Business
Trading Update and Interim Ma
Trading Update and Interim Ma.
About this update from Tribal Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n RNS Number : 8427T Tribal Group PLC 05 October 2010 \n \n\n5 October 2010\nTribal Group plc\nTrading Update and Interim Management Statement\nTribal Group plc (\"Tribal\" or the \"Group\"), a leading provider of professional services to the public sector in the UK and internationally, provides the following update on trading.\nSince the publication of the half year results in August, the Group has encountered significantly more challenging trading conditions than previously anticipated, particularly in its UK advisory activities. As a result, the Board now believes that adjusted profit before tax for the year ending 31 December 2010 will be substantially below its previous expectations.\nOur Education business has continued to make progress in the higher education and further education software markets and the new Early Years Ofsted contract has made a good start. Whilst we have encountered delays in procurement decisions, particularly in respect of centrally-procured ICT contracts, we have recently won a £4m extension to our Ofsted contract to inspect children's centres in the south of England. Internationally, our pipeline of school improvement opportunities in the United States has continued to improve.\nOur Government business has seen a further material deterioration in trading conditions in the UK during the past two months with a significant contraction in demand for central government advisory work and continued delays in procurement timetables. We have seen some modest increases in demand in our local government and social housing businesses but we do not expect any improvement in the central government market until at least the second half of 2011. We are therefore extending our restructuring programme to reduce capacity and to streamline management and support functions so that our cost base reflects our expectations of future demand levels. Overseas, our pipeline of international development opportunities has remained encouraging.\nOur Health business has also seen very subdued conditions for UK advisory work as a result of delays and deferrals in procurement decisions. We have reduced staff numbers and the level of overhead in our health advisory business in order to reflect anticipated market conditions. In our health services business, we are continuing to d...