Homeserve Plc AGM Statement (1007I)

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RNS Number : 1007I

Homeserve Plc

20 July 2012

HomeServe plc

Interim Management Statement

HomeServe plc, the international home emergency business, today publishes its Interim Management Statement for the period 1 April 2012 to 20 July 2012. This statement coincides with the company's Annual General Meeting which takes place today.

HomeServe continues to grow its international businesses and in the UK is making progress in simplifying and refocusing the business. As in previous years, our trading will be weighted towards the second half of the financial year reflecting the seasonality of our marketing activity and associated renewals profile.

We will, as usual, provide a trading update on our performance in the first six months of our financial year before we enter the close period at the end of September 2012.

UK

We are making progress in simplifying and refocusing the business and remain on track to achieve our full year customer number and retention targets. Our affinity partners remain supportive and we are continuing to implement our marketing plans as well as reviewing and developing new customer propositions which we will be testing through the second half of the year.

The Financial Services Authority's investigation into our past issues has started and, as we said in May 2012, will take a number of months to complete.

We are making good progress in implementing our business improvement initiatives, including strengthening the UK Board with the appointment of David Bennett as Non-Executive Chairman of HomeServe Membership Limited. David has significant experience of working in the regulated financial services sector having held a number of senior executive positions including Group Chief Executive of Alliance & Leicester plc and an Executive Director of Abbey plc.

International Businesses

Our established international businesses in USA, France and Spain continue to grow their customer and policy numbers.

Our USA business has expanded its marketing activity, with new campaigns started with EPCOR and Water One. We have also increased our number of marketable households with the signing of an affinity partner agreement with Alameda County Water District, a municipal water utility, which serves 80,000 households in California. Retention in our USA business remains high with the rate at the end of June remaining in line with 31 March 2012.

Domeo, our established business in France, has maintained a high retention rate of around 87% and with continued growth in income per customer.

Our test marketing in Italy with Enel is ongoing and we have also started our test activity with BS Energy in Germany.

Financial Position

HomeServe's financial position remains strong with net debt at 30 June 2012 of GBP61m, providing significant headroom against our committed facility of GBP250m.

Contacts

   HomeServe plc                                                                   Tel: [phone] 

Richard Harpin, Chief Executive

David Bower, Interim Chief Financial Officer

Mark Jones, Head of Investor Relations

   Tulchan Group                                                                    Tel: [phone] 

Christian Cowley

Ed Orlebar

More information on HomeServe plc can be found on our corporate website: www.HomeServeplc.com

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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