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22
February 2006
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Download
the Full Interim Statement |
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AMSTRAD PLC INTERIM
STATEMENT
SIX MONTHS ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2005 |
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Chairman's Statement
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Financial Review |
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The Group reported
a profit before tax of £12.5m (2004: £14.2m) on sales of
£49.6m (2004: £63.0m). The earnings per share were 10.6p
(2004: 12.2p).
The results published in this Interim Statement are the first to be
prepared by the Group on the basis of International Financial Reporting
Standards, as opposed to UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
as has previously been the case. The main impact on the Group’s
accounts are the need to revalue (i.e. mark to market) foreign exchange
forward contracts and certain foreign currency denominated stock purchase
contracts, the capitalisation and subsequent amortisation of development
expenditure and the charging to the income statement of a fair value
in relation to share option grants. In these statements the comparative
figures for the six months to 31 December 2004 and year to 30 June
2005 have been restated accordingly and the full impact of these changes
to reporting under IFRS are outlined in the notes to the statement.
The interim dividend is to be increased to 2.5p (2004: 2.0p) per ordinary
share to be paid on 6 April 2006 to shareholders on the register as
at 3 March 2006.
The Group’s net assets have increased to £51.9m (2004:
£43.3m). As at 31 December 2005 the Group had cash of £48.9m
(2004: £22.1m). Inventories of £4.0m (2004: £15.4m)
were significantly lower than last year reflecting both the successful
sale through of e-mailer stocks and a strong demand for satellite products
in the run up to Christmas.
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Operating Review |
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Satellite set top
box volumes to the UK and Italian markets were similar overall to a
year ago. The reduction in sales value largely reflects the higher
volume of standard set top boxes compared to last year where the sales
value was higher in the same period due to higher value PVR set top
boxes representing a larger proportion of the volume mix. There is
the inevitable downward pressure on selling prices which is an ongoing
trend in this industry. However, our continuing focus on cost reduction
through re-engineering and component price and manufacturing cost reductions
has helped mitigate the impact of price pressure on profits.
The Hong Kong business, which designs, manufactures and sells audio
products to the US and European markets, has managed to achieve a similar
level of sales to last year which was a good result in what is a very
competitive audio products market.
The Amserve business had a successful first half selling most of its
e-mailer stocks to retailers. At 31 December 2005 the business only
had minimal e-mailer stocks which are expected to all be sold in the
second half of the financial year.In the first half of the financial
year approximately 25k e-mailer units were bought and registered by
consumers bringing the total registered since the initial launch of
the product to 454k.
The installed base of e-mailers continues to generate significant usage
revenue for the Group from e-mail, internet access, sms, downloading
of ringtones and advertising. Based on December 2005’s usage
revenue this equates to an annualised figure of £6.6m.
In September 2005 we moved into a new consumer product category in
the health care market through the launch of the Integra face care
system which is sold exclusively on-line through our dedicated website
(www.integra-skincare.com). It is still early days for this operation
but recently the website has been enhanced to facilitate sales in some
other European countries.
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Outlook |
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In September 2005
we announced that we had agreed with BSkyB to develop and supply a
new PVR set top box which should result in significant volumes of this
new product being sold in the next financial year. The broadcasting
industry is increasingly moving towards high definition television
and we are working with our broadcasting customers to develop HDTV
set top boxes and HDTV PVR boxes for supply in the next financial year.
We continue to invest in development of the next generation of smart
phones for use on fast broadband lines as well as conventional PSTN
lines. These VOIP enabled phones are targeted to be sold on a contract
basis to telco or service providers throughout the world as opposed
to sales via retail channels.
In early January we announced that we expected sales in the second
half of the financial year to be better than we had originally expected
and we continue to anticipate this to be the case.
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Sir Alan Sugar
Chairman
22 February 2006 |
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Amstrad plc
Registered No. 955321
Brentwood House
169 Kings Road
Brentwood
Essex CM14 4EF
Press Enquiries:
Neil Ashurst, Frank PR
Tel: 0207 693 6999
e-mail: amstrad@frankpr.it |
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Download
the Full Interim Statement |
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