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IGNITE LIMITED Annual Report 2008

Aug 26, 2008

65110_rns_2008-08-26_1e5e97ae-7dc5-4e15-bc95-0d7c6ba09c4a.pdf

Annual Report

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ASX Preliminary Final Report

Period ended 30 June 2008

Lodged with the ASX under Listing Rule 4.3A 27 August 2008

Results for Announcement to the Market

Highlights

  • Revenue – $321 million, up 8% from $298 million in prior year

  • Earnings Before Interest and Tax – $17.8 million, or $18.9 million before one-offs. Without the impact of one-offs, EBIT was down $0.9 million – 5% - from prior year of $19.8 million.

  • Net Profit After Tax – $11.3 million or $12.1 million before one-offs. Without the impact of one-offs, NPAT was down 10% from prior year’s NPAT of $13.4 million, or 15% down inclusive of one-offs.

  • Basic Earnings per share of 20.3 cents per share

  • Final Dividend –7.0 cents per share fully franked. This takes the full year dividend to 16 cents per share fully franked in line with policy of 70-80% of NPAT. The record date for the final dividend is 16th September 2008. Payment date 30[th] September 2008.

Contents

  • Financial Performance

  • Management Comments

  • Audited Financial Reports (attachment)

CLARIUS GROUP LIMITED_ABN 43 002 724 334_2008 FULL YEAR RESULTS 1

Financial performance

Clarius Group, Australia’s leading white collar employment services company, announces EBIT of $17.8 million, or $18.9 million before one-off costs. The result was in line with previous guidance. One-off costs were incurred in the first half and relate to closure of a business, redundancies and replacement of the CEO and CFO. The result was a reduction from prior year EBIT of $2.0 million, or $0.9 million after one-offs.

In line with this, Net profit after tax (NPAT) was $12.1 million after one-offs, or $11.3 million.

Revenue increased by eight percent to $321 million, largely due to acquisitions.

The Candle Board has declared a fully franked final dividend of 7c per share, taking the full year dividend to 16c per share fully franked, representing a payout ratio of 80% of reported NPAT or 75% of NPAT without the impact of one-off costs. The Board has also announced that the Dividend Reinvestment Plan will operate with a 5% discount for the final dividend.

Operating cash flow was slightly negative - $0.33 million - over the course of the year as the Group absorbed working capital requirements for two acquisitions – JAV IT and Southtech, and received a significant late payment of $3.1 million from a large multinational customer. Adjusting for the late payment, the second half operating cashflow was positive $6.9 million.

Management Comments on the Result and Challenges over the Past Year

The Clarius Group focuses on IT services, contracting and recruitment in Asia Pacific. With tremendous value in our heritage brands of Candle, Alliance and the One Umbrella we have been able to achieve strong revenue and profit growth through “bolt on” acquisitions during the past 5 years. Organic growth has been low, and the leverage available through acquisitions enabled Clarius to deliver a series of good results. We entered the 2007/2008 with 3 major challenges

  1. Loss of a major client in Candle (advised in Feb 2007 with a full impact in the six months ending June 2008) and an overall low level of organic growth across all major brands.

  2. Major staff loss in Lloyd Morgan Australia in May 2007, which led to a significant downturn in activity and financial loss during the half ended December 2007

  3. Back office operations that are largely manual with acquisitions that had to be migrated to common financial or recruitment systems

The new CEO and Managing Director – Diana Eilert – was appointed on 28[th] August 2007. She commented “I am delighted to say we have made significant progress on these 3 operational issues

  1. During the 2nd half we focused on growing contractor numbers and were able to stem the outflow, ending the half slightly up.

  2. In October I hired a new head of the Lloyd Morgan Australia business – Greg Smith. Greg has been able to return Lloyd Morgan to profit in the 2nd half. This was achieved by focusing the team on performance, hiring some experienced account managers to supplement the capable team already in place and eliminating costs.

CLARIUS GROUP LIMITED_ABN 43 002 724 334_2008 FULL YEAR RESULTS 2

  1. Our CFO and Head of Shared Services, David Marshall, joined the Group in December 2007. Through his IT and finance teams, David has led the migration of our systems to common platforms, processes and reporting. This was completed at the end of June 2008.

