Horizon Technology Share Discussion Threads

[blackbear] 03/9/2003 11:32

Horizon Beats Expectations.....

At last here it is...m :)


RNS Number:3091P
Horizon Technology Group PLC
03 September 2003


Horizon Technology Group plc

Interim Results
For the six months to
30 June 2003


Horizon Technology Group plc, a leading system integrator and distributor of
information technology products in the UK and Ireland announces its interim
results for the six months to 30 June 2003.


Horizon exceeds market expectations


* Diluted Earnings Per Share adjusted exceeds market expectations at 3.33 cent;

* Strong improvement in services, resulting in an increase in enterprise
solutions gross profit margin from 14.7% to 15.9%;

* In a challenging but stabilising IT market, Horizon has maintained revenues,
improved profitability and increased tangible net worth;

* Net cash balances are well ahead of expectations, resulting in further
strengthening of financial position and balance sheet; and

* Due to increased efficiencies, productivity improvements have been
significant - revenue per employee has now reached a very satisfactory Euro1.26m
per annum.



Earnings Highlights - Six Months to 30 June 2003
Consensus
Actual Broker %
Euro'000 Expectation Increase
Euro'000

Turnover 128,520 136,415 (5.8%)
Gross profit 14,914 14,920 0.0%
Trading profit (pre goodwill) 3,291 2,831 16.2%


EBIT 2,527 2,131 18.6%
Diluted EPS adjusted (cent) 3.33 2.54 31.1%



Commenting on the results: Samir Naji, Executive Chairman of Horizon Technology
Group plc said: "Despite the challenging environment, Horizon has maintained
consistently high customer satisfaction levels, deepened its relationships with
partners such as Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems and continued to win
customers increasing its penetration in markets such as life-sciences,
healthcare and retail.

Horizon has also made significant market share gains in its traditionally strong
sectors such as telecommunications and finance. Combined with effective cost
control, these factors have allowed Horizon to further improve its financial
position. The group is well positioned to take advantage of any improvement in
the market and deliver growth in earnings going forward."

About Horizon:

Horizon Technology Group plc is a leading system integrator and distributor of
information technology products in the UK and Ireland.



For more information contact:

Paul McSharry
Financial Dynamics Ireland
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]






INTERIM REPORT TO SHAREHOLDERS
for the six months ended 30 June 2003


OVERVIEW

The first half of 2003 saw the return of stability in the IT market and
Horizon's business and an end to the group's two year long consolidation
process. The IT market is still challenging but the group has maintained
revenues, improved profitability and EPS and increased tangible net worth.
Horizon's strong financial position and careful management of its cost base and
capital resources combined with continued focus on performance improvement have
delivered good progress in the first half of 2003.

The following table sets out a summary of the profit and loss for the six months
to June 2003 and a comparison with the two previous six month periods. The six
months to June 2002 was the peak half year for Horizon in turnover terms and the
results for that period incorporate a number of businesses which were
subsequently sold or discontinued and therefore a comparison with the six months
to December 2002 is more meaningful.

Six months to Six months to Six months to
30 June 2003 31 Dec 2002 30 June 2002
Euro'000 Euro'000 Euro'000

Turnover 128,520 128,485 192,927
Gross profit 14,914 15,323 24,491
Staff and other costs 10,990 11,435 20,362
Trading profit (pre goodwill) 3,291 3,176 2,559
EBIT 2,527 2,477 1,498
Retained profit/(loss) 148 (6,428) (7,161)
Diluted EPS adjusted (cent) 3.33 3.33 1.26



Revenue for the six months to June 2003 at Euro128.5m was practically identical to
the previous six month period in euro terms with a 2.5% increase in local
currency terms. Distribution and channel services revenue increased 23% over the
previous six month period while enterprise solutions revenue decreased by 12.8%
in euro terms or 8.9% in local currency terms. The growth in revenue in the
Irish distribution and channel services division was attributable to stronger
customer demand, an improvement in market share and a one-off benefit from a
Northern Ireland government rollout of IT equipment to schools. The weakness in
enterprise solutions revenue arose in the UK enterprise infrastructure and
services (EIS) business, which grew significantly since its launch in 2000, but
as expected, suffered in the first half of 2003 as a result of reduced customer
spending, particularly in very large, lower margin capital projects. The Irish
EIS and the Irish enterprise application and services (EAS) businesses continued
to perform strongly.

