MediaZest plc (the "Group")
Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2007
CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT
Introduction
The results for MediaZest plc (the "Group") for the year to 31 December 2007
incorporate the results of its subsidiaries, all of which are wholly owned.
Results for the Period and Key Performance Indicators
Turnover for the year was £3,857,000 (2006 - £3,171,000), cost of sales was £
2,328,000 (2006 - £2,053,000) and the Group made a loss for the period, after
taxation, of £497,000 (2006 - £989,000) after paying interest of £2,000 (2006 -
£8,000) and having paid administrative expenses of £2,024,000 (2006 - £
2,099,000).
The basic loss and fully diluted loss per share was 2 pence (2006 - 4 pence).
The Group had net cash balances of £34,000 (2006 - £569,000) at the year end.
Post year-end, the Group renegotiated its £200,000 overdraft facility to
provide funding of up to £450,000 under an invoice discounting facility along
with a transitional £50,000 overdraft until October 2008.
Administrative expenses, loss for the period and loss per share for 2006
reflect the reversal of a £150,000 charge for amortization of goodwill which is
no longer required under IFRS accounting rules.
Overview
The Group made progress in 2007, both in terms of revenue generation and a
significant reduction in losses for the year. However, management recognises
there is much that still needs to be done in turning these losses into profits.
The Group's priorities for the year were the development of its retail business
in conjunction with its ongoing and successful activities in the education
sector. As a consequence, the Group grew revenue by 22% and improved gross
margins by 12%. It should be borne in mind that these results were achieved
without increasing the Group's overhead costs which were, in fact, some £75,000
less than the previous year. However, further reductions in overhead are needed
and these are being implemented during the 2008 financial year.
In January 2007 Sean Reel resigned as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, and
in May 2007 Chris Theis resigned from the position of Commercial Director. Mr
Reel was replaced by Geoff Roberston as Chief Executive Officer and Andrew
Hawkins joined the Board as Sales and Marketing Director. Lance O'Neill served
as the Non-Executive Director throughout the year and assumed the position of
Chairman following the resignation of Mr Reel.
Market Positioning
The Group has continued to use its two brands, namely Touch Vision and
MediaZest Ventures, to good effect:
Touch Vision is a well established audio-visual engineering business with a
number of long term clients, especially in the education sector where
performance has been strong. The marketing strength of the MediaZest team has
helped to revitalise this business.
MediaZest Ventures is a creative marketing business which brings innovative
audio-visual technology to the retail sector with delivery and installation
provided by Touch Vision.
The year 2007, for both brands, was one of considerable change. The Group's
board adopted a more market driven approach in both seeking out and
capitalising upon additional sources of revenue. For example, revamps of both
companies' websites led to considerable increases in customer traffic and
corporate interest. In addition, the Group engaged actively with the marketing
community and brand managers, who form the primary contact for our retail work,
through direct mail and also through trade press. The Group also retained a
public relations consultant, on a short term basis, to raise the profile of our
work and successes.
MediaZest Ventures
During the year, our retail offering has developed considerably. We have
generated a greater market awareness of our work; offered customers improved
services and made a compelling case to clients in terms of their return from
investing in our services and thereby justifying the commitment they make in
adopting our ideas and technology.
Historically, we have enjoyed a wide range of blue chip clients who have
experimented with our concepts only in flagship stores. During the year our
products became more widely used by such clients, typically in a small number
of prime retail sites. The board believe that with falling technology prices
and proof of concept behind us, 2008 will see many of our clients using our
products in an increasing number of sites.
The Company's media literacy and credibility in media technology circles has
been very important in enabling it to penetrate a number of new markets. This,
in turn, has allowed the Company to engage with a wide range of advertising
agencies, brand managers and their associated industries. During 2007 we saw a
move by suppliers from other industries to gain access to our markets through
partnership agreements. We have not been excluded from this process and have
formalised a partnership relationship with Cisco Systems, as announced earlier
this year. We are already beginning to see the benefits of this arrangement as
we engage mutual clients from both the IT infrastructure and marketing
perspectives: innovative marketing ideas coupled with delivery credibility.
This trend has continued and we are now being courted as a potential partner by
a range of corporate entities from outside of our own market sector, with the
intention of marrying their long term client relationships to our innovative
services. Against this background and through direct client contact we are
winning an increasing amount of business with tier 1 blue chip retail clients
as well as developing our existing relationships.
Touch Vision
During the year, the Company continued to focus on engineering excellence and
growing our education, retail and corporate business. In particular, returns in
the education sector were pleasing. In addition to our current long term
agreements with two London universities won by way of competitive tendering, we
added a new four year agreement with another prestigious UK university; again
won through a similar process.
We have maintained our long standing relationship with HMV and the Company was
pleased to become involved with their future store project. The Group's
approach to this opportunity combined
each companies' strengths to give the client a compelling product. After a
successful launch in two stores last year, these concept stores are now being
implemented into a number of other sites.
We continued to utilise our dedicated service team to improve the quality of
revenue by emphasising the benefits of service and maintenance contracts to
clients, especially in retail. This long term strategy enables us to generate
an increasing proportion of our income from recurring sources.
