DOWNLOAD Sat 15th October 2011 Equiniti Mid Year Review 2010

Mid Year Review 2010
Equiniti Enterprises Limited
Summary mid‐year update for the six months ended 30 June 2010
Equiniti Enterprises Limited Summary mid‐year update for the six months ended 30 June 2010 The Directors of Equiniti Enterprises Limited present their summary mid‐year update for the business for the six months ended 30 June 2010. This information is extracted from the unaudited management accounts. Trading Update Equiniti, the UK’s leading provider of share registration services and employee share plan administration, has continued to develop those sectors and the complementary sectors of investment services and business process outsourcing (“BPO”). Equiniti has performed well during the first six months of 2010 despite a continuation of depressed market conditions. Our Key Performance Indicators both contracted slightly when compared to a strong performance for the similar period in 2009:  Income in the period was £73.6m, down from £76.1m;  Operating profit in the period was down £0.6m from £20.3m to £19.7m. The Board is encouraged by this performance given the low levels of corporate activity in particular, income from this source in the period was down by almost 50% compared to the similar period in 2009. A strong and growing performance in Investment Services through increased dealing volumes and new business wins in BPO from the Public Sector helped make up for the low levels of corporate actions and asset reunification, and show positive signs of opportunity. We continue to see in‐house operations transferring to professional and efficient third party administrators like ourselves, where the outsourcer benefits from cost savings and the service enhancements we can offer. Equiniti continues to maintain its UK market leading position in terms of FTSE 350 market share, which is broadly unchanged from 2009. We have continued to offer our clients innovative solutions. The successful completion of Lloyds Banking Group’s rights issue demonstrates our capabilities in the management and administration of complex financial tasks. This rights issue was the largest ever undertaken in the UK, raising £13.5 billion across 2.8 million shareholders and with the conversion of £8.7 billion of securities in the associated exchange offer. We are investing over £2m in new web‐based services in our employee share plan business. Our ESP Portal will provide a single web environment for our clients’ employees to transact, enquire and educate themselves about their share plan entitlements and holdings. And within the customer contact centre we have set up a dedicated handling service for sensitive matters such as bereavement where specially trained staff provide appropriate levels of care for callers and enquiries. Our investment services team have re‐shaped the Shareview service offering and has achieved our highest ever NPS score – an independent survey of customer satisfaction. In 2009 we reported on the acquisitions of David Venus Limited, our company secretarial services business, and ICS Computing Limited (now Equiniti ICS Limited), our BPO business. We have successfully integrated these businesses into the group and we are continuing to seek and evaluate high quality acquisitions which can add value to Equiniti. In January, Advent International purchased Xafinity, one of the UK’s leading specialist providers of pensions, employee benefits and payments expertise, managing £8 billion annually. Following a strategic review, the Equiniti Group has been established, which will oversee both Equiniti and Xafinity. Whilst Xafinity and Equiniti continue to trade and report as separate legal entities and under their existing brands and client service teams, the combined business will have over 1,700 clients, more than 3,500 staff and combined revenues of around £300m. The Equiniti Group is headed by CEO Wayne Story and CFO Alasdair Marnoch who were respectively CEO of Equiniti and CFO of Xafinity. The formation of the Equiniti Group will create opportunities to expand and build on these strongly performing businesses to provide a wider range of services to support our clients. Outlook We expect challenging market conditions to continue in the second half of 2010, with low levels of corporate activity foreseen, but our streamlined back office functions and improved service offerings and capabilities mean that our business model enhancements position us strongly for growth and expansion. We are continuing to invest, both in our business, our people and to drive service improvements. We continue to look for add‐on acquisitions and appropriate global partnerships that fit our core growth strategy at the same time as we work to complete the integration of the Equiniti and Xafinity businesses. We will provide a further update to performance with our annual report and accounts for 2010 in July 2011.