Dods Results Steady as it Awaits De Havilland Clearance

Public sector specialist Dods Group Plc has announced preliminary results for 2011, with revenue down to £15.3m from £16.1m in 2010, and profit margin and adjusted earnings steady. The group is still waiting on clearance for its takeover of intelligence provider DeHavilland.

Dods, which announced an agreement to buy political monitoring and tracking firm DeHavilland Political Intelligence from Emap for £12.8m in January this year, maintained its gross profit margin at 33%, reduced its statutory loss attributable to shareholders from £1.3m to £0.9m and held adjusted EBITDA at £1.9m, while achieving double digit growth in its digital subscriptions, which now constitute 33% of Group revenue. It has also been successful in a major tender, for Civil Service Learning, which it expects to have a major beneficial effect on company performance in the year to come.

Non-Executive Chairman Kevin Hand says the company is 'expanding its competitive position at a challenging time in its markets, which has seen a number of competitors exit the market.'

Segments of the business showed widely different performance. The group's UK and EU political information & intelligence digital businesses grew revenue by 22%; UK digital products made continued strong progress with a combined revenue increase of 21% and a 28% increase in contribution; meanwhile the core Dods political businesses delivered flat revenue but an 8% growth in EBITDA. UK Information & Intelligence products showed both strong renewal rates and strong new business throughout the year, but Hand says the integration of DeHavilland in 2012 'will be key to the continued growth of this area' - a decision from the OFT is still pending.

DeHavilland's political intelligence and parliamentary monitoring service delivers news, information and bespoke research via an online platform and team of researchers, and is designed to help public affairs professionals track, monitor and evaluate the political environment.

Web sites: www.dodsgroupplc.com and www.dehavilland.co.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.