Ffastfill full year profits up but below expectations
The Board of FFastFill plc (LSE: FFA), the leading provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) to the global derivatives community, provides the following update in respect of trading for the year ended 31 March 2010.
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Trading update
FFastFill expects to report a substantial year on year improvement in profit for the period to 31 March 2010. This improvement has been achieved while operating in a period when the effects of the financial crisis were being felt. During the period we did see both a reduction in activity from certain customers caught up in the financial crisis but pleasingly also a number of new customer wins. Some significant new income has been delayed into the early months of the current financial year but FFastFill has emerged from the crisis with a better balanced business including a greatly reduced reliance on any single customer, with a broader product set and a global business opportunity reflected in a strong prospect list.
We expect results for the period ended 31 March 2010 to be broadly in line with the Board's estimates but the delay in new income will mean that profitability will be behind what we had previously expected.
There has been a significant and overall favourable change in the mix of the business during the period as a result of a reduction in low margin third party hosting revenues and the previously mentioned reductions in some customers. The twelve month forward order book stands at approximately £14.2m at the year-end (08/09: £14.2m), however, most importantly the high margin SaaS twelve month forward order book has grown to approximately £10.7m (08/09: £10.2m).
Net cash balances at 31 March 2010 were £2.4m (08/09: £1.5m) notwithstanding the Company's investments in Asia Pacific expansion and product development.
Hamish Purdey, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The business is in the strongest position in its history. The product set, the customer base and the infrastructure capability have never been more complete and we are well set to continue our profitable growth and take full benefit from the recovery in the financial services sector."
FFastFill will report year end results for the twelvelve months ended 31 March 2010 on 20 May 2010.