Business
Pre-CloseTrading Statement
Pre-CloseTrading Statement.
About this update from Conduit Holdings Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Creston PLC\n27 September 2007\n\n \n\n27 September 2007\n\n Creston plc\n\n Pre-close trading statement\n\n\nCreston plc, the Insight and Communications Group, issues the following trading\nupdate for the six month period to 30 September 2007 in advance of announcing\nits interim results on 30 November.\n\nThe Board has been pleased with the number and size of the new business wins,\nwhich have demonstrated the quality and industry standing of the Group\ncompanies. New client wins across the Group include Alton Towers, Capital One,\nFreeview, GlaxoSmithKline, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Pricerunner.co.uk,\nRoyal Mail, Smart cars and Telstra.\n\nIn addition to these wins, there have been major new project and brand wins from\nexisting clients such as AstraZeneca, Capital Radio, Infinti from Nissan, direct\nmarketing consultancy for Numico in Austria and Thailand, Opel, Roche, Sainsbury\nBank from Sainsbury's, Slim Fast from Unilever, Vauxhall, and Sunbites from\nWalkers Crisps.\n\nCross-selling between Creston's operating companies has also been very\nsuccessful in the period with new projects being won from several clients\nincluding AstraZeneca, Morrisons, Servier, Stihl and Toshiba.\n\nThe Board is confident that the wins will maintain a similar like for like\nrevenue growth that was reported at 12% for the first quarter.\n\nDigital and on-line projects continue to grow as a proportion of revenues and we\nhave increased our investment in specialist staff to match this development.\nThis necessary investment will have a very minor impact on first half operating\nmargin.\n\nThe balance sheet is strong and we have substantial unutilised bank facilities.\nThe Board retains the flexibility to settle earn out liabilities predominantly\nin cash and loan notes rather than the issue of shares, as was demonstrated in\nthe settlement of the two earn outs in June of this year, which were 100% in\nloan notes.\n\nThe Group has continued to perform well in the first half of the year\ndemonstrating its ability to deliver growth as a diversified Insight and\nCommunications Group. The new business pipeline continues to be strong with\nmajor pitches planned across all companies and we are confident that our\nsuccessful pitch to win ratio will ensure a positive impact for the rest of the\nfinancial year.\n\n\nFor further information, pleas...