the ‘Company’), the
leading provider of application services to the global
derivatives community, announces its preliminary results for
the year ended 31 March 2006. Highlights
- Achieved a turnover of £4.753 million (£4.327 million)
-Continuing operations revenue growth of 18.7 %
-Application services grew by 119% to £2.361 million
- EBITDA loss in the period at £2.450 million (2005/6 £2.260 million)
- Cash
balance at 31March 2006 was £1.230 million (2004/5
£0.911million). We have also announced a £1.4 million
placement subject to an EGM on 31 May
- Grew our
application services global banking customer base, including
increasing our CME/ FX on Reuters customer base to seven
global banks
-
Successfully
launched our TT service in Chicago and now have six
customers including two global banks
-
Achieved an
order book of over £5 million to support the current year
revenue
Commenting on the results, Keith Todd, Executive Chairman
of FFastFill, said: 'I am pleased to report another
year of progress in delivering our strategy to become the
leading provider of application services to the futures
industry. With a strong order book, a portfolio of strong
service offerings and a customer base of over 40 companies
we are well placed to achieve EBITDA profitability.'
The full chairman’s statement and preliminary results are
included below.
For further information, please contact:
FFastFill plc
Keith Todd, Executive Chairman - Tel: (0207) 665 8900
Rostron Parry - Tel: (0207) 490 8062
John Parry
Chairman Statement
Introduction I am pleased to report
another year of progress in delivering our strategy to
become the leading provider of application services (ASP) to
the futures industry. During the past 12 months we have
achieved.
- Turnover of £4.753 million (£4.327 million)
-Continuing operations revenue growth of 18.7 %
-Application services growth of 119% to £2.361 million
- Increased our CME/ FX on Reuters customer base to seven global banks
-
Successfully launched our TT service in Chicago and now have
six customers including two global banks.
- An order book
of over £5 million to support current year revenue
Financial results for the year 2005/6
Full year revenue grew to £4.753 million (2004/5 £4.327
million). Continuing operations revenue was £4.753 million
(2004/5 £4.004million), up 18.7%. Application Services
revenue at £2.361 million (2004/5 £1.048 million) now
accounts for 50% of our total revenue.
The revenue growth has been achieved by increasing the
average income per customer and the increase in the number of
customers to over 40. Our top 20 customers account for
approximately 90% of revenue, and their average income is now
£232k per customer, a growth of 16%.
During the year, we achieved new customer wins for our
application services in addition to the major TT application
service contract wins. There was delay in some contract
signings, most of which have now been achieved, as well as some
delay in user number growth under existing contracts. The CME FX
on Reuters service growth is expected to improve following the
recent launch of an enhanced version of the service.
The investment in technology and service offerings, combined
with delays in signing new customers, has had a short-term
negative impact on the company’s financial performance in the
year ended 31 March 2006; however the Board is convinced that
this investment will benefit shareholders in the medium and long
term.
The EBITDA loss in the period at £2.450 million (2005/6
£2.260 million) increased due to the heavy investment in our
service development programme including software development and
operational delivery capability ahead of contract wins. We now
have available a highly competitive range of services that are
delivered from our three data centres in London and Chicago and
supported 24 hours a day, 5.5 days a week. The increased Pre-tax
loss of £3.328 million (2004/5 £2.879 million) was the result of
the lower EBITDA and a higher depreciation charge.
We have continued to maintain a rigorous control of costs.
However costs were increased in order to expand our delivery
capability and to complete the development of a number of
service offerings. We have recently re-organised our approach to
customer management as our business has become increasingly
centred on global customers. As a result of this we have been
able to reduce cost by eliminating some overlapping activities.
This cost reduction, together with other reductions achieved,
means that we start the current year with a lower monthly cost
base than that which we incurred on average during last year. We
are not expecting any significant change in staffing numbers
during the current year.
Cash outflow from operating activities was £2.162 million
(2004/5 £2.859 million). This improvement was due to reduced
working capital requirements. Capital expenditure was £1.171
million (2004/5 £1.138 million) in support of the additional
data centre and customer contracts. £759k was financed as part
of a customer backed finance lease.
The cash balance at 31 March 2006 was £1.230 million (2004/5
£911k). We have also announced a £1.4m placement subject to an
EGM on 31 May 2006.
Operational review
Strategy: Our core application services
strategy has remained unchanged; we have however expanded
the breadth of the ASP offering to include a third party
product, our multi asset class execution capability and our
strengthened order book.
Business Development: We are seeing
significant progress in our ability to win new global
customers and to expand the business we do with these large
banks. The combination of our offerings, the increased
acceptance of our application services approach and our
reputation are underpinning this progress.
We launched the TT service in October in Chicago and this
has led to a number of wins including two global banks. These
contracts have demonstrated the value of our strategy to offer
third party products as part of our service offering.
We recently announced three new services to complement our
existing ASP trade execution service and Reuters CME service.
European based TT service: We will be launching a
London-based service which will be available from July 2006.
This will allow us to support the European operations of
existing US TT service customers with a European-based offering
and will open up new opportunities for London-based trading
firms.
