Interim Management Statement>
Interim Management Statement
(Thomson Reuters ONE) - Helphire Group plc - 15th July 2009Helphire Group plc Pre-Close Trading UpdateHelphire Group plc (the "Group") is today issuing its pre-closetrading update for the year ended 30th June 2009.Since the Group's last announcement on 6th May and following thefundraising in April 2009, management's key focus has been aboutturning the business around and restructuring the Group to addresspast problems. Cash and cost control have been the primary areas forearly attention. To achieve this, a new executive team was put inplace, with the appointment of Martin Ward as Group Managing Directorat the beginning of April, later supported by the arrival of IanWardle as Group Finance Director in early May. More recently, we havere-organised the senior management team and put in place a newreporting structure to support the changes needed within the Group.Whilst trading conditions remain challenging, particularly in thearea of credit hire rental length, solid progress has been made inthe key areas of focus making a positive difference to the business.We are pleased to report that since our last update on the 6th Maythere has been a significant improvement in cash resources generatedfrom the Group's operations and a commensurate reduction in theGroup's working capital requirement. Operating cash flow has beenstrong, particularly in the last two months, and as a result theGroup generated £44.5m of operating cash flow (unaudited) in thesecond half of the year compared with £24.9m in the comparable periodlast year. Management set an internal target of reducing its workingcapital requirement by £100m (from a baseline taken in February 2009)in the period to June 2010, under its Project Century plan. BetweenFebruary 2009 and June 2009, we have successfully achieved areduction of £63.5m based upon the Project Century criteria. Theimprovement has been generated from the successful disposal ofimpaired fleet together with residual value proceeds realised atlevels above those previously estimated and through a determined andfocussed approach to the collection of receivables. As a result,receivables have reduced by £39.3m from February 2009, and debtordays have reduced by 12 days across the same period.Financial PositionAs at 30th June, the Group's net indebtedness, with the benefit ofthe April fundraising, and excluding fleet related funding was £99.9m(31st December 2008 £151.2m). Fleet related funding was £142.1m (31stDecember 2008 £196.4m).OtherFleet utilisation, which is a key performance indicator for theGroup, had weakened in the latter part of 2008 due to the reductionin credit hire days, and has been another area of particular focusfor the new management team. We are pleased to report thatsignificant improvements in utilisation have now been made from a lowpoint of 63.6% in March 2009 to 80.1% in June 2009.In May we announced that case volumes had fallen below those of thecorresponding period last year and reduced hire duration was puttingpressure on profitability. Since then we can report that case volumelevels have been stable as has hire duration albeit at relativelylower levels compared to those achieved historically.As previously reported, the new management team's response was to cutcosts and restructure the Group in order to operate profitably atlower durations. The restructuring programme previously announcedindicated annualised cost savings in excess of £10m. This has sincebeen improved upon and management now expects these savings to be inexcess of £15m on an annualised basis, with the material actionsalready implemented and the cost benefits being realised in the newfinancial period.Finally, we previously announced the loss of a significant referrerof business and had factored that event into our restructuring plan.However, we are pleased to report that the Group has recently signeda new well known brand insurer/intermediary as a referrer of casesand commenced full trading in July 2009. We are actively seeking togrow the referrer base further, but have built more flexibility andcontrols into our operation going forward such that future growth canbe handled in a productive and efficient manner.Further details will be provided in our preliminary announcement ofresults for the year ended 30th June 2009, which is planned to beissued on 2nd October 2009.Martin Ward, Group Managing Director, commented: "There is still asignificant task ahead of us to restore previous levels ofprofitability in the Group, but I have been encouraged by the amountof progress that has been made over a short period of time,especially in cash generation and cost control. The immediate focusof the business will remain cash, costs and its customers and puttingthe Group in the best shape to respond to the challenging tradingconditions that persist."Enquiries:Helphire Group plcMartin Ward, Group Managing Director01225 321134Ian Wardle, Group FinanceDirector 01225 321134Richard Rose, ExecutiveChairman 07836 250474Gayatri Barua-Howe, Group Communications Manager 01225 321175College HillRoddyWatt020 7457 2020TonyFriend020 7457 2020Notes to Editors:Helphire Group plc is the market leader in the provision of accidentmanagement assistance to drivers involved in road accidents that werenot their fault. Working with the UK's top insurance companies, itsservices include provision of like for like replacement vehicles,financing of vehicle repairs, legal expenses and the management ofpersonal accident claims.Helphire was founded in 1992 and floated on the London Stock Exchangein 1997. With a staff of over 2,600 and a fleet of over 17,000vehicles to meet its customer requirements, the award winning Groupis headquartered in Bath. Operating under the UK Accident Managementand Legal Services divisions, the Company has five call centre sitesand a national network of 30 branches.---END OF MESSAGE---This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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Datum: 15.07.2009 - 08:01 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 3569
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