RNS Number:2694P
Dicom Group PLC
02 September 2003
DICOM Group plc
Preliminary Results - Year to End June 2003
Record Pre-Tax Profits up 150%; Growth at Core EDC Division; Confident Outlook
DICOM Group plc ("DICOM Group"), a global leader in the Electronic Document
Capture ("EDC") market, announces record results for the year to 30 June 2003,
despite challenging IT Market conditions.
DICOM Group's core EDC Division develops application software and electronic
components, provides a comprehensive range of services and sells key related
products to 1,000 system integrators and software houses in more than 60
countries worldwide.
Financial Highlights of the Preliminary Results (UK GAAP):
* Record results despite weakness of the US dollar, adversely affecting reported sterling results of US
operations
* Group turnover of #156.4m (2002: #149.5m), up 5%
* Turnover growth of 12% in local currency terms in EDC Division, 73% of turnover (2002: 68%)
* Gross margin up 37.7% (2002: 36.4%)
* Operating profits pre-goodwill amortisation (EBITA) of #11.8m (2002: #11.2m), up 5%, 9% in local currency
terms
* EBITA at EDC Division, up 17% in local currency terms, contributes 88% (2002: #82%) of total EBITA
* Profit before tax of #8.8m (2002: #3.5m after exceptional items), up 150%
* Adjusted Earnings per share (EPS) up 9% to 40.2p (2002:36.9p); in local currency terms up 12%
* Operating activities generated positive cash flow of #15.5m (2002: #14.0m)
* Dividend up 15% to 4.83p (2002: 4.2p), covered 8.4 times (2002: 8.8 times)
* ROCE of 47% (2002: 39%)
* R&D of #7.3m (2002: #7.4m), up 7% in local currency terms
Operational, Major Developments, Quarterly Trading
* Market position expanded by strategic acquisitions, product launches, additional partnerships, new OEM
agreements
* Continued strong growth in services, up 30%
* US$6.4m cash Mohomine acquisition, a leader in text categorization and extraction, increases addressable
market
* First ever OEM agreements with Hewlett Packard and Kodak; large EDC contract from Wells Fargo
* Slow 3rd quarter, strong 4th quarter, 1st quarter current year started well
* Improving order pipeline
Listing
* Ranked 11th in the FTSE Software sub-sector, as constituent of 100 largest UK technology companies.
Commenting, Arnold von Buren, Chief Executive Officer of DICOM Group said:
"DICOM Group is better placed than ever to capitalise on its increased global
presence, with sales and support services in every major world market and the
most comprehensive product range in the industry, at the cutting edge of today's
technology in EDC software. Significant progress has been made in penetrating
new EDC market segments. Going forward this will secure additional growth."
Regarding Prospects, Otto Schmid, Chairman of DICOM Group said:
"The Group is well positioned as industry leader in its core EDC market, which
continues to show good growth in contrast to the difficult general trading
conditions in the IT market. The Group's balance sheet is strong and it
continues to be highly cash generative. Current year trading and prospects
enable us to be optimistic for the full year."
About DICOM Group plc
DICOM Group plc ("DICOM Group") is the global leader in the Electronic Document
Capture ("EDC") market, a growth sector of the Office Automation industry. EDC
improves the performance of many business applications such as document and
content management and converts non-digital and digital documents into
structured data streams. Its implementation allows substantial increases in
office efficiency and offers high returns on investment.
DICOM Group's core competence is consulting, development and provision of EDC
products and services. More than 10,000 organisations world-wide have
implemented DICOM Group developed products, supported by 800 employees in 25
countries in Europe, the US, South East Asia and Australia.
US-based Kofax Image Products, DICOM Group's software development centre, to
capture, transform and deliver large volumes of documents, which result in
accelerated efficiency in a broad range of business applications.
