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Optimisa Revenue Almost Doubled
In the UK, marketing services group Optimisa has reported a climb in pretax profits to £1.26m from £0.73m, while revenue rose to £11.42m from £5.89m a year ago. Gross profit also increased 75% from £4.62m to £8.09m, and the Board says it is looking forward to 2008 with confidence.
 During the year, the group - which comprises kae: marketing intelligence, nxtMOVE, Report International, and Andrew Irving Associates (AIA) - more than doubled in size with last October's acquisition of EQ Group for a total cost of £13.13m.
The results for the year to 31 December 2007 include more than £2.09m in revenue and £0.28m of operating profit from the companies within EQ, which include Buckingham Research Associates, Quaestor Research & Marketing Strategists and Summit Studios.
CEO Simon Dannatt said that organic growth in revenue for KAE alone was more than 33%, with operating margins before central costs well in excess of 20%.
Dannatt confirmed the group's plans to further expand into North America and Asia during the year, and says that it is 'aggressively pursuing' more work in the Asian region where it expects to have a team of 20 in place by the end of the year.
He added that while there is clearly some uncertainty in how the current financial turbulence will influence the spending patterns of the groups' clients, to date there has been little impact on Optimisa's core business. 'Having said this, we are keeping a very watchful eye on business in general and are keeping tight control on operating expenses to ensure any sector downturn is spotted and dealt with quickly,' Dannatt concluded.
Profit attributable to equity shareholders for the year was £1m, compared with £0.63m in the prior year, while earnings per share rose to 16.56 pence from 12.79 pence last year.
The group started 2007 with 56 employees and has now increased this to a headcount of 200. Web site: www.optimisaplc.com .
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