The Board of Payzone plc ('Payzone' or the 'Company') announces a trading update ahead of its preliminary announcement of results for the financial year ended 30 September 2008 which it expects to publish in early December.
The Company has made considerable progress over the second half of the financial year, with the integration of the Cardpoint and alphyra businesses completed and with the restructuring and re-focusing of the Company taking place over that period. The operational issues that had severely impacted the availability of the ATM estate are now resolved and this has led to improved financial performance over the final quarter of the financial year. Not taking into account any wider economic impact on consumer spending in the UK, the Board is confident that the improved operating performance of the ATM estate will continue to add to Company profitability.
As previously announced, the Company has agreed to dispose of it businesses in Spain, France and Italy. The gross consideration was €20m with the majority to be set against the Company's debt. This will have the effect of reducing the Company's net debt position (c.€271m at 30/9/08) by 6%.
The Company's EBITDA is broadly within the budgeted EBITDA of €47m as announced on 20 May 2008. This result is in line with the EBITDA forecast used to set the new 3 year banking covenants agreed and announced in June 2008 following an equity raise of €40m and the Company is trading within all of the covenants set at that time.
The Company is pleased to announce that it has settled amicably all outstanding disputes arising as a result of the removal of two former directors. Any costs borne by Payzone as a result of the settlement have already been provided for as previously announced in the Company's interim results statement for the six months ended 31 March 2008.
The Company has, however, seen other one-off non-recurring costs increase above previous expectations (of €13m) as a result of accelerating restructuring activities and associated write downs. One-off non-recurring costs are now expected to amount to some €22.4m for the period.
The Company therefore expecects to make a loss before tax of circa €39.2m for the year ended 30 September 2008. This excludes the effect of losses on the disposals announced in October, IFRS adjustments, share option charges.