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Friday 24 September, 2010
Daniel Stewart Secs
Final Results
RNS Number : 2524T
Daniel Stewart Securities PLC
24 September 2010
24 September 2010
DANIEL STEWART SECURITIES PLC
(AIM)
("Daniel Stewart" or "the Company")
FINAL RESULTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2010
The Board of Daniel Stewart, the investment bank offering corporate advisory and institutional stockbroking services, announces its final results for the yearended 31 March 2010.
FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
· Group revenues of £3.5m (2009: £4.4m)
· Reported loss after tax of £2.9m (2009: loss £2.8m); fully diluted loss per share of 0.97p (2009: 1.11p)
· Liquidity remains strong. Cash at year end of £1.3m (2009: £1.2m)
· Client numbers: 50 up from 49 at year end 2009
· Post period end showing early signs of improvement in revenues
Commenting on today's announcement, Peter Shea, Group Chief Executive, said:
"We have continued to provide a quality service to our clients, adding both product and geographical spread during the year. Additionally, we believe that our strategy of outstanding research supported by access to international capital markets, including the UK, will be successful.
"The acquisition of MENA-RL, headed by Adam Wilson who is over-seeing our international business drive, further highlights our ambition. We raised significant amounts of new capital for our clients during the period and hope to benefit from further growth in the number of transactions completed.
"We have seen some revenue improvement during the first half of this year and expect to report an improvement over last year. Our pipeline of deals is growing and we are confident that we will achieve a number of completions before the end of the calendar year."
--ENDS--
Enquiries:
DANIEL STEWART SECURITIES PLC Tel: 020 7776 6550
Peter Shea
BISHOPSGATE COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED Tel: 020 7562 3350
Maxine Barnes
Nick Rome
danielstewart@bishopsgatecommunications.com
ARBUTHNOT SECURITIES Tel: 020 7012 2000
Nick Tulloch
Ed Groome
Notes to Editors:
About Daniel Stewart
Daniel Stewart Securities is an AIM-listed company providing a range of investment banking services to Small Cap publicly traded and non-publicly traded companies. The Group has two subsidiaries, Daniel Stewart and Company, the Group's principal operating subsidiary, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the London Stock Exchange, and Daniel Stewart Capital, the Group's leasing and debt financing division.
CHAIRMAN'S LETTER TO THE SHAREHOLDERS
Dear Shareholder
I am pleased to be able to present our results for the year ended 31 March 2010.
Market conditions throughout the fiscal period have remained difficult. Global political and economic uncertainty combined with a general election at home has ensured that capital markets have remained depressed. Despite this we remained financially sound throughout, primarily as a result of quick and effective management action, which means we have solid foundations in place for the business to grow.
By refocusing certain lines of our business and implementing some cost cutting initiatives during the second half, the Company is now well positioned and able to sustain itself.
We firmly believe that our strategy of seeking wider distribution channels by the establishment of co-operation agreements with local partners will ensure that, as markets recover, our ability to place stock will be dramatically enhanced. Importantly, the development of a wider geographic presence means that we are able to offer services to companies that historically have been outside of our purview.
This is highlighted by our burgeoning relationship with the OTCQX market. We have established strong working relationships not only with our US partner but also with the exchange itself and the supporting DR Banks. This has led to some success during the year with us assisting in establishing OTCQX programmes for Gulf Keystone and Nighthawk. We have more in the pipeline which we expect to complete during 2010/11.
We substantially added to our capabilities to service our clients by way of the acquisition of MENA-RL in July 2010, a Dubai-based advisory business, and we have commenced a programme of corporate presentations to appropriate Middle East investors. We are confident that this acquisition will bring us early rewards. We have continued to put greater effort into the development of our retail product with the addition of dedicated sales on our CFD platform and have strengthened our sales team by taking on additional personnel. We intend to expand this area further should the opportunity present itself.
We are delighted that our shareholders continue to show confidence in our business plan by providing us with additional capital as we require it. We accessed the capital markets for funding of £2 million which has meant that we ended the year with cash balances of £1.3m- a 13% improvement on the previous year's balance.
The first part of the new fiscal year has started brightly for us but we are cautious about the economy and are not anticipating any substantial improvement. We have a reasonably healthy order book and believe that we will, this year, return to profitability.
I would like to thank all the staff and shareholders for their continued support and dedication.
Peter Shea
Chairman
24 September 2010
Chief Executive's review
This review contains several subjective and forward looking statements which have been made by the Directors in good faith based upon the information available to them at the time. Any subjective or forward-looking statement should be considered by the user within the context of economic and business risk.
Business Environment
Economic conditions throughout the period have been very poor with worldwide recession. The capital markets for small and mid cap companies effectively closed with barely a handful of transactions being completed on AIM.
Results of Operations
Revenue for the twelve months was £3.6 million down from £4.4 million for the previous year - a fall of 19%. Our gross profit performance deteriorated by 16% on the previous year, returning £3.5 million versus £4.2 million for 2009. At the operating level, before share based payments and exceptional items we had a loss of £2.8 million compared to a loss of £2.6 million for 2009. Staffing levels were 41 during the year up from 39 in 2009. Administrative costs rose by 8% from £6 million in 2009 to £6.4 million. After taking into account interest, depreciation and amortisation our loss was £2.9 million, the same as last year. The loss is after £0.2 million in exceptional charges and share based payments. No bonuses of cash or shares were accrued during the year. The charge for share based payments being related to awards from previous years.
Equity Capital Markets
At year-end 31 March 2010 our retained AIM and other public market client base consisted of 50 companies. We completed 23 transactions and acted on the admission of £45.7 million in new capital on both primary and secondary issues.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Net Assets fell from £3.8 million in 2009 to £3.0 million. Working capital remained positive although lower than last year. Operating cash flow improved by £1.7 million, our cash position at year end had improved to £1.4 million primarily as a result of our equity offering which raised £2.1 million during the year.
Corporate Finance
Our corporate finance team acted on 24 transactions during the year.
Equity Research
We continue to focus upon quality research as we are confident that the delivery of such a service is paramount to our clients. It ensures that investors are informed on a timely and accurate basis and provides them with invaluable information in formulating their investment decisions.
Employees
As at 31 March 2010 we employed 38 members of staff, compared to 39 at the end of 2009.
Premises
During the year we concluded our negotiation on our premises as expected - as such we will be remaining in Becket House for the foreseeable future.
Outlook
We concluded our 2009/10 review of costs and have reduced our head count in some areas. We successfully completed the IPO for Metminco and have secured a number of the transactions to be completed during the year, which should mean that we see some improvement in our financial position. We remain confident but cautious about the balance of the calendar year.
Peter Shea
Group Chief Executive
24 September 2010
The results for the year ended 31 March 2010 were approved by the Board on 24 September 2010 and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2010 will be sent to shareholders in due course.
 Financial Statements
Annual Report
A copy of our annual report will be available on our website by 30 September 2010 when it will also be posted to shareholders.
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