The Ascent Capture product platform captures scanned document images, text,
forms, industry-standard XML data and Microsoft Office(R) documents. Web-based
components and server products enable organisations to capture information
wherever it enters the organisation - eliminating shipping costs and
accelerating access to that information. Its patented and award-winning
VirtualReScan TM (VRS) product improves document image quality and the scanning
process in real time.
DICOM Group's European and Asian sales and service organisation offers a broad
range of services and complementary third party EDC products. Its network of
pre-sales, after-sales and consulting organisation addresses the increasing
demand for internationally deployed EDC solutions, project management and
professional support.
The Group's Samsung General Agency (SGA) Division focuses on multimedia
visualisation products for the IT, POI and Entertainment market in Switzerland.
It operates as sole agency of Samsung's high performance flat screen display.
For further information please contact:
DICOM Group plc Binns & Co Public Relations Ltd
Arnold von Buren Chief Executive Officer Peter Binns
Dr. Bettina Moschner Investor Relations Manager Paul McManus
Tel: +44 (0) 800 6520 616 or
Tel: +49 (0) 761 45269 36
Fax: +44 (0) 1189 820 102 or Tel : +44 (0) 20 7786 9600
+49 (0) 761 45269 936 Mob: +44 (0) 7980 541 893
E-mail: arnold_vonbueren@dicomgroup.com paul.mcmanus@binnspr.co.uk
bettina_moschner@dicomgroup.com
Internet:http://www.dicomgroup.com http://www.binnspr.com
CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT
RESULTS
I am pleased to report a record set of results for the financial year 2003, a
period marked by substantial macro-economic and political uncertainty.
Group turnover for the year to 30 June 2003 was up 5% to #156.4m (2002:
#149.5m). Organic growth (excluding acquisitions and divestments) in local
currency terms was 3%. Operating profit amounted to #8.9m (2002: #4.0m after
exceptional items), an increase of 125%. Operating profit before goodwill
amortisation increased by 5% to #11.8m (2002: #11.3m before exceptional items)
and by 9% in local currency terms. Profit before tax was #8.8m (2002: #3.5m
after exceptional items), up 150%. After tax and minority interests basic
earnings per share (EPS) is calculated at 26.2p (2002: 3.5p after exceptional
items). Adjusted EPS, earnings being adjusted for goodwill amortisation and
exceptional items, rose 9% to 40.2p (2002: 36.9p). Adjusted EPS in local
currency terms was up by 12%. The results of the previous financial year were
affected by exceptional charges amounting to #5.2m.
As reported during the year the weakness in the US dollar (on average 9% lower
than in the previous financial year) has adversely affected the reported
sterling results of our US operation where over half of the Group's operating
profits are generated.
FINANCIAL POSITION
Due to its cash generative business model, the Group's operating cash flow
amounted to #15.5m (2002: #14.0m). The Group ended the year with net funds of
#2.1m (#3.8m at 30 June 2002). The Group spent #9.6m in cash on acquisitions and
other investments (net of divestments) during the year.
OPERATING REVIEW
The Electronic Document Capture (EDC) Division, our largest division
representing 88% (2002: 82%) of profits and 73% (2002: 68%) of turnover,
continued to benefit from its position as the leading global partner for EDC
products and services with a significant level of new contract gains. The EDC
Division develops application software and electronic components, provides a
comprehensive range of services and sells key related products to 1,000 system
integrators and software houses in more than 60 countries world-wide. EDC
solutions offer users high returns on investment by allowing document intensive
organisations to reduce business transaction costs and improve their level of
customer service.
In the face of challenging global IT market conditions, EDC continued its growth
record and expanded its market position by strategic acquisitions, product
launches, additional partnerships and new OEM agreements. As a result of
macro-economic and political developments we saw a general tendency towards
postponement of large EDC orders during the second half of the financial year.
However, towards the end of the fourth quarter we experienced higher levels of
demand with stronger order intake and an improving pipeline.