Gross profit margin for the six months to June 2003 at 11.6% was down from the
11.9% achieved in the six months to December 2002, reflecting the change in the
sales mix between distribution and channel services revenue and enterprise
solutions revenue. The gross profit margin in the enterprise solutions division
increased from 14.7% to 15.9% reflecting higher services content and a change in
the sales mix in the UK EIS business. In the distribution and channel services
division gross profit margins fell principally because of a very low margin on
the project to rollout IT infrastructure to schools in Northern Ireland.

Trading profit (pre goodwill) for the six months to June 2003 at Euro3.29m is up
28.6% on the comparative six month period to June 2002 and 3.6% on the previous
six month period. The improvement on the previous six month period is primarily
due to a further 5.7% cut in staff costs and a 1.2% reduction in other costs, as
the group continued to benefit from its internal emphasis on cost efficiency and
overhead reduction. Headcount has remained relatively static over the six month
period. The current full time equivalent headcount of 204 compares to 208 six
months ago. Costs have been reduced by 46% since the equivalent period of last
year and by 68% from the peak level in March 2001. Productivity improvements
have been significant, revenue per employee is now a very satisfactory Euro1.26m
per annum.

Progress has been made in the drive to reduce the future lease obligations for
properties that lie vacant. These liabilities arose from the sale of the Cisco
training business and the restructuring process. The group has entered into, or
expects to enter into, agreements to sub-let, assign or otherwise dispose of a
number of these obligations. The combined benefit of these agreements is to
create annual cash inflow of Euro1m thereby reducing the annual cost of vacant
properties from Euro2.9m to Euro1.9m in early years. The directors have estimated the
income that can reasonably be expected from remaining vacant properties and,
having taken into account the weakness of the commercial property market, have
concluded that the accounts should include a non-operating exceptional charge of
Euro1.25m and a balance sheet provision for future costs of Euro5.7m.

The group's cash flow and financial position remain strong. Net cash balances at
30 June 2003 were Euro2.5m. In the six-month period to June 2003, stock days were
reduced by 4 to 24 days and debtors days were trimmed by 6 to 43 days. This was
offset, as expected, by a 16 day reduction in creditors days, principally
attributable to the reduction in the credit received from HP following the HP/
Compaq merger.

Through careful management of the cash conversion cycle, capital efficiency has
shown a marked improvement. Working capital has been reduced over an 18 month
period by Euro33m or from 42 days to 9 days. A number of factors contributed to the
particularly low level of working capital of Euro6.6m at 30 June 2003 and a more
realistic maintainable level for the future will be approximately Euro8m higher.



OUTLOOK

Although the market has become less volatile, IT spending shows no sign of
significant improvement in the short term. Unit volumes and services delivered
will show reasonable growth but as a result of productivity improvements and
reductions in vendors margins, market revenue growth will be marginal, if any.

However, Horizon has completed its consolidation process and has strong market
positions, a very competitive cost structure and efficient processes. In
addition, it has excellent relationships with blue-chip customers and global IT
vendors and a debt free balance sheet. Leveraging these competitive advantages
has enabled Horizon to grow market share even in challenging market conditions
and the group expects this trend to continue.

The group will continue to develop and enhance its existing businesses to create
growth in profit and cash flow. Although the group remains cautious, it will
constantly monitor the developing IT market in the UK and Ireland to identify
new opportunities that would achieve growth in profit and shareholder value.

Horizon is a profitable group, commercially and financially well positioned and
ready to take advantage of any upturn in market conditions.


Samir Naji
Executive Chairman

2 September 2003





OPERATING REVIEW
for the six months ended 30 June 2003



DIVISIONAL ANALYSIS

The group operates through two separate trading divisions, namely enterprise
solutions (previously referred to as IT services) and distribution and channel
services. The performance of each division is detailed

[parvez] 03/9/2003 00:46

Slight shakedown today but not likely to last much longer as not many shares about.....

[blackbear] 02/9/2003 16:27

absolutley... picked back up later ... looking good ......

