ADVENTIS GROUP plc
(“Adventis” or “the Company”)
TRADING STATEMENT
Adventis, the specialist multimedia marketing and advertising agency, announces the following statement on trading and update on the business, for the year ended 31 December 2005.
Following a positive outlook reported by the Company in its Interim Results announced on 19 September 2005, the Board is pleased to report that Adventis has had a very busy and successful year and trading has remained strong, with good growth in sales and profitability, both organically across all or our businesses and through acquisition.
The directors of Adventis expect sales for the year ended 31 December 2005, based on pre-audited results, to be in excess of £21m (2004: £12.1m) with profits before tax ahead of market expectations, being in excess of £1m (2004: £773,000).
The company has continued to benefit from healthy margins and strong cash flow. The board intends to pursue a progressive dividend policy and will review the dividend at the full year stage to reflect our confidence in the business going forward, especially our continued ability to translate revenue growth into cash.
Adventis will announce its Final Results on 29 March 2006.
Commenting, Charles Phillpot, Chief Executive Officer, Adventis, said: “Our six operating companies, which provide a range of communications services to the property, healthcare and financial services industries in the UK, have continued to build significant market positions and have achieved or exceeded their revenue targets.”
He added: “We continue to aggressively grow the business and seek further acquisitions. Affiniti, a specialist marketing services company focused on the healthcare sector, acquired in the first half, has made good progress in the second half and continued to win new business, as have each of our operating companies One majority-owned business start-up, Adgenda Media, a media buying and planning company, has performed particularly well in its first 9 months of trading.
Client gains in the second half included Lincoln Financial Group, Medibureau, Palmyra, and Roche.
In addition to the success of the newly acquired businesses existing operations also provided strong growth, with in excess of 10% organic improvement in turnover.
Adventis has a strong balance sheet, with circa £3m of cash.
We continue to grow the business aggressively and the directors of Adventis look forward to 2006 with confidence.