EDC achieved sales growth in local currency terms of 12%, of which acquisitions
accounted for 9%. DICOM Group's own product sales grew by 6% in local currency
terms and accounted for 33% of EDC sales. Service income was up by 30% in local
currency terms, contributing 20% to EDC sales. The sale of complementary third
party products, primarily high-speed document scanners, accounted for 47%.
Operating profit before goodwill amortisation increased to #10.3m, up 11% (up
17% in local currency terms).
The Samsung General Agency (SGA) Division enjoyed good sales growth in difficult
trading conditions. However, margins continued their declining trend. On a
continuing basis, excluding sales by the former subsidiary Elsat in Austria,
turnover increased by 11% to #41.6m (2002: #47.5m). SGA contributed 12% (2002:
18%) of the Group's total operating profit before goodwill amortisation.
BOARD AND MANAGEMENT CHANGES
Christoph Loslein will resign from the Board as an Executive director with
immediate effect. He will remain as an employee of DICOM Group, working on a
part-time basis, and will provide strategic advice as well as work on corporate
transactions and projects.
Christoph Loslein (36) has been responsible for Group Business Development and
Communication. He joined DICOM Group in 1993 to start its first international
operation in Germany and was given Group management responsibility in November
1996, including the management of Focused Distribution, which later became the
EDC business unit DICOM Europe. Before joining DICOM Group he held various
management positions in the German IT industry. He was appointed to the main
board on 2 December 1997.
Christoph's decision to resign was a personal choice. After 17 intense business
years and now with a young family, Christoph wanted to re-orient himself. His
level of commitment, achievements and contributions during the last 11 years
with DICOM Group have been exemplary. We are pleased that Christoph will
continue to offer his services to DICOM Group, albeit on a reduced scale. On
behalf of the Board, I would like to express my personal thanks for everything
he has achieved for DICOM Group.
On 2 July 2003 we announced the appointment of John Alexander as a Non-executive
director with immediate effect. John Alexander, MA (Oxon), aged 44, has 22 years
experience working as an investment manager in the City of London. He
specialised in the UK Smaller Company Sector, latterly working at Henderson
Global Investors between 1992 and 2002. We welcome John to the Board.
At the same time we announced the retirement from the Board of two Non-executive
directors, John Incledon, aged 65, and David Silver, aged 45. John Incledon will
continue to focus the majority of his attention on IDJ Limited ("IDJ"), a
corporate finance firm in London, of which he is Chairman, whilst David Silver,
who co-founded Kofax Image Products, Inc. ("Kofax") in 1985, will pursue a
number of private interests.
John Incledon joined the Company's Board on 7 December 1997. He had worked with
us since 1995, when IDJ successfully completed a private placing as a prelude to
the Group's flotation on AIM. David Silver joined DICOM Group's Board on 22
October 1999, at the time of the acquisition of Kofax. The acquisition
established the enlarged Group as a major player in the EDC market. David Silver
was CEO of Kofax up to July 2000.
I would like to thank both John and David for their substantial contribution
during the past years. Both were instrumental in helping us to grow and
successfully transform from a small European trading company into a global
leader for EDC products and services.
The past 12 years have been a period of constant change for the Group. Hence
change management has become an integral part of our company culture. I am
pleased to report that the handover to the new CEO, Arnold von Buren, and his
executive team has been smooth and straightforward. In particular, I commend
their willingness to embrace opportunities offered by the extension of our
addressable market following our recent investments in Mohomine and the new
exciting world of knowledge extraction of unstructured documents.
ACQUISITIONS AND DIVESTMENTS
On 15 October 2002 we announced that we had disposed of the Austrian-based SGA
subsidiary, Elsat International Computervertriebsges.m.b.H. ("Elsat") to a
strategic investor. The disposal, representing approximately 28% of DICOM
Group's existing SGA business, was in line with our strategy to focus on our
core EDC Division.