Multi-asset class trading service: We have now completed the
development of our multi-asset class trading system. This will
allow firms who predominantly trade listed derivatives to also
trade foreign exchange, equities, contracts for difference and
bonds via their FFastFill execution screen.
New generation ‘Global Order Book’: We announced the
availability of the first phase of a new generation of global
order book which the board believe will substantially improve
order and risk management for participants in the derivatives
industry. New functionality will be released during 2006/7 which
will include the integration of traditional clearing
functionality.Staff: We could not have
achieved the progress we have made without the skill and
commitment of our teams in London, Chicago and Prague. The board
and I would like to thank them for their dedication and
commitment.
Governance
The board consist of two executive directors and four non
executive directors, three of whom are independent. During
the year Mr Jim Oliff has become a part time non executive
director but remains joint deputy chairman. The senior
independent non-executive is Mr Nigel McCorkell who is also
a joint deputy chairman.
Outlook
Whilst delays in signing new customers together with the
investment made in expanding our service offerings have
adversely affected our financial results for the year ended
31 March 2006, the Board is convinced that this investment
will benefit shareholders in the medium and long term.
FFastFill now
has a strong order book of over £5 million. The Directors
believe that this order book, together with the substantial
completion of the company’s investment programme and the
implementation of various cost reduction measures, position the
company well to achieve EBITDA profitability. The
Directors believe that the funds raised via the placing will be
sufficient to achieve this goal.
Keith Todd Executive Chairman 24 May 2006
CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT for the period ended 31 March 2006
|
|
Notes |
|
|
|
|
Unaudited |
Audited |
|
|
|
2006 |
2005 |
|
|
|
£’000 |
£’000 |
£’000 |
£’000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Turnover |
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
continuing operations |
|
4,753 |
|
4,004 |
|
|
-
discontinued operations |
|
- |
|
323 |
|
|
|
|
|
4,753 |
|
4,327 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Administrative expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
exceptional |
|
|
- |
|
(92) |
|
- other |
|
|
(8,160) |
|
(7,035) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other
operating income |
|
|
31 |
|
51 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating
loss |
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
continuing operations |
|
(3,286) |
|
(2,507) |
|
|
-
discontinued operations |
|
- |
|
(242) |
|
|
|
|
|
(3,376) |
|
(2,749) |
|
Exceptional items – |
|
|
|
|
|
|
reorganisation costs |
|
|
- |
|
(219) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest
receivable and similar |
|
|
|
|
|
|
income |
|
|
83 |
|
99 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest
payable and similar charges |
|
|
(35) |
|
(10) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss on
ordinary activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
before
taxation |
|
|
(3,328) |
|
(2,879) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tax on
loss on ordinary activities |
|
|
(8) |
|
(7) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss on ordinary activities after
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
taxation |
|
|
(3,336) |
|
(2,886) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minority
interest |
|
|
- |
|
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss for
the financial year |
|
|
|
|
|
|
attributable to shareholders |
|
|
(3,336) |
|
(2,882) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Basic and diluted loss per share |
2 |
|
(1.43p) |
|
( 1.60p) |
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF TOTAL RECOGNISED GAINS AND
LOSSES for the period ended 31
March 2005
|
|
Unaudited |
Audited |
|
|
2006 |
2005 |
|
|
£’000 |
£’000 |
|
|
|
|
|
Loss for
the financial year |
(3,336) |
(2,882) |
|
|
|
|
|
Currency
translation differences on foreign currency net
|
|
|
|
investments |
(11) |
(83) |
|
|
|
|
|
Total
recognised gains and losses relating to the year |
(3,347) |
(2,965) |
|
|
|
|
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET as at
31 March 2006
|
|
Notes |
Unaudited |
Audited
|
|
|
|
2006 |
2005 |
|
|
|
£’000 |
£’000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fixed
assets |
|
|
|
|
Intangible
asset |
|
1,680 |
1,799 |
|
Tangible
assets |
|
1,566 |
1,139 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3,246 |
2,938 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Current
assets |
|
|
|
|
Debtors |
|
1,011 |
2,666 |
|
Cash at
bank and in hand |
|
1,230 |
911 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2,241 |
3,577 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Creditors:
amounts falling due within one year |
|
(1,940) |
(1,978) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
current assets |
|
301 |
1,599 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
assets less current liabilities |
|
3,547 |
4,537 |
|
Creditors:
amounts falling due more than one year |
|
(360) |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Deferred
income |
|
(930) |
(1,953) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net assets |
|
2,257 |
2,584 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Capital
and reserves |
|
|
|
|
Called up
share capital |
3 |
2,427 |
1,949 |
|
Share
premium account |
3 |
25,706 |
23,156 |
|
|
3 |
235 |
235 |
|
Merger
reserve |
3 |
890 |
890 |
|
Profit and
loss account |
3 |
(27,001) |
(23,654) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Equity
shareholders’ funds |
3 |
2,257 |
2,576 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minority
interest |
|
- |
8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total capital employed |
|
2,257 |
2,584 |
CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT for the period ended 31 March 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Notes |
Unaudited |
Audited
|
|
|
|
2006 |
2005 |
|
|
|
£’000 |
£’000 |
|
|
|
|
| |