Corporate Update
November 20 2003 - 2:01AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:2812S
Retail Decisions PLC
20 November 2003
Retail Decisions PLC
CORPORATE UPDATE
Trading statement - significant improvement in full year profitability expected
Retail Decisions (ReD), the international supplier of payment card fraud
prevention and payment card services, is expected to report higher than
anticipated profits for the full year to 31 December 2003.
When the Group published its interim results in September, it stated that
although the second half of the year had started well and was in line with
expectations, the Group was unlikely to report a higher Adjusted Operating
Profit (Operating Profit before amortisation or impairment of goodwill/
intangibles and before exceptional costs) for the second half of the financial
year, when compared to the first half of the year.
Subsequently, trading of the Group has been stronger than anticipated. This,
together with the significant cost reduction and containment programme
implemented last year and the continued benefit of favourable exchange rates
particularly with the Australian dollar, has resulted in the stronger financial
performance. The Group now expects to report an Adjusted Operating Profit in
the second half of the financial year greater than that achieved in the first
half and therefore have a significantly higher full year profit.
The Group's cash position will also be stronger than originally envisaged.
ReD will publish its preliminary results for the year to 31 December 2003 in
early March.
Carl Clump, Retail Decisions Chief Executive said:
"The business has continued to perform well since we published our interim
result early in September, particularly in Australia and the US. Furthermore,
the anticipated downturn in the Group's legacy business in Europe is now not
expected until next year.
"Although we are very pleased to see the strategy we implemented over the last
few years bearing fruit, customers are still deferring expenditure when
possible. The introduction of chip and pin in the UK will impact our legacy
business, which is exactly why our strategy over the last three years has been
to focus on developing our card not present fraud prevention business
worldwide."
Board change
ReD also announces today that William Good, currently Group Finance Director and
Group Company Secretary, will be leaving the Company on 31 December 2003. The
Board has already commenced the search for his successor.
The Board would like to thank William for his contribution and wish him well for
the future.
20 November 2003
Enquiries:
Retail Decisions plc Tel: 01483 728 700
Nigel Whittaker, Chairman
Carl Clump, Chief Executive
College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020
Adrian Duffield/Clare Warren
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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