City Briefs: Servelec; Animalcare; Communisis; WANdisco; Fenner
SERVELEC today said it is looking forward to capitalising on “exciting” opportunities for the group.
The company, which is headquartered at its and purpose-built engineering site in Sheffield, floated on the main market in December and has today said its “strong” performance has continued to deliver a full-year performance in line with the board’s expectations.
In a trading up-date for the year ended December 31 2013, the group, which operates a Healthcare division and Automation division, said sales activity in Healthcare is increasing and it has been awarded the first two Trust wins as part of the on-going Camden (London and the South) re-fresh programme. In Servelec Automation, the business said the anticipated shift from the design stage to the pricing stage for products and services with a number of its customers continues to progress in line with expectations.
Alan Stubbs, chief executive, said: “Following our successful listing, we are pleased that our strong performance has continued to deliver a full-year performance in line with the board’s expectations. The outlook for the structural and regulatory growth drivers across our markets remains encouraging and we are looking forward to capitalising on these exciting opportunities as a listed company.”
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ANIMALCARE today said it has seen a solid first half performance and remains confident about the prospects and outcome for the full year.
The York-based supplier of veterinary medicines said revenues increased by 5.9% to approximately £6.5m in the six months ended December 31 2013, as it issued a trading update this morning. Operating cash flows were in line with management expectations and cash balances at the end of December were £3.6m.
Recently launched products have continued to drive sales growth and the group said it is committed to its strategy to invest in enhanced generic medicines that will deliver growth and protectable revenue in the medium to long-term. To ensure the group exploits the available development opportunities, further recruitment is in progress.
Animalcare said: “We expect Animalcare’s strong cash position to fund the significant new product development investment identified in the strategic plan. The board is pleased with the solid first half performance and remains confident about the prospects and outcome for the full year.”
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COMMUNISIS today said it continues to make good progress, as it announced trading for the full year was in line with expectations.
In a trading update for the year ended December 31 2013, Leeds-based printing and personalised customer communication services group said trading for the full year was in line with the board’s expectations and the group continued to make good progress toward its strategic goals. In particular, the group’s client-led international expansion has accelerated during the year and Communisis expects to have derived about 18% of its total revenues from overseas sources in 2013, compared to 7% in 2012.
The group said its pipeline remains strong and contract wins previously announced, such as that with Lloyds Banking Group for the outsourcing of transactional communications, are now fully live and will contribute on a full year basis in 2014. Net debt at 31 December 2013 was lower than expectations at approximately £25m.
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DATA and software business WANdisco saw 71% year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter of last year.
The Sheffield and Silicon Valley-based group said subscription bookings totalled a record $4.3m in quarter four of 2013, up from $2.5m the year before, bringing bookings for the full year to a total of $14.8m, 87% up on 2012.
The group said that the growth was driven by new customers for its software including Goldman Sachs, Manulife Financial Corporation, SanDisk, Marvell Technology Group, T. Rowe Price, H3C Technologies, Tangoe Inc. and ASML Holding.
David Richards, executive chairman and CEO, said: “Our ALM [application lifecycle management] business continues to deliver rapid growth driven both by the addition of new, blue-chip customers and by the renewal of subscriptions by existing customers, often for extended periods and for increasing numbers of users.
WANdisco will report preliminary results on Thursday, March 20.
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FENNER today said that its performance over the last six months has been steady thanks to a “generally improving macro-economic environment”.
The Hull-based conveyor belt and reinforced polymer manufacturer said its full year results will be in line with expectations and its financial position remains strong.
It said that pound had got stronger in the second half of last year against all the major currencies in which the group’s revenues are generated and if its results for the year to August 31 had been translated using currency rates at December 31 it would have reduced underlying operating profit by around £9m.