The total consideration for Elsat was Euro3.45m (#2.2m) in cash, of which Euro2.5m
(#1.3m) has been paid with the balance being due in two further instalments
before 31 December 2004. In the financial year to 30 June 2002 Elsat made sales
of Euro20.9m (#13.2m) and profit before tax of Euro383,000 (#242,000). Net tangible
assets at the date of disposal were Euro1.3m (#0.8m) in accordance with UK GAAP.
The net gain on disposal was recorded as a reduction in operating expenses,
amounting to #170,000. The proceeds from the disposal of Elsat will be used to
develop DICOM Group's EDC business.
On 1 November 2002 we announced the acquisition of ScanOptic GmbH ("ScanOptic"),
a leading specialist provider of EDC products and services in the German, Swiss
and Benelux markets. Under the terms of the acquisition, DICOM Group purchased
100% of the equity of ScanOptic including its majority stakes in ScanOptic's
subsidiaries in Switzerland and the Netherlands, where it now also holds 100%.
The fixed consideration was agreed at Euro3m (#1.9m) paid in cash. ScanOptic had
sales of Euro11.2m (#7.0m) in the financial year to 31 December 2001 and profit
before tax of Euro562,000 (#350,000). The integration of ScanOptic is progressing
well. After a few months this acquisition has substantially strengthened our
leading market position in the German EDC market.
On 8 April 2003 we announced the acquisition of 100% of Mohomine Inc ("Mohomine
"), a San Diego based software developer specialising in automated text
categorisation and extraction, for an initial consideration of US$6.4m in cash.
An additional payment of up to US$1.0m may be payable depending on sales of
Mohomine for the period to 31 December 2003.
Mohomine develops software that automatically classifies and extracts text from
unstructured documents, in which the location of salient information cannot be
easily predicted. Examples include e-mails, web pages, PDF files and paper
forms. According to research firm Gartner Group, approximately 80% of all
business documents are unstructured. Mohomine's algorithms and solutions are
based upon language independent pattern recognition techniques and have been
applied to many European languages as well as Chinese and Arabic.
Since its inception in 1999, Mohomine had primarily licensed its technologies to
enterprise software vendors such as IBM, Oracle, PeopleSoft and to security
agencies. The new integrated products will be marketed through our 25
subsidiaries in Europe, USA, South East Asia and Australia.
For the financial year to 31 December 2002 Mohomine reported revenues of US$1.0m
and a negative EBITDA of US$2.0m. As at 31 December 2002 the company had net
assets of US$0.1m. Mohomine is expected to contribute positively at the
operating profit level in our current financial year.
We are excited about this acquisition, as it will extend our current addressable
market, estimated at #1.2bn, by #1.5bn for non-paper based capture and
information extraction applications. Additionally, it will accelerate growth in
the existing EDC market by offering solutions that have not been economically
feasible without the use of Mohomine's automatic classification and extraction
features. The integration of Mohomine into our software development and sales
organisations is progressing well and first joint customer prospects have been
identified.
STAFF
Staff numbers grew from 773 to 816 during the year, principally due to the
acquisition of ScanOptic and Mohomine. Our future prosperity is in large measure
dependent on the ability, energy and loyalty of our employees, whose specialist
knowledge, training and experience is key to the successful provision of our
value-added services. Staff turnover has remained at low levels and we continue
to attract high calibre people around the world. I would like to record my
personal appreciation to all staff for their commitment and contribution during
the year.
DIVIDEND
The directors propose the payment of a final dividend of 3.22p per ordinary
share, to be paid on 28 November 2003 to those shareholders on the register as
at 31 October 2003, which, when added to the interim dividend of 1.61p per
ordinary share, makes a recommended total dividend for the year of 4.83p per
ordinary share (2002: 4.2p). This represents an increase of 15% over the
previous year.
LISTING INFORMATION
DICOM Group is a constituent of the techMARK100 index, comprising the 100
largest UK technology companies on the London Stock Exchange. On 30 June 2003 it
was ranked 11th in the FTSE Software sub-sector.
