EBIQUITY PLC

Earnings Release • Jul 27, 2016

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RNS Number : 3058F

Ebiquity PLC

27 July 2016

Ebiquity Plc                                          

("the Company")

Trading Update

Ebiquity plc, the leading independent marketing analytics specialists, today announces a trading statement for the half year ended 30 June 2016.

Ebiquity continues to grow revenue and profit ahead of the equivalent period last year with overall performance broadly in line with market expectations.

The Media Value Measurement practice (MVM) continued to grow in the first half of the year, although we experienced a slow-down in the rate of growth as some contract renewals and new business awards were delayed - particularly in the US - as advertisers awaited the publication of the US Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) Media Transparency reports.  We anticipate faster year on year revenue growth over the remainder of the year as advertisers action the ANA's recommendations, prepared in partnership with Ebiquity and FirmDecisions, which were released on 18 July.

The Marketing Performance Optimization practice (MPO) has generated significant growth across all markets and achieved record growth overall. We expect strong performance from this practice over the remainder of the year.

The Market Intelligence practice (MI), as previously reported, operates in a highly competitive environment with revenues for this business anticipated to decline.  Revenue from our platform business (Portfolio) was broadly flat year on year outside the US where revenue reflected pressure on client budgets. Our project based business further contracted as expected although at a faster rate than planned. We are continuing to progress our product development and previews of our upcoming product launches have been well received by clients.  These product enhancements should be available for the 2017 renewal season.

With approximately two-thirds of Group revenue denominated in non-Sterling currencies, we have received some revenue benefit from Sterling's weakness in the first half of the year. Should this continue, there will be further revenue benefit in the second half of the year, accompanied by a proportionate increase in costs and an overall neutral impact on operating margins.

The Company is confident of achieving Board expectations for the full year to 31 December 2016 with improved growth in MVM and a strong performance in MPO offsetting the weaker than initially anticipated performance from MI. 

On 28 September 2016 the Company will release its interim report for the six month period ended 30 June 2016.

27 July 2016

Enquiries:

Ebiquity plc Michael Karg (CEO) Andrew Beach (CFOO)	020 7650 9600
Instinctif Partners Matthew Smallwood Guy Scarborough	020 7457 2020
Numis Securities Limited Nick Westlake (NOMAD) Toby Adcock (Corporate Broker)	020 7260 1000

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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