RNS Number:0573M
ADVFN PLC
15 November 2006
Embargoed for release until 7.30 a.m. Wednesday 15th November 2006
ADVFN PLC
('ADVFN' or 'the Company')
Preliminary Results for the Year Ended 30 June 2006
ADVFN, Europe's number one stocks and shares website, today announces
preliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2006.
Highlights:
* Turnover up 35% to #4.5M (2005: #3.3M)
* ADVFN user numbers up over 30% to over 700,000 (2004: 540,000)
* Total user numbers across all group media properties up 108% to over
2,000,000 (2005: 960,000)
* Equity Holdings group successfully acquired and integrated into the group
during second half of the year
* InvestorHub.com Inc and SI Holdings LLC successfully acquired since the
year- end
* #1M cash raised since year-end to strengthen balance sheet and provide for
further expansion
For further information, please contact:
ADVFN Clem Chambers, Managing Director clemc@advfn.com
Francesca De Franco, PR francescad@advfn.com 020 7070 0932
Chairman's Statement
Behind the scenes ADVFN has undergone a transformation. In the past I have said
to look at the website to see the results of our efforts, but this year this
doesn't do justice to the extent of developments in the last year. ADVFN
is no longer solely a UK-centric stocks and shares website. If you are in Italy,
Japan, Brazil, Germany, France, India or the USA you will see a geo-targeted,
native language version of the site. We are operating on a global basis, while
enjoying the cost benefits of managing these sites, primarily, from London.
ADVFN is now becoming an international brand. We have taken data from most of
the world's stock exchanges for many years; however we have now tailored
this data to specific localized regional markets. We have been number one in the
UK for some years now; while this is very good, the UK is only a small part of
the opportunity for ADVFN.
Our tactics have been to address familiar markets from London and partner in
territories such as Japan and Brazil which, although exciting and potentially
lucrative, are hard for us to approach directly. Meanwhile we have made
acquisitions when opportunities have arisen. Each of these has offered us the
chance to incorporate complementary businesses at a keen purchase price. This
means we are currently in a position where we have all the pieces in place to
grow in territories we have already entered and can replicate this model in new
global markets.
Since the year end we have made big strides towards our growth strategy by
buying InvestorsHub.com and Silicon Investor - two top five online investment
community websites in the North American market which have over 100 million
combined monthly page views. The purchase was completed in September of this
year and we are now starting the process of integrating the businesses. The
addition of these two sites has doubled the size of ADVFN's traffic - a
significant development for our future revenue development. Advertising space on
the UK part of ADVFN often sells out months in advance, and once integrated this
new traffic greatly expands our advertising inventory. We are constantly adding
new pages and features to keep up with the demand from our advertisers and this
new traffic is an exciting boost, arriving as it does within a strong
advertising market with significant pent up demand.
We are also pleased to report ongoing progress from Equity Development, which we
acquired in February of this year. The first turnover milestone, in respect of
the financial year to June 2006, was comfortably met. Equity Development's core
product is the production of high quality equity research. Their profitable
financial year saw a rise of over 40% in the number of companies paying for this
product. In addition, Equity Development was able to expand its range of
services approved by the FSA and became an authorised Corporate Adviser for
companies on the thriving PLUS Markets exchange.
ADVFN's wholly-owned dating website CupidBay.com announced at the end of
March that it had surpassed the milestone of one million registered users. In
the last seven months user numbers have accelerated and now stand at 1.3
million; an increase of 30%. With page impressions of 45 million a month and
approximately 1,800-2,000 new members registering each day, the site's
full advertising potential is ready to be exploited.
Since its acquisition in July 2005, Fotothing.com has continued its transition
from a niche product to a more mainstream website that now sees 100 new sign ups
a day and boasts approximately 120,000 registrants. At the time of purchase the
site had around 4000 users; reaching 95,000 plus users at the end of June.
I always take this opportunity to thank our staff for their hard work and this
time is no different. I also want to welcome new members of the ADVFN team at
our joint ventures in Brazil, Japan, and at InvestorsHub.com and Silicon
Investor. It has been an exciting year of developments.
Michael Hodges
Chairman
14 November 2006
Managing Director's Review
This has been a very busy year for ADVFN and has seen sales grow from #3,303,000
last year to #4,463,000; a growth of 35% in turnover. It has seen both our
subscription levels grow to record levels and our advertising income rise
strongly to reach historic highs. We have also been on the acquisition trail,
buying Equity Development and entering the acquisition process with
InvestorsHub.com and Silicon Investor, two superb US investment bulletin boards
which we have subsequently purchased.