PROSPECTS
The Group is well positioned as industry leader in its core EDC market, which
continues to show good growth in contrast to the difficult general trading
conditions in the IT market. The Group's balance sheet is strong and it
continues to be highly cash generative.
We are excited by recent product launches, contract gains and partnership
agreements, which support our expansion into segments of the EDC market not
previously addressed. We also look forward to further major planned product
launches scheduled for the second half of the new financial year.
Whilst any further weakness in the US Dollar would reduce the sterling value of
our US operating profits, the EDC division's current trading performance and
good growth prospects enable the directors to view the Group's outlook for the
full year with optimism.
Otto Schmid
Chairman 2 September 2003
CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REVIEW
My first year as Chief Executive of DICOM Group certainly produced a number of
challenges! Several external factors made this a difficult year. An overall weak
economy and reduced IT budgets were compounded by a war and a global health
problem (SARS). The first quarter started well, but we experienced a slow down
for large scale projects during the 2nd and 3rd quarter. The 4th quarter ended
positively with more apparent willingness to spend IT budgets.
Despite the difficult environment we have continued to grow. I am especially
pleased that our core product lines and services did well and our margins
continued to improve.
Some underlying trends, which will influence our market for years to come, have
over the last two years reinforced our traditional business drivers and have
helped us to perform better than the overall IT market. These are:
* The internet empowered everybody to access any data from anywhere.
This "access convenience" is now being extended to documents as well. Our
products facilitate the collection and transformation of documents for future
easy electronic retrieval.
* The "9-11" tragedy forced corporations to rethink their document and
archival strategies. According to Gartner Group Electronic Content Management
this factor has moved up strongly in CIO's priority lists. Our products are the
preferred input systems for such content management systems.
* New compliance rules such as the Sarbanes-Oxley act have led to an
increased capture of audit trails of various transactions, which typically are
stored on paper, e-mails and Office documents.
EDC solutions offered by us solve the document input problem at an attractive
cost to benefit ratio. We have seen an increased focus by our customers on a
high Return on Investment (ROI) with expected payback periods of less than 12
months. Our business partners and customers have continued to report that IT
budgets remain under tight scrutiny. However, proposed investments in EDC have
often been preserved due to their attractive payback characteristics.
EDC now contributes 73% (2002: 68%) to total Group turnover. Our focus on
providing a strong, broad service offering has led to an overall growth in
services of 30%. A significant proportion of these services are provided by the
Group on a recurring basis. We expect to see the element of 'recurrent revenues'
continuing to grow strongly, therefore helping to increase forward visibility
and quality of the order book.
It is our strategy to penetrate both the existing market more deeply and at the
same time expand our product offering at all levels of the EDC market. Research
and development remained at a high #7.3m (2002: #7.4m, 2001: #5.3m), up 7% in
local currency terms. This commitment, combined with the acquisition of Mohomine
in April 2003, allows to plan a high rate of product innovation for existing
products and the launch of entirely new products and services in the near
future. These will help our customers to transform data and documents into
information and knowledge increasingly cost effectively.
PRODUCT FOCUS
Ascent Product Family
Ascent Capture 6.0, a major release of the award winning capture application,
was launched in June 2003 again offering broader functionality and improved
support for high performance installations. We are pleased to note that Ascent
is being used increasingly often in large capture environments. Our three-year
initiative to take Ascent up-market is bearing fruit!
Ascent Capture Internet Server and Ascent Ricochet are Ascent extensions to
capture documents at remote sites or directly at the workplace. I am happy to
say that we anticipated early on the trend to remote capture and our market
leading remote capture products are doing well.
In an effort to penetrate further the traditional capture market we introduced
individual capture applications that target a specific task. Ascent Advanced
Forms is able to process high volumes of complex forms very efficiently. DICOM
Invoice123 (Ascent for Payables in the USA) processes invoices automatically
with minimal human intervention and delivers information directly into ERP
systems. These new Ascent applications were launched during the past year and
have met with an enthusiastic customer response.
