Q1 Trading Update

RNS Number:5945Q
Surfcontrol PLC
07 October 2003


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


                                SurfControl plc

           Trading Update for the 1st quarter ended 30 September 2003


London, England (7 October , 2003) - SurfControl plc (London:SRF, Nasdaq Europe:
SRFC), the world's Number One Web and E-mail filtering company,  today gave a
trading update for the first quarter ended 30 September 2003.


Q1 Trading Highlights:


- Record Q1 invoicing at $19.7m, an increase of 25% year on year

- Strong operating cash flows of $7.5m, with expected closing cash balances in
  excess of $71m

- Q1 revenue and earnings expected to be consistent with market forecasts

- No change in management's expectations for the year as a whole.


Steve Purdham, Chief Executive Officer, commented:


"Traditionally Q1 is the quietest and often the most challenging quarter in our
financial calendar, and following an exceptionally strong fourth quarter last
year we have continued to deliver solid growth. Invoicing came to $19.7m, which
represented an increase of 25% over the same period last year. This is a good
performance given the prevailing market conditions. As expected from our
established seasonal patterns and following from the significant strength of our
fourth quarter, this represents a sequential decline from Q4. While the 34%
sequential decline in invoicing was slightly higher than management
expectations, we expect that Q1 revenue and earnings will be consistent with
market forecasts.


We continue to see strong demand for our filtering solutions and latest
innovations such as 'Follow-Me Filtering', which is creating significant
interest in the explosive wireless arena.  Going forward, this continued
progress means that we remain confident of a successful overall outcome for the
year as a whole."


SurfControl will be announcing its full unaudited financial results for the
first quarter to 30 September 2003 on Monday November 3rd, 2003.

SurfControl plc
Steve Purdham           [e-mail]    [phone]
Simon Wilson            [e-mail]     [phone]
Tom Moriarty            [e-mail]     [phone]
ICIS
Caroline Evans-Jones    [e-mail]                 [phone]


About SurfControl

SurfControl plc, the world's number one Web and e-mail filtering company,
delivers on its promise to help companies 'Stop Unwanted Content' in the
workplace by continuous innovation, invention and expansion of its filtering
products to address new content risks as they emerge. The company is the leader
in the Content Security market, a significant subset of the Secure Content
Management market, a market that analysts expect to reach $6.4 billion in 2007.


SurfControl is the only company in the security market offering a total content
security solution that combines Web, E-mail (including Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus)
and Instant Message Filters with the industry's largest, most accurate and
relevant content database and adaptive reasoning tools to automate content
recognition.


SurfControl's world-class partners include Sun Microsystems, Check Point, Cisco,
IBM, and Nokia. The company has more than 20,000 customers worldwide, including
many of the world's largest corporations.  The company employs nearly 450 people
in nine locations across the United States, Europe, and Asia/Pacific.


For further information and news on SurfControl, please visit 
http://www.surfcontrol.com/



Caution concerning forward-looking statements


Any statements contained in this announcement that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that its plans,
intentions and expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are
reasonable, a number of important factors could cause SurfControl's actual
future results to differ materially from those expressed in any such
forward-looking statements.  The forward-looking statements herein speak only as
of today. SurfControl expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to
update or revise such information.






                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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