This strong sales performance extends the consistent year-by-year growth and
expansion of ADVFN. We have set out to grow by investing both at home and abroad
and this objective is being realised at an accelerating rate. Alongside
developments in direct markets we have been developing our Japanese and
Brazilian joint ventures which by the year end were reaching completion, and
have since enjoyed successful soft launches.
By aggressively investing, we have not only grown sales but also broadened the
scope of our offering and our international revenue from both subscriptions and
advertising sales. The ADVFN platform is now addressing exciting global markets
with local language versions of the site and this is driving growing levels of
business. This is most easily appreciated when looked at in terms of registered
user acquisition which is currently running at levels 50% higher than in 2005.
We now have sites in Brazilian, English (British and American), French, German,
Italian and Japanese, with a geo-targeted site aimed at the Indian market and a
new joint venture for China and Hong Kong. Meanwhile the acquisition of
InvestorsHub.com and Silicon Investor, a process that began in the spring of
2006, has added significant traffic and sees ADVFN become a top tier US stock
information provider. This platform gives us critical mass in the key US market,
and 2007 will see us bring our content to the Silicon Investor and
InvestorsHub.com user bases while exploiting the exciting revenue opportunities
provided by the leading equity market in the world. ADVFN has had good
advertising sales in the US in 2006; and 2007 should see a substantial rise in
revenue from North America.
Current Trading
Since June of this year our user base has expanded and has grown a further 10%
from 700,000 to over 770,000. Across all our businesses, total user numbers grew
100% over the last year to 2,000,000 from 960,000 at June 2005.
Prospects
We have long stated that we believe that it is in the best interests of
shareholders that ADVFN invests to grow and that no one wants to own a tiny cash
cow operating in a market that would fast pass it by. As such we have carefully
invested our capital into developing ADVFN so that it can become more than a
small niche provider of UK price data and share chat. We feel that this process
is coming to fruition. 2007 will see ADVFN using its global platform - and in
particular its US acquisitions - to generate further strong top line growth.
Gross margins for an online service are high and this will drive a strengthening
bottom line. We are particularly enthusiastic about the prospects for
InvestorsHub.com and Silicon Investor where traffic levels offer many lucrative
opportunities for sales revenue and where traffic levels can be enhanced by
ADVFN's information products.
This leads us to believe we are opening a new chapter in ADVFN's history,
one in which we will grow quickly.
Clem Chambers
Managing Director
14 November 2006
Consolidated Profit and Loss Account for the year ended 30 June 2006
Continuing Acquisitions Total
2006 2006 2006 2005
Notes #'000 #'000 #'000 #'000
Turnover 4,088 375 4,463 3,303
Cost of sales (374) (163) (537) (182)
Gross profit 3,714 212 3,926 3,121
Administrative expenses
Exceptional item - impairment loss - - - (1,027)
Other administrative expenses (4,874) (255) (5,129) (3,252)
Total administrative expenses (4,874) (255) (5,129) (4,279)
Operating loss (1,160) (43) (1,203) (1,158)
Exceptional item: Gain on part disposal 761 - 761 2,202
of associates
Share of operating losses of associate (567) - (567) (72)
(966) (43) (1,009) 972
Net interest 45 - 45 29
(Loss)/profit on ordinary activities (921) (43) (964) 1,001
before taxation
Tax on (loss)/profit on ordinary 58 - 58 11
activities
(Loss)/profit on ordinary activities (863) (43) (906) 1,012
after taxation
(Loss)/profit per ordinary share
Basic 2 (0.19)p 0.23p
Fully diluted 2 (0.19)p 0.22p
All operations are continuing.
There were no recognised gains and losses other than the loss for the year.
Balance Sheets at 30 June 2006
Group Company Group Company
2006 2006 2005 2005
Notes #'000 #'000 #'000 #'000
Fixed assets
Intangible assets 874 21 281 281
Tangible assets 1,681 1,407 1,180 820
Investments 2,402 1,055 2,150 20
4,957 2,483 3,611 1,121
Current assets
Debtors 938 1,200 655 1,049
Investments 48 29 13 13
Cash at bank and in hand 938 862 1,824 1,790
1,924 2,091 2,492 2,852
Creditors: amounts falling due within
one year (1,512) (1,305) (974) (974)
Net current assets 412 786 1,518 1,878
Total assets less current liabilities 5,369 3,269 5,129 2,999
Creditors: amounts falling due after more (28) (28) (12) (12)
than one year
5,341 3,241 5,117 2,987
Capital and reserves
Called up share capital 4,798 4,798 4,618 4,618
Share premium account 5,634 5,634 5,403 5,403
Merger reserve 221 221 - -
Shares to be issued 498 498 - -
Profit and loss account (5,810) (7,910) (4,904) (7,034)
Shareholders' funds 3 5,341 3,241 5,117 2,987
The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors on 14 November
2006.