VirtualReScanTM (VRS) Product Family
Our patented and award winning VRS product line, which optimises both image
quality and the scan process, continues to do well.
VRS now supports more than 50 document scanner models with real time image
enhancement features. Some larger projects were secured. We were also pleased to
close several OEM agreements with workgroup scanner manufacturers - most notably
Hewlett Packard - thereby increasing the VRS future sales prospects
significantly.
Blue chip software houses and system integrators have continued to integrate
Ascent Capture products and VRS into their solutions as a result of ongoing
focused sales and marketing initiatives. Ascent Capture, also known in the EDC
market as "The Operating System of Capture", continues to move up-market - a
trend which is underlined by the successful participation in a rising number of
large scale EDC projects. As a result, the number of Ascent Capture software
licences sold to date has increased significantly to 43,500 (2002: 32,500, 2001:
22,500).
Future Product Development
Considerable effort was placed on designing and developing new products and
product lines to allow us to address an expanded market in the future. An
important element in this regard was the acquisition of Mohomine in April 2003.
We will use its technology to automate the classification of unstructured
documents of any kind. Product launches are planned during the second half of
financial year 2004.
GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS
EUROPE
DICOM Europe, our European sales and services operations, provided solid growth
and improved margins. The drive to provide consulting and other services
continues to improve the quantity and quality of the Group's service revenues.
Acquisitions in Germany and Poland helped to further strengthen our position in
these respective countries. A business development initiative was started to
enable us to sell and install larger solutions. DICOM Europe also successfully
pioneered our Invoice Capture solution, which was then adopted by our Asian and
US sales forces.
ASIA
Despite challenging market conditions, compounded by the outbreak of SARS, DICOM
Asia has again managed to expand its reach, customer base and capabilities.
Relying on its strong Professional Services Group, DICOM Asia successfully
implemented a number of complex and high profile Document Capture solutions in
South East Asia. In Australia, it merged its two operations and subsequently
experienced a substantial increase in market coverage. In both territories, its
business development activities generated a number of successful pilot
installations for DICOM's invoice capture product.
In addition, DICOM Asia commenced activities in India and the Greater China
Region (GCR), which includes Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. The activities in GCR
are managed out of a new representative office in Hong Kong whilst India is run
out of the Malaysian operation.
NORTH AMERICA
The USA, the most advanced capture market in the world, experienced a
significant pick-up of large remote capture projects in the fourth quarter of
the financial year. Kofax also started to focus dedicated sales resources on
forms capture deals. This has resulted in significant contract gains. We will
increase our focus on forms capture even more in USA and will strengthen this
focus on other continents.
DICOM Group is better placed than ever to capitalise on its increased global
presence, with sales and support services in every major market in the world and
the most comprehensive EDC product range in the industry, at the cutting edge of
today's technology. In the past year we have made significant progress in
penetrating new EDC market segments. Going forward this will secure additional
growth.
THANKS
DICOM Group's excellent reputation with partners and customers alike is directly
related to the daily efforts of our hard working staff. I would like to express
my deep gratitude to everybody at DICOM Group for their contribution to our
success.
Arnold von Buren
Chief Executive Officer 2 September 2003
DICOM Group plc
Announcement of Preliminary Unaudited Results
Consolidated Profit and Loss Account (UK GAAP)
Year Year
to to
30 June 30 June
2003 2002
Note #'000 #'000
Turnover 5 156,432 149,527
Cost of sales (97,386) (95,158)
Gross profit 5 59,046 54,369
Operating expenses
Goodwill amortisation (2,869) (2,058)
Exceptional item - (5,237)
Other (47,250) (43,107)
Total operating expenses (50,119) (50,402)
Operating profit before goodwill amortisation and exceptional item 5 11,796 11,262
Goodwill amortisation (2,869) (2,058)
Exceptional item - (5,237)
Operating profit 8,927 3,967
Share of results of associated undertakings 41 (288)
Net interest payable and similar charges (167) (158)
Profit on ordinary activities before taxation 8,801 3,521
Taxation (3,407) (2,780)
Profit on ordinary activities after taxation 5,394 741
Minority interests 58 (8)
Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders 5,452 733
Dividends - equity (1,001) (870)
Retained profit/(loss) 4,451 (137)
Earnings per ordinary share
- basic 3 26.2p 3.5p
- adjusted 40.2p 36.9p
- diluted 26.0p 3.5p
Dividend per ordinary share 2 4.83p 4.2p
Statement of total recognised gains and losses
Profit for financial year 5,452 733
(Loss)/Gain on currency translation (1,206) 596
Total recognised gains and losses relating to the year 4,246 1,329
DICOM Group plc
Announcement of Preliminary Unaudited Results
Consolidated Balance Sheet (UK GAAP)
At At
30 June 30 June
2003 2002
Note #'000 #'000
Fixed assets
Intangible assets 43,785 35,186
Tangible assets 4,978 4,716
Investments 9,805 10,428
58,568 50,330
Current assets
Stocks 11,050 11,438
Debtors 34,409 33,965
Investments 110 254
Cash at bank and in hand 6,758 7,265
52,327 52,922
Creditors:
Amounts falling due within one year (37,448) (34,985)
Net current assets 14,879 17,937
Total assets less current liabilities 73,447 68,267
Creditors:
Amounts falling due after more than one year (2,732) (1,882)
Provisions for deferred taxation (699) (724)
Net assets 70,016 65,661
Capital and reserves
Called up share capital 2,088 2,083
Share premium account 51,868 51,762
Merger reserve 1,717 527
Profit and loss account 14,331 11,086
Shareholders' funds - Equity 4 70,004 65,458
Minority interests - Equity 12 203
70,016 65,661
DICOM Group plc
Announcement of Preliminary Unaudited Results
Consolidated Cash Flow Statement (UK GAAP) Year Year
to to
30 June 30 June
2003 2002
Note #'000 #'000
Cash inflow from operating activities 6 15,453 14,022
Returns on investments and servicing of finance (163) (311)
Taxation paid (3,580) (3,770)
Capital expenditure and financial investment (2,592) (3,080)
Acquisitions and disposals (9,116) (1,284)
Equity dividends paid (910) (791)
Cash (outflow)/inflow before use of liquid resources and financing (908) 4,786
Management of liquid resources (849) 564
Financing
Issue of Ordinary Shares 147 28
Increase/(Decrease) in debt 1,319 (3,395)
1,466 (3.367)
(Decrease)/Increase in cash in the period (291) 1,983
Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds
(Decrease)/Increase in cash in the year (291) 1,983
Cash (inflow)/outflow from (increase)/decrease in debt and lease financing (1,319) 3,395
Cash outflow/(inflow) from increase/(decrease) in liquid resources 849 (564)
Change in net funds resulting from cash flows (761) 4,814
Loans and finance leases acquired with subsidiaries (113) (8)
New finance leases (558) (176)
Exchange difference (183) (217)
Movements in net funds in the period (1,615) 4,413
Net funds/(debt) at start of period 3,750 (663)
Net funds at end of period 2,135 3,750
DICOM Group plc
Announcement of Preliminary Unaudited Results
Notes (UK GAAP)
1 Basis of preparation
The Announcement of Preliminary Unaudited Results has been prepared under the
historical cost convention and in accordance with United Kingdom Accounting
Standards using accounting policies which have been applied consistently.
The financial information contained in the Announcement of Preliminary Results
is unaudited and does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section
240 of the Companies Act 1985. DICOM Group has not delivered any statutory
accounts to the Registrar of Companies for the year ended 30 June 2003. The
comparative figures for the year to 30 June 2002 are extracted from the audited
accounts for that period which have been filed with the Registrar of Companies.
