Anite delivers 'encouraging' trading ahead of last year

Anite, a FTSE 250 firm which provides software solutions to the international wireless and leisure travel industries, has reported 'encouraging' trading in the four months since May 1st, the start of its financial year.

During this period, total group revenue and adjusted operating profit were ahead of a strong performance in the same period last year, at a level that is consistent with achieving the board's expectations for the year as a whole.

Performing particularly well is the Handset Testing business, which saw revenue and adjusted operating profit growth ahead of the previous year, driven in part by increased sales of its LTE 4G product, which represented 50% of the business's first quarter revenue (2011 Q1: 46%). Revenue from 2G/3G technologies also grew, due to continuing strong demand for the firm's Interoperability products.

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Things have continued to look somewhat less rosy in the Network Testing business, where market conditions have remained challenging. The firm stressed that despite this, the business is seeing increasing demand for its Invex benchmarking product launched last year, which resulted in order intake during the first four months being slightly ahead of the comparable period last year on a constant currency basis.

Meanwhile, the Travel business has performed in line with expectations and is making progress on the major implementations that it is contracted to deliver. Its pipeline of opportunities "remains strong", it said.

"Each of our businesses is benefiting from the investments we continue to make in our products. The nature of our Wireless businesses means that order visibility remains short. However, this encouraging start to the year underpins our confidence in our ability to deliver sustainable growth and meet our expectations," Chief Executive Christopher Humphrey said.

Net cash at August 31st was £13.3m, compared to £16.9m at April 30th, representing a normal outflow for the time of year.

NR