FFastFill is the leading SaaS Provider for trading and risk management serving the electronic trading community.

Year end update

The Board of FFastFill plc (LSE: FFA), the leading provider of Software as a Service (SaaS)  to the global derivatives community, provides the following update in respect of trading for the year ended 31 March 2009 and announces several Board and management changes.

Trading update

At the time of its interim results announcement in November last year, FFastFill referred to the exceptional conditions currently affecting the Financial Services industry. These turbulent conditions continued into the second half of FFastFill's financial year, resulting in some contract signings being delayed beyond the year end and leading to an impact on second half revenues. However, the overall performance in the second half represented a significant improvement over the first half and as a result, we expect to report a small profit for the full year.

Despite the turmoil, FFastFill has performed strongly relative to its markets and particularly in its core SaaS business.  As a result of a number of new contract wins during the period, FFastFill's twelve month forward order book stands at approximately £13m at the year end (FY 07/08: £10.3m) but most importantly its SaaS twelve month forward order book has grown to approximately £10m (FY 07/08: £7.1m).  Cash balances at the year end were £2.2m (FY 07/08: £2.4m) in spite of the Company's significant investments in Asia Pacific expansion, software functionality and core infrastructure. 

Over the past few years, FFastFill has become the leading proponent of SaaS in the Futures Industry. The Company can now offer a full Straight Through Processing (STP) capability and has established its credentials in the provision of multi asset class trading.  As FFastFill reaches the end of this development phase, the advances that have been made in software and operational processes over the past few years are resulting in new productivity gains which have facilitated several cost reduction opportunities. As a result of this FFastFill has been able to effect various cost saving measures through some staff reductions and building and data centre consolidation. These savings are expected to total approximately £1.5m per annum when fully delivered and the majority of this will be felt in the current financial year. These cost reductions will offset some cost increases necessary to support our Asia/Pacific expansion as well as improve underlying profitability. There will be a one-time charge of approximately £0.6m to facilitate these reductions. 

As mentioned above, FFastFill is now entering a new phase in its development. The Board is therefore pleased to announce the appointment of Hamish Purdey, currently FFastFill's Chief Operating Officer, as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect.  Hamish has worked at FFastFill for the past eight years in various roles in the UK, US and Asia and will now assume full responsibility for the day to day running of the Group. Keith Todd will continue as Executive Chairman, focusing on the next strategic steps in the development of the Group. Hamish will also join the Board with immediate effect.

The Group also announces that Nigel Hartnell will be reducing the time he spends with FFastFill as a result of which he will be taking a non-executive role on the Board. In addition, Dr John Elmore will be retiring from his role as Chief Technology Officer with immediate effect. The Directors of FFastFill would like to express their sincere thanks to them both for the enormous contribution they have made to the Group over the years. Keith Todd, Executive Chairman, commented, "As we move into the next phase of our growth plan, it is an appropriate time to hand over the CEO role. Hamish's extensive knowledge of the company, industry, technology and our customers, together with his energetic focus on customer service make him ideally suited to lead FFastFill as CEO during its next phase of development."  

"We believe that the actions we have taken to control costs significantly de-risk the business and believe that the breadth of our offerings and customers, together with our service quality, place the company in an excellent position to benefit from the changes occurring across the financial markets."  

FFastFill will report year end results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2009 on 28 May 2009.For further information please contact: