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Interim results announced for the 6 months ended 30 September 2009
Wednesday, 09 December 2009 10:29

Eckoh plc

Unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2009

Eckoh plc (“Eckoh” or “the Group”), the UK’s largest provider of hosted speech recognition services, announces its results for the six months to 30 September 2009

 

 

 

6 months ended

30 Sept 2009

£’000

6 months ended

30 Sept 2008

£’000

Year

ended

31 March 2009

£’000

Turnover

8,598

9,980

19,109

Gross profit

3,323

3,349

6,169

Operating loss

(203)

(99)

(1,100)

Profit/(loss) for the period

46

91

(878)

EBITDA

183

184

(505)

Adjusted profit/(loss) before taxation[1]

175

181

214

 

 

Financial Highlights:

  • Adjusted1 profit before tax of £0.18m, compared with £0.21m for the full year 2008/9 and £0.18m for the same period last year
  • Continued progress within the Speech Solutions division with revenue growth of 15% to £3.8m (H1 2008/9: £3.3m) and margin growth of 20% to £2.7m (H1 2008/9: £2.2m)
  • Increased focus on Speech Solutions division resulted in overall group margin remaining at £3.3m despite reduction in revenue from £10.0m to £8.6m
  • Tight cost control maintained with £0.1m of cost savings expected to be achieved in the current financial year and approximately £0.3m expected in the next full financial year
  • Reached agreement with Redstone plc over restructuring of loan, including an arrangement fee of £0.5m being spread over the remaining 3 years of the loan term

 

Operational Highlights:

  • New 5 year contract with a minimum value of £1.5m won with a major Government Transport & Infrastructure organisation
  • Renewal for a three-year period of exclusive contract with Vue Cinemas
  • Launch of the Swine Flu Information line
  • Major investment in technology refresh and progressing towards PCI compliance

 

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer, commented today:

“We are pleased with the progress the Group has made during the period with very good growth in our Speech Solutions division despite the tough economic climate. These challenging conditions have caused large corporate entities to delay taking major operational decisions in the way that they deliver customer service. This has led to a temporary slowdown in contracts being concluded, but these remain in the pipeline and we expect the good progress in Speech Solutions to continue.

The IVR business performed slightly worse than expected due to reduced call volumes from the print and publishing clients owing to the sale or closure of titles and falling circulations. Despite this, as a result of the successful roll out of speech contracts won last year and during the period, the Group expects the profitability for the full year to still be substantially ahead of last year.”

 

 

For further enquiries, please contact:

Eckoh plc

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer

Adam Moloney, Group Finance Director

www.eckoh.com Tel: 01442 458 300

 

Corfin Communications

Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury  Tel: 020 7977 0020

 

Seymour Pierce

Jonathan Wright    Tel: 020 7107 8000

 


[1] Profit before taxation, intangible asset amortisation and exceptional items