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FFASTFILL PLC - 12th December, 2002
Results for the six months ended 30 September, 2002

FFastFill plc, a leading provider of trading and risk management solutions and services on electronic exchanges, announces its results for the six months ended 30 September 2002.

Highlights

• Turnover up 25 per cent to £0.396 million (2001: £0.317 million);
• Operating loss down 36 per cent to £2.718 million (2001: loss £4.245 million) reflecting benefits of cost saving measures;
• Cash at 30 September 2002 £2.445 million, which equates to 5.3p per share;

Since October, the new management team has:

• Implemented a range of cost-saving measures
• Initiated the first phase of the exchange connectivity service at DrKW covering Euronext.Liffe, Eurex and IDEM;
• Established an ongoing resilience programme to enhance the quality of FFastFill software to new levels of reliability;
• Brought forward the development of new software to provide exceptionally secure, high performance application services for intermediaries and   traders;
• Initiated a joint marketing programme with Thales;
• Strengthened our expanding IB business in the US through joint marketing projects with CBOT and FutureSource.

Chairman’s statement

Introduction
The results cover the six month period prior to the recent changes in management. In the 6 weeks since the AGM, we have made progress in a number of important areas in the creation of the ‘New FFastFill’ business.

Financial Results
The results we are announcing today are for the 6 month period to 30th September 2002. During this period turnover increased to £0.396 million (2001 £0.317million) and the operating loss fell to £2.718 million (2001 loss £4.246 million). Cash at 30th September 2002 was £2.445 million, which equates to 5.3p per share. No interim dividend is proposed.

The ‘New FFastFill’ Strategy
We are now implementing our new strategy. This is based on providing our customers with applications delivered as a service. This change of emphasis is pervading all activities of the company from software development through to our management disciplines. Our early discussions with current and potential customers give us confidence that we have a high value proposition which addresses real customer needs for resilience, security and cost.

Application Software
We are making significant enhancements to our testing, development and customer support processes in order to reflect the company’s focus on service quality. This will support our commitment to software as one of the important streams of our service business.

We believe that the intellectual and financial capital we have invested and are now investing in our software offers major competitive advantage for the company. We are therefore bringing forward the development of a new software services architecture to September 2003, which will allow us to offer a quality of service to intermediaries and traders not previously seen in this market.

Partnerships
Our relationship with Thales is developing to encompass both marketing and sales. We believe such complementary partnerships bring substantial benefits to the company, both in terms of geographic reach and scale of technical capability. We are also in discussion with other major financially focused service providers to explore joint marketing and service collaborations. I would expect at least one of these to bear fruit during the first half of 2003.

USA
We have carried out a review of the potential of our business in the USA, and as a result have sharpened the focus on the provision of Introducing Broker services to the retail market and applications services (ASP) to institutional clients. We have established a joint marketing project with the CBOT which is already generating considerable opportunities in the professional market, as is our joint initiative with FutureSource in the retail market.

DrKW
We have now started to implement the first phase of the exchange connectivity service at DrKW covering Euronext.Liffe, Eurex and IDEM. This will provide a platform for expanding both the scale and scope of these services in the future and will be a significant reference customer.

Prague
The decision earlier in the year to relocate much of the development resource to Prague is continuing to deliver good value for the company and we are now exploring ways in which we can gain further cost advantages from this facility.

Board
It is my intention to change the board to have a majority of non-executive directors.

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Nigel McCorkell as Deputy Chairman. Mr McCorkell will chair the Audit and Remuneration Committees. Mr Nicholas Durlacher CBE has resigned from the board after 3 years service and Mr Laurent Morfoisse and Dr John Elmore also step off the board to enable the balance between executive and non executive directors to be improved. Laurent and John will remain on the executive management team. Further changes in the board make up are planned to be completed by March.

Outlook
The company has had a difficult past but we are now embarking on the systematic implementation of the new strategy and leveraging the past investment in software IPR, with a strengthened management team and new services offerings. We move forward with cautious optimism and are anticipating continuing the process of reducing the losses in the second half of the year.

Keith Todd
Chairman

CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT
for the period ended 30 SEPTEMBER 2002

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
as at 30 SEPTEMBER 2002

CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
for the period ended 30 SEPTEMBER 2002

B. Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds

C. Analysis of changes in net funds

NOTES TO THE INTERIM RESULTS

1. Accounting Policies
The accounts have been prepared has been prepared on the basis of the accounting policies set out in the audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2002.

Going concern

The directors have prepared the accounts on a going concern basis.

The going concern basis depends upon the expected benefits of the strategies being implemented by the new management team. Furthermore, additional continuing cost cutting measures are being pursued in order to further reduce the rate at which the group's cash balances are expended.

2. Exceptional Items
Exceptional items were disclosed in the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2002 and the six months ended 30 September 2001 and related to the write down of investments and provisions against two loans.

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. During the year ended 31 March 2002 the Company received a research and development tax credit.

4. Loss per Share and Diluted Loss per ShareLoss per share is calculated by dividing the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders for each period by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during each period, as follows:

Diluted loss per share is calculated by dividing the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during each period, adjusted for the weighted number of share options outstanding at the end of each period, retrospectively adjusted for the exercise of dilutive share options.

5. Statement of Movement on Shareholders’ Funds

6. Financial Information
The financial information set out in this interim report does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The financial information for the six month periods ended 30 September 2001 and 2002 is unaudited. Information relating to the year ended 31 March 2002 is derived from the statutory accounts for that period 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.

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