Interim Results for the Six Months Ended 31 December 2012

IPPlus Plc today announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2012.

Extracts from the Company's half-yearly report appear below and the full version will shortly be made available on the Company's website www.ipplusplc.com.

For further details, please contact:

Financial Highlights

• Revenues increased by £686,976 (20%) compared to the corresponding prior year period
• Ansaback division continues to win new fixed seat business, revenue up by 15% on prior year period
• CallScripter secures important international contracts increasing revenue by 27%
• IP3 Telecom achieves level 1 credit card compliant solution with PCI-PAL
• Ancora Solutions revenue improves after successful contract wins, up 52% on prior year period
• Profit before taxation, after non-recurring costs of £71,252, was £174,732 (2011: £179,959)
• Net cash of £445,557 at 31 December 2012 (30 June 2012: £317,350)
  

Chairman's statement

Financial Summary

Notwithstanding a difficult economic backdrop, the Group has successfully grown its revenue and developed new business over the six month period to 31 December 2012.

Ansaback has made progress in a highly competitive space with a shift to increasing numbers of fixed seats which, whilst beneficial in certain aspects, puts the margins under pressure.

CallScripter has similarly made good progress and has seen more business opportunities via reseller channels to overseas clients which represent the majority of the sales increases.

IP3 Telecom has made steady progress and successfully launched its PCI-PAL credit card solution, which significantly reduces the risk of credit card fraud. PCI-PAL has achieved full level one accreditation from the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council governed by the world's major payment card companies. Ansaback clients use the IP3 network platform to enhance services and provide primary disaster recovery functions. We anticipate continued growth from this division having invested heavily in PCI-PAL's development over the period.

Ancora Solutions showed a substantial improvement against its corresponding period in 2011 by winning new clients and completing several large archive moves. Furthermore, the pipeline of tenders and contracts is encouraging.

Overall the Group has continued its forward momentum and generated a profit before taxation for the six months to 31 December 2012 of £174,732 (December 2011: £179,959). This was achieved on increased revenue of £4,058,279 (December 2011: £3,371,303). The result would have shown a marked improvement over the prior period but was impacted by £71,252 of non-recurring PCI development costs.

Business Summary

IPPlus PLC operates through two principal subsidiaries, IPPlus (UK) Limited and CallScripter Limited.

The Group now trades under five trading styles namely Ansaback, IP3 Telecom incorporating PCI-PAL, Ancora Solutions and CallScripter.

Ansaback is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week bureau telephony service providing overflow and out of hours call handling, emergency cover, dedicated phone resources, non-geographic, low call and Freephone telephone facilities as well as disaster recovery lines and other ancillary telecommunication services.

CallScripter is an enhanced customer interaction software suite specifically developed for contact centres, telesales and telemarketing operations. Our clients gain major benefits by introducing CallScripter's dynamic scripting environment into their organisation. The software facilitates the rapid set-up, handling and reporting of sophisticated inbound, outbound and e-mail campaigns.

IP3 Telecom is the telephony services arm of Ansaback and provides a range of network level interactive call services.  With options for self-sufficiency or fully managed services, the platform gives the user the ability to run a professional call handling operation without the necessity for expensive hardware, installation, and on-going maintenance costs.

PCI-PAL is a hosted level one compliant credit card solution which enables customers to directly enter credit card details using their telephone keypad, significantly reducing the risk of credit card fraud.

Ancora Solutions is a regional leader in document storage and secure document destruction serving many leading blue chip companies within the legal, medical, property, and transportation sectors. 

Review of Operations

Revenue comparison for the six months to 31 December 2012:

Ansaback

• Ansaback revenue increased by 15% compared to the six months to December 2011
• Fixed seat business increased by 146% from £428,000 to £1,052,000
• Billable minutes decreased 19% from 2,732,506 to 2,212,677
• PCI-PAL Level 1 PCI DSS certification achieved - first banking customer signed 

As a result of more fixed seat demand, there has been a substantial increase in revenue from this sector.

A split of the Ansaback call centre revenue is shown below:

Bureau - 47%

Fixed Seat - 40%

Other - 13%

Last year's increase in the number of available agent positions has allowed us to compete more effectively for larger enquiries, usually incorporating further fixed seat services. The larger client business tends to have a longer incubation period before going live in the call centre than the previously more traditional billable minute clients.

Telecoms, DRTV, R/etail and Charity sectors continue to be strong with a more difficult economic environment contributing to an increase in client movement, as businesses both in-source and out-source additional work.

Internal reporting and new product development have become increasingly important, with PCI-PAL and other recent communication advances enabling Ansaback to compete effectively in a more security conscious market.

Having achieved Level 1 compliance to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ("PCI DSS") status with the PCI-PAL product in August 2012, IP3 Telecom is now one of only five UK hosted telecoms providers offering an agent assisted payment solution. This has resulted in exposure to new markets with new business won in the period in both the payments and banking sectors.

With PCI Level 1 compliance adding an additional service offering, IP3 Telecom is now well positioned to compete in many sectors.  A sales focus on the Payment Card Industry ("PCI") sector has been evident as we work to capitalise on the early mover advantage in the PCI space.

CallScripter

CallScripter revenue continues to show solid growth with the division growing by 27% compared with the same period last year.

The Original Equipment Manufacturer collaboration with Interactive Intelligence has been renegotiated for their new 4.0 Dialler release. It is expected that this will increase the royalty revenues we receive for the core software product that we supply. Our close relationship also continues to grow with increasing sales across the US and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) territories, a particular highlight being a joint win to one of the largest worldwide outsourcers.

As we further develop our relationship with Genesys, CallScripter has been successful in winning a joint bid with Tieto Deutschland GmbH, a €2Bn revenue European systems integrator and one of Genesys' leading partners worldwide, to one of the largest central European banks.

We also continue to see growth from existing clients with the revenue split between direct and channels now running at approximately 50:50. 

The market remains challenging but the expanded partner team has struck additional partner deals in North and South America, plus further expansion across Europe, which is expected to continue to add momentum.

CallScripter's relationship with eLoyalty, the gold certified US Cisco partner where we enrich their desktop environment with our world class scripting solution, continues to progress well and be led by the flagship joint installation at one of the US's largest insurance companies. This project has now been in full production for just under a year.

Ancora Solutions

Ancora Solutions revenues have increased by 52% compared with the same period last year. This is based on an increase in removals and new archiving business from the Public Sector following on from the implementation of our new Electronic Document Management system. We are now able to offer digital and digital hybrid offerings. The Directors believe that Ancora's success is based on working closely with business managers, covering factors such as information security and regulatory demands.

The increase in our sales has been primarily driven from within the specialist removals sector, where two large national tenders were won and completed.

International removals continue to show progress and we expect to develop this throughout the second half of the year. The pipeline across all sectors looks strong and repeat business from our customers has increased significantly.

Dividend

In line with precedent the company will not be declaring an interim dividend.

Outlook

The Board is pleased with the Group's development in the six months to 31 December 2012 which was achieved in difficult business conditions. The Board looks forward to reporting further progress.

Philip Dayer

Chairman

8 February 2013

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