Network Technology - Chairman's Stmnt re Trading
September 13 1999 - 3:31AM
UK Regulatory
RNS No 3179r
NETWORK TECHNOLOGY PLC
10 September 1999
Chairman's Statement
10th September 1999
This has been the most difficult trading period in our
history as a public company There are two reasons for the
losses that we have incurred during the period covered by
this report, namely the period from 1st October 1998 to 31st
March 1999.
Firstly, the Japanese market for our printservers turned
down to virtually 10% of its original size compared to the
previous year, which fell far short of our own expectations,
and, secondly, the level of investment made for the further
development of the CD/DVD based Data Storage Server product,
which following the change in accounting policy last year is
now fully written off in the year in which it is incurred.
As a direct result we had to issue several profit warnings
during this time.
The final figures show that we incurred unaudited losses to
the tune of #2.5 million after tax in the half year
September 98 to March 1999. In order to allow us to account
for tax due and tax losses in the period we have changed our
financial year-end to March. The loss per share was 6.9
pence.
The groups ability to continue trading as a going concern is
dependent on the continued support of its bankers. The
directors are negotiating with the bankers for their
continued support and to raise additional finance to fund
the activities of the group. Our auditors have indicated
that without the resolutions of these uncertainties their
report will refer to this situation.
In May this year I have taken over as Executive Chairman and
requested Hanne Bollmann to take responsibility for the
finances. We have since restructured the Board as well as
all other aspects of the operations in the various companies
to adjust the cost of sales to the level of sales that can
be achieved at this time.
The strategy to bring the Data Storage Server to market will
continue and I expect the benefits of this to show in the
first half of the year 2000. Delays in companies purchasing
patterns due to the year 2000 fears especially in the
banking and insurance sector was initially not factored into
our forecasts which led us to believe that an upturn could
be achieved in the second half of 1999. We have now brought
the Storage Server technology to a mass-manufacturing state
and will be ready to fill the demand as soon as it
materializes.
We further believe that we understand our markets very well
and have a significant technology with our Storage Server
product and the Software that we created for the Storage
Server to provide turn key solutions to a wide variety of
applications. We are therefore well placed to take a part
of the near-line storage and HSM (Hierarchical Storage
Management) systems market.
Chairman
Klaus Bollmann
Network Technology PLC
Preliminary figures for the 6 months ended 31 March 1999
6 months Year
to ended
31.3.99 30.9.98
(unaudited) (audited)
Net turnover (#'000) 4,970 18,203
===== =====
Profit / (Loss) before tax (#'000) -2,947 1,012
===== =====
Tax credit / (Charge) (#'000) 470 -642
===== =====
Profit / (Loss) after tax (#'000) -2,477 370
===== =====
Rate of dividend (pence per share) 0 1.10
===== =====
Amount of Dividend (#'000) 0 396
===== =====
Earnings per share (pence per share) -6.85 1.03
===== =====
END
MSCBBFLFKKKFBKK
Network Technology (LSE:NTY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Network Technology (LSE:NTY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024