Consolidated Cash Flow Statement for the year ended 30 June 2006
2006 2005
Notes #'000 #'000
Net cash inflow from operating activities 4 65 951
Returns on investment and servicing of finance
Interest received 50 48
Interest paid (5) (19)
45 29
Capital expenditure
Payments to acquire tangible fixed assets (1,067) (1,666)
Payments to acquire investments (15) (33)
(1,082) (1,699)
Acquisitions (246) -
Net cash outflow before financing (1,218) (719)
Financing
Issue of ordinary share capital 344 2,139
Share issue costs (3) (121)
Capital element of finance leases and hire (24) (5)
purchase contracts repaid
Net cash inflow from financing 317 2,013
(Decrease)/increase in cash 5,6 (901) 1,294
Notes for the year ended 30 June 2006
1. General
The financial information herein does not constitute statutory accounts as
defined in section 240 of the Companies Act 1985.
The financial information has been extracted from the group's 2006 statutory
financial statements upon which the auditors reported on 14 November 2006. Their
opinion is unqualified and does not include any statement under section 237 of
the Companies Act 1985. The accounts have been prepared in accordance with
applicable accounting standards and under the historical cost convention.
Copies of the annual report are being posted to shareholders and copies will be
available from the company's registered office at 642a Lea Bridge Road,
Leyton, London, E10 6AP.
2. (Loss)/earnings per ordinary share
The calculation of the basic earnings or loss per share is based on the earnings
attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted average numbers of
shares in issue during the year.
The calculation of diluted earnings per share is based on the basic earnings per
share, adjusted to allow for the issue of shares and the post tax effect of
dividends and/or interest, on the assumed conversion of all dilutive options and
other dilutive potential ordinary shares.
Reconciliations of earnings and weighted average number of shares used in the
calculation are set out below.
2006 2005
Number of Loss Number of Earnings
Loss shares per share Profit shares per share
#'000 '000 p #'000 '000 p
(Loss)/profit for the year (906) 1,012
Weighted average number of shares 469,165 439,932
Basic (loss)/ earnings per share (0.19)p 0.23p
Number of shares under option - 45,478
Number of shares that would have
been issued at average market value - (20,096)
Diluted earning per share (906) 469,165 (0.19)p 1,012 465,314 0.22p
There is no diluted loss per share as the options are anti-dilutive.
3. Reconciliation of movements in shareholders' funds
2006 2005
#'000 #'000
(Loss)/profit for the financial year (906) 1,012
Net receipts from issues of shares 632 2,018
Shares to be issued 498 -
Net increase in shareholders' funds 224 3,030
Shareholders' funds at 1 July 2005 5,117 2,087
Shareholders' funds at 30 June 2006 5,341 5,117
4. Reconciliation of operating loss to net cash inflow from operating
activities
2006 2005
#'000 #'000
Operating loss (1,203) (1,158)
Exceptional item - impairment loss - 1,027
Amortisation 337 260
Depreciation 678 621
Increase in debtors (135) (100)
Increase in creditors 388 301
Net cash inflow from operating activities 65 951
The exceptional items were all non-cash and had no impact on the cash flow.
5. Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds
2006 2005
#'000 #'000
(Decrease)/increase in cash for the year (901) 1,294
Cash acquired on acquisitions 15 -
Inception of new finance leases and hire purchase agreements (75) (23)
Cash outflow from capital repayments of hire purchase agreements 24 5
Movement in net funds in the year (937) 1,276
Net funds at 1 July 2005 1,806 530
Net funds at 30 June 2006 869 1,806
6. Analysis of movements in net funds
At Non-cash At
1 July 2005 Cash flow Acquisitions items 30 June 2006
#'000 #'000 #'000 #'000 #'000
Cash in hand and at bank 1,824 (901) 15 - 938
Finance leases and hire purchase (18) 24 - (75) (69)
agreements
1,806 (877) 15 (75) 869
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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