Interim Management Statement (8752L)

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RNS Number : 8752L

Dawson Holdings PLC

08 August 2011

For immediate release 8 August 2011

Dawson Holdings PLC ('Dawson' or 'the Group')

Interim Management Statement

Dawson, the media services business, today issues an Interim Management Statement covering the period from 1 April 2011 to 5 August 2011 ("the Period", "this Period").

Over the last five months, Dawson has broadly seen a continuation of the improvements in trading noted in the Half Year Report on 26(th) May 2011, such that the Group's performance remains in line with management expectations for the year as a whole.

Our three cash-generative businesses overall have seen improvements, as outlined below:

o The Books business continued to make strides during this Period. UK print performance improved, offsetting a marginal slow down in export, especially in the Middle East, whilst strong eBook growth remained an exciting feature of the business.

o The UK and overseas operations of Media Direct have benefited from both management actions and improvements in publisher sentiment and results there have continued to develop positively.

o For the Marketing Services business, market conditions remain difficult as clients continue to keep a tight rein on expenditure during the continuing economic uncertainty. A number of new client wins throughout the year have helped to offset, in part, the impact of income reductions.

There has been no significant change in the positive financial position of the Group in the Period. The Group's cash position, therefore, remains strong with the Group's banking facilities providing adequate resources for the future.

As at 3 pm on 02 August 2011, the holders of some 88% of ordinary shares had voted to accept the offer from Smiths News PLC for the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Dawson. In relation to the B ordinary shares, there is an irrevocable commitment from the holder of 100% of the B ordinary shares to accept the offer from Smiths News PLC for the entire issued and to be issued B ordinary share capital of Dawson. The offers have been extended to 3 pm on 16 August 2011.

Hugh Cawley, Chief Executive, commented:

"We are delighted to note that trading in the Group's businesses has continued to improve through focusing on anticipating and satisfying its customers' requirements."

A copy of this announcement is available to download free of charge from the Company's website www.dawson.co.uk

 
 For further information, please contact:    www.dawson.co.uk 
 
 Dawson Holdings PLC                         020 3167 4128 
 Hugh Cawley, Chief Executive 
 
 Shore Capital                               020 7408 4050 
 Dru Danford/Edward Mansfield 
 MHP                                         020 3128 8794 
 Reg Hoare/Katie Hunt 
 

About Dawson Holdings:

Dawson, through its three divisions, Media Direct, Books, and Marketing Services, provides specialist media services, supplying newspapers, magazines, digital and audio visual content to airlines, academic books to universities and marketing point of sale materials and fulfilment services.

Dawson Media Direct (DMD) is an international media agency linking airlines and media publishers to ensure airline passengers are entertained and informed. DMD provides newspapers, magazines, movies and other audio visual content to airlines worldwide. 150 million newspapers and magazines are sourced and loaded around the world each year through DMD's in-house operations in Europe, Middle East, Asia and the USA, supplemented by outsourced operations to provide global reach. This allows the customers of more than 120 airlines to benefit from copy availability in lounges, at departure gates and onboard aircraft. DMD currently owns 50% (soon to become 100%) of Phantom Media, an integrator of audio/visual media content for airline in-flight entertainment (ife) systems and supplier of the innovative "bluebox" wireless ife hardware.

As one of the world's principal academic and professional library suppliers, Dawson Books is at the forefront of technical innovation in book supply to academic, professional and research institutions. In the continually expanding world of library services, Dawson Books is a genuine rarity: an agile, forward looking company with traditional values and unwavering commitment to personal service. For over 200 years we have been handling books with care and making them available to information specialists all over the world, building a database of some sixteen million titles, with full bibliographic information on each book, including some 150,000 eBooks. The breadth of our service includes shelf-ready books to libraries, the latest technological data enhancements to library book records and dawsonera, our eBook platform, which fully integrates with our services for print.

Dawson Marketing Services (DMS) provides supply chain solutions for the distribution of printed materials, primarily for point of sale and direct mail marketing activities, and for the fulfilment or e-fulfilment of products sold via mail order or the internet. DMS makes its design, print, storage, transport, management, inbound call centre services and web-enabled IT services available to a blue chip customer base primarily in the media, consumer electronics, wines and spirits, pharmaceutical, high street retail and charity sectors.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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