[blackbear] 02/9/2003 00:42

not much stock coming in , could see 70p by the end of the week....

[blackbear] 02/9/2003 00:41

company does have a few high profile customers...

O2 on-Line: O2's Integrated Mobile Internet Service
Xerox: Building World Class Data Centre Infrastructures for Global Organisation
Vivao: Integrating the Internet and Wireless Worlds
Care4Free.com: New Multi-Channel Portal for over 20 Major UK Charities
Expocentric.com: First Interactive 3D Virtual Exhibition Website
University of Ulster: Consolidated Server and Storage Platform




Business Solutions
Case Study
Waterford Crystal: Waterford Crystal Data Warehouse
Pepsi Cola: OLIS Warehouse
Elan Pharmaceutical: Quality Reporting System
Elan Pharmaceutical: Regulatory Projects Tracking System
Elan Pharmaceutical: Electronic Document Indexing System



Application Solutions
Case Study
AIB Group: On-Line Business Calculators
Bank of Ireland: Same Day Money Transfer
Bank of Ireland: Customer Information Point Touch Screen Services
Eircom: Delivering Customer Service
Davy Stockbrokers: Share Price and Research Companies System
Janssen Pharmaceutical: Change Control System
Saab.ie: On-Line Content Management System




this is a mid cap stock going for penny's

[blackbear] 02/9/2003 00:28

long way to go yet..

[blackbear] 02/9/2003 00:25

wouldnt be supprised of an mbo at this price ..shall see an offer sooner than later market cap still only 34 million...silly money for a company with no debt ..

[alan6012] 01/9/2003 15:22

falling back - shakedown?

[blackbear] 01/9/2003 14:38

cm lane what debt do u mean , im under the impression they r in the black??

[cmlane] 01/9/2003 13:14

I like this, going to keep an eye on it .... too little volume for me to jump in right now ... those 30k sells look a little worrying too.

They're carrying a lot of debt, but are also holding a lot of shares/investments. Will see if I can get an idea of what they're holding.

[alan6012] 01/9/2003 13:07

Im not sure to be honest - There are very little shares out there and the company has no debt and looks a good takeover target.

[irresponsible] 01/9/2003 11:54

Never mind the charts - fundamentals suggest 100+ is on its way.
Would make a nice takeover target for CCC.

[blackbear] 30/8/2003 10:47

Yes you could be right icebube , would be nice to get some news from the co....

good to see a few more posters.

[icecube] 30/8/2003 10:37

Not an expert on charts but someone told me this is breaking up through resistances not seen in a few years...

[icecube] 30/8/2003 10:34

Anyone know when results are due in , maybe this rise is due to great expectations , last report was in march..... must be very soon....

[smoketrader] 30/8/2003 00:28

Thanks blackbear. I actually came across these from doing a search for stocks in a weekly uptrend and visited this thread last week to see what else I could find out. From my limited knowledge of company fundamentals they do look nice.

[blackbear] 30/8/2003 00:26

Not too late smokey..

[blackbear] 30/8/2003 00:22

smoketrader, the market cap has hardly changed , 29 million is redicuasly low.

[denpot] 30/8/2003 00:06

should've bought some earlier when i posted..

[icecube] 29/8/2003 13:44

Yourve got more patience than me blackbear , i sold out last time at 28p , now im back in at a higher price , i never learn , gonna put them under the matress this time..

[irresponsible] 29/8/2003 11:38

Don't think you are missing anything. Funny thing is, it still looks fairly cheap.

[denpot] 29/8/2003 08:38

can someone who's followed this company longer put me straight -
1.has four businesses all profitable
2.has eliminated all debt
3.has a turnover of 321 million euro's
4.market cap of only £26 mill
5.directors have been buying

looks good is there anything im missing?

i know its fairly illiquid but seems to be a fairly sound company.

any ideas as to what they plan to do with the vacant properties they have now after shutting down the cisco training centre etc..?

[irresponsible] 19/8/2003 00:20

Nice to see that it just keeps going up. Current cap given by ADVFN as £26 mill. with turnover of £321 mill. and, I think, all debt repaid.
I agree, £1 looks on the cards.