The Future
The Group's sales pipeline is healthier and better defined than in the previous
year. We believe there is an acceptance now of digital technology in the retail
market and an increasing awareness of its attributes. Despite our losses we
believe that the Group is in a good position to capitalise upon these
developments. The strategic partnerships we have developed with companies such
as Cisco and other retail suppliers in different disciplines should give us an
added advantage as adoption continues.
The nature of our business is moving from short term such as product launches
to permanent, versatile, digital signage. Our clients are benefitting from
improved aesthetics, increased footfall, better targeting of sales messages,
reduced traditional point-of-sale costs and improved in store compliance.
It is our belief that in the current economic climate, the ability of a high
street retailer to attract customers more effectively, being able to react
quickly to market conditions whilst cutting costs will be invaluable. An
increasing amount of our client contact is taken up with these issues.
The Group continues to target new public sector tenders in addition to our
three existing long term contracts. We are also broadening our corporate
offering and have recruited a further senior sales consultant with strong
experience in both of these areas. We expect to see significant gains from this
strategy in the second half of 2008 and beyond. Under one of our existing
tender framework agreements, in the first quarter of 2008, our education
business has successfully completed its largest ever contract, installing 85
rooms for a London university, specifically targeted to help those with
learning disabilities.
Finally, with the Group's share price so low, we have utilised debt based
financing to improve our working capital position. In February 2008, we entered
into an agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland to provide up to £450,000 of
funding through invoice financing with a £50,000 additional transitional
overdraft until October 2008. This has resulted in improved cash flows since
the year end and enables us to approach future opportunities with confidence.
Lance O'Neill
Chairman
25 June 2008
CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007
2007 2006
£'000 £'000
Revenue 3,857 3,171
Cost of sales (2,328) (2,053)
Gross profit 1,529 1,118
Administrative expenses (2,024) (2,099)
Operating loss (495) (981)
Finance costs (2) (8)
Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (497) (989)
Tax on loss on ordinary activities - -
Loss on ordinary activities after taxation (497) (989)
Loss per ordinary 10p share
Basic (£0.02) (£0.04)
Diluted (£0.02) (£0.04)
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2007
2007 2006
£'000 £'000
Non-current assets
Goodwill 2,772 2,772
Plant and equipment 107 105
Total Non-Current Assets 2,879 2,877
Current assets
Inventories 172 142
Trade and other receivables 1,052 535
Cash and cash equivalents 34 569
Total Current Assets 1,258 1,246
Current Liabilities
Trade and other payables (917) (430)
Current tax liability (95) (73)
Total Current Liabilities (1,012) (503)
Net Current Assets 246 743
Net Assets 3,125 3,620
Equity
Share capital 2,283 2,283
Share premium account 3,211 3,211
Other reserves 7 5
Retained earnings (2,376) (1,879)
Total equity 3,125 3,620
CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007
2007 2006
£'000 £'000
Net cash (used in) operating activities (470) (613)
Investing Activities
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (67) (61)
Proceeds from disposal of property, plant and equipment 4 -
Net cash (used in) investing activities (63) (61)
Financing Activities
Interest paid (2) (8)
Net cash (used in) financing activities (2) (8)
Net (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (535) (682)
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 569 1,251
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year 34 569
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of preparation
The financial information has been prepared in accordance with International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the first time, in accordance with
IFRS as adopted by the European Union applied in accordance with the provisions
of the Companies Act 1985.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historic cost convention
unless otherwise stated.
Going Concern
In view of the losses and cash outflows incurred by the Group, the Directors
have carefully considered the going concern assumption on the basis of
financial projections. As a result the directors consider that it is
appropriate to draw up the accounts on a going concern basis. Accordingly, no
adjustments have been made to reflect any write downs or provisions that would
be necessary should the Group prove not to be a going concern.
2. LOSS PER ORDINARY SHARE
Loss per share 2007 2006
£'000 £'000
Losses
Losses for the purposes of basic and diluted 497 989
earnings per share being net loss
attributable to equity shareholders
Number of shares
Weighted average number of ordinary shares 22,825,327 22,825,327
for the purposes of basic earnings per share
Number of dilutive shares under option or Nil Nil
warrant
Weighted average number of ordinary shares 22,825,327 22,825,327
for the purposes of dilutive loss per share
Basic loss per share is calculated by dividing the loss attributed to ordinary
shareholders of £497,000 (2006: £989,000) by the weighted average number of
shares during the year of 22,825,327 (2006: 22,825,327). The diluted loss per
share is identical to that used for basic loss per share as the exercise of
warrants and options would have the effect of reducing the loss per share and
therefore is not dilutive.
The financial information set out above does not constitute the statutory
accounts for the years ended 31 December 2007 and 31 December 2006. Statutory
accounts for 2006 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and those
for 2007 will be delivered in due course The auditors have reported on both the
31 December 2006 and 31 December 2007 statutory accounts, their reports were
unqualified and did not contain statements under section 237 (2) or (3) of the
Companies Act 1985.
Contact
Geoff Robertson, Chief Executive Officer, 020 7724 5680
MediaZest Plc
Liam Murray, Nominated Adviser 020 7492 4777
Dowgate Capital Advisers Limited
Bankside Consultants 020 7367 8888
Michael Padley / Louise Davis
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