Whilst the processing and reporting now occurs largely on common platforms, there is now an opportunity to automate the back office to achieve customer service, cash flow and productivity savings.”

In addition to these operational achievements, the business has also significantly strengthened the management team. Apart from a new CFO – David Marshall –and a new Head of Lloyd Morgan – Greg Smith – both of whom have already led improvements in the operational performance of the business, subsequent to the close of the financial year, the new CEO of Candle and CEO of JAV IT have been appointed.

“Shifting Gears”

The major challenge Clarius currently faces is that of shifting to a culture of sustainable, substantial organic growth. Whilst we will continue to pursue acquisitions opportunistically, the change in market valuations, means that the majority of acquisitions are no longer attractive or accretive for shareholders.

In February 2008, we embarked on “Project Futureforce”, a project that aims to create a salesforce and business model that is robust and replicable and drives profitable growth. Whilst the investment is significant, the cost is largely in people and training. This investment can be “wound up or down” should economic environment change. The project is on track, with our new training programmes commencing on 1[st] July. New business models and remuneration schemes have been designed and piloting is commencing, with full rollout in Candle during this half.

Our focus in the first six months of FY09 is on improved cashflow management. This project entails a small technology investment that will automate contractor payments. From this we expect to achieve further customer cash flow and productivity benefits, mostly in the second half of FY09.

Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP)

A 5% discount shall apply to the final dividend according to the rules of the Dividend Reinvestment Plan. The last date for receipt of election notices (the record date) is 16 September 2008. Dividend payments will be made on 30[th] September 2008. Details of the Plan including the application form are available at www.clarius.com.au or by request to the company.

Annual General Meeting

The AGM will be held at 3pm on Tuesday 28 October 2008, at Room II, Level 3, The Establishment, 252 George Street, Sydney 2000.

CLARIUS GROUP LIMITED_ABN 43 002 724 334_2008 FULL YEAR RESULTS 3

About Clarius Group Limited

Clarius Group (ASX: CND) is a specialist in the employment services market providing recruitment, contractor and staff services across the Asia Pacific region.

Established over twenty four years ago and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1997, Clarius Group has a reputation for high-quality delivery and remains one of the largest, longest standing and best performing recruitment suppliers in the region.

Clarius Group operates through a number of quality specialist brands:

Recruitment

  • Candle ICT Information and Communications Technology

  • Alliance Accounting, Business Support and Financial Services

  • Lloyd Morgan Executive Recruitment

  • The One Umbrella Library and Records Management

  • SouthTech Personnel

Aligned Services

  • JAV IT Managed IT Services and Professional IT

  • Reality Check Pre-Employment Screening

Clarius Group employs over 450 staff through a network of offices located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra in Australia; Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand; Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen in China; Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia; and Singapore.

For further information

Diana Eilert – Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director - Tel: 02 9250 8100

David Marshall - Chief Financial Officer - Tel: 02 9250 8100

For a copy of the Full Year Report, visit our website www.clarius.com.au

CLARIUS GROUP LIMITED_ABN 43 002 724 334_2008 FULL YEAR RESULTS 4

Results for announcement to the market

This announcement is to be read in conjunction with the attached audited financial report

Year ended 30 June 2008

Previous corresponding period is year ended 30 June 2007

$’000
Revenuefrom ordinary activities Up 8% To 321,429
Profit / (loss)from ordinary activities
after tax attributable to members
Down 15% To 11,333
Net profit / (loss)for the period
attributable to members
Down 15% To 11,333
Earningsper security Cents
Basic EPS (cents per share) Down 21% To 20.3
Diluted EPS (cents per share) Down 20% To 19.0
Operating cash flow Down 102% to (330) thousand
Net tangible assets per security Down 33% to 27.6 cents
Dividends Amount
per security
Franked amount
per security
Final dividend $0.07 100%
Interim dividend $0.09 100%
Record datefor determining entitlement to final dividend 16 September 2008
Ex-dividend date 10 September 2008
Payment dateof final dividend 30 September 2008

CLARIUS GROUP LIMITED_ABN 43 002 724 334_2008 FULL YEAR RESULTS 5