The auditors have reported on the 2002 accounts; their report was unqualified
and did not contain a statement under Section 237(2) or (3) of the Companies Act
1985.
2 Dividend
The proposed final dividend per ordinary share of 3.22p (2002:2.8p) is payable
on 28 November 2003 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on
31 October 2003.
3 Earnings per share
Basic earnings per share of 26.2p (2002: 3.5p) for the year to 30 June 2003 have
been calculated based on the profit attributable to shareholders of #5,452,000
(2002: #733, 000) using the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue
totalling 20,849,126 (2002: 20,821,701) during the period.
Adjusted earnings per share of 40.2p (2002: 36.9p) for the year to 30 June 2003
are based on profit of #8,382,000 (2002: #7,673,000), being adjusted by the
amortisation of goodwill in subsidiaries of #2,869,000 (2002: #2,058,000) and
the amortisation of goodwill in associates of #61,000 (2002: #84,000) using the
weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue totalling 20,849,126 (2001:
20,821,701) during the period. The results of the previous year were adjusted
for exceptional items amounting to #4,798,000 being reported net after tax
benefits of #439,000.
Diluted Earnings per share of 26.0p (2002: 3.5p) for the year to 30 June 2003 is
based on 21,009,918 (2002: 20,959,654), the difference to the basic calculation
representing the additional shares that would be issued on the conversion of all
the dilutive potential Ordinary Shares. Share options with an exercise price
below the average share price during the year ended 30 June 2003 are considered
as dilutive potential Ordinary Shares. There is no material difference to
earnings if all the dilutive potential Ordinary Shares were converted.
The Earnings per share calculation is based upon Financial Reporting Standard
14.
4 Reconciliation of movements in shareholders' funds
Year to Year to
30 June 2003 30 June 2002
#'000 #'000
Opening shareholders' funds 65,458 64,964
Reinstatement of goodwill on disposal 1,190 -
Retained profit/(loss) for the period 4,451 (137)
(Loss)/profit on currency translation (1,206) 596
New share capital issued 111 35
Closing shareholders' funds 70,004 65,458
5 Segmental Reporting
Year to Year to
30 June 2003 30 June 2002
#'000 #'000
Sales by divisions
EDC
Own products 38,006 39,385
Services 23,200 17,482
3rd party products 53,623 45,118
Total EDC 114,829 101,985
SGA 41,603 47,542
Group 156,432 149,527
Gross profit by divisions
EDC 52,735 46,869
SGA 6,311 7,500
Group 59,046 54,369
Operating profit before goodwill amortisation and exceptional
items by divisions
EDC 10,333 9,286
SGA 1,463 1,976
Group 11,796 11,262
6 Reconciliation of operating profit to operating cash flows
Year to Year to
30 June 2003 30 June 2002
#'000 #'000
Operating profit 8,927 3,967
Depreciation and amortisation 5,034 4,636
Profit on sale of subsidiary (170) -
Profit on sale of fixed asset investment - (16)
Loss on sale of tangible fixed assets 2 9
Increase in stocks (107) (1,562)
(Increase)/decrease in debtors (555) 3,570
Increase in creditors 2,410 4,066
Foreign exchange differences (88) (648)
Net cash inflow from operating activities 15,453 14,022
7 Exchange rate fluctuations
DICOM Group transacts its businesses in many currencies other than sterling. On
average during the Year to June 2003 sterling was significantly stronger against
the US dollar as compared to the previous period. This adversely affected the
reported sterling results of our US operation where over half the Group's
operating profits are generated.
The table below outlines the sales and operating profit growth for the Group as
reported in sterling and sets out the growth rates in local currency terms.
Local currencies # Local currencies #
Growth and currency Year to Year to Year to Year to
contribution 30 June 2003 30 June 2003 30 June 2002 30 June 2002
Sales 3% 5% 5% 7%
Operating profit before 9% 5% 13% 14%
goodwill and exceptional
items
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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