Trading Update
04 Março 2008 - 12:15PM
UK Regulatory
Immediate Release: Tuesday 4 March 2008
Block Shield Corporation plc
(`Block Shield' or `the Group')
Trading Update
Block Shield Corporation plc, the provider of innovative electronic components
and processes utilised in electromagnetic compatibility (`EMC') and Radio
Frequency Identification (`RFID') applications, provides the following trading
update in relation to the second half of the financial year ended 29 February
2008 (the `period').
The Group continued to expand both its EMC and RFID businesses and, as
previously stated, maintained its focus on its expansion into Asia with some
considerable success, particularly in the latter part of the period with the
sale of its newly developed high-volume RFID manufacturing module to its Asian
joint-venture partner. However, business in the United States disappointingly
developed at a slower pace than anticipated, primarily due to continuing delays
in the emergence of a mass RFID market. As a result, the Group expects to
report that revenues for the full year ended 29 February 2008 will be below
current market expectations. Whilst frustrating, these delays in the US are not
uncommon when dealing with potentially large but emerging technology markets
and the Group is pleased to report that it did experience a significant
increase in its RFID business following the completion of its newly developed
high-volume manufacturing module, named the Dedivol towards the end of the
period . As a result, the Group is pleased to report that its continued focus
on the more rapidly emerging Asian markets has resulted in a growing pipeline
of opportunities which it continues to pursue. Furthermore, the Board is
satisfied that it has adequate resources available to it to execute its
business plans.
The Group would regard the securing of several major military contracts for its
EMC division and its continuing successful expansion into Asia based RFID
markets, together with the completion of its mass manufacturing RFID antennae
machine, as the year's major achievements.
Highlights
EMC
* Towards the end of the period and following a long period evaluation, the
Group secured two multi-year EMC contracts with Microsun XX and EF Johnson
XX- subcontractors to US government military programs - that were awarded,
at least in part, due to the Group's proprietary solutions. These contracts
are anticipated to ramp to full production within the fist half of the
current year and will contribute several millions of dollars of recurring
annual revenues to the Group.
* Contracts were also received from major manufacturers such as Lexmark,
Radiospire and Intel. These will be fulfilled by our dedicated facility in
Shanghai, China.
* Overall, EMC revenues experienced a decline in the period, owing to a
slowdown in the US based medical devices market, which historically
represented a significant portion of our US based EMC product revenues.
Whilst all our major contracts remain in place, order flow from them
decreased in the period. The newly secured contracts which will bolster our
pipeline are significant, but have not yet had the required time to be
ramped to sufficient volume to compensate for the decline in orders from
embedded clients.
RFID
Towards the end of the period, the Group was delighted to complete the
significant technical acceptance, delivery and sale of its first high-volume
RFID manufacturing module, the `Dedivol'. This low-cost, high-volume
manufacturing solution is capable of producing in excess of 200 million
antennas annually. This achievement represents the completion of the
development of what the Board believes is the most cost effective mass
production process for the manufacture of complete RFID tags, which incorporate
both an antennae and micro-chip, available in the world today. The Group is
pleased to report that since the completion and availability of the Dedivol it
has received significant level of commercial interest in the machine from a
number of industry participants and existing customers.
* It has for sometime been the belief of the Board that the future of
high-volume, low-cost RFID manufacturing solutions would be in Asia. A
recently published report by international RFID consulting firm, IDTechEx,
has supported this view and forecasts the Asian RFID market to grow from
US$5bn in 2007 to US$27.9bn by 2017. IDTechEx also revealed that China has
become the world's largest market for RFID technology with US$1.9bn market
value in 2007 alone. Accordingly, our major expansion and sales initiatives
have continued to focus on Asia and we are pleased to note that these have
been successful during the period.
ASIAN EXPANSION
* The Group recently signed an exclusive distribution contract with the Basch
Corporation in China, a leading distributor of manufacturing equipment to
the printing industry and to the RFID industry. Basch Corporation is
currently a major supplier of component pieces to a number of leading Asian
based RFID system manufacturers and Board considers the distribution
contract with them to be a significant channel to market for the Group's
RFID products.
* The Group also signed M.O.U.s with SinoStar in Taiwan and PolyPlas in
Malaysia to establish further Asian based joint-venture partnerships
similar that established with RFmon and will update the market when
appropriate. Further to these developments, the Group is also in advanced
negotiations with several other major electronics manufacturers to supply
EMC solutions into the Asian market.
FINANCIALS
* The Group's revenues, as forecast in our previous announcements, continue
to be dominated by large sales of equipment and accordingly revenue
performance in any particular period is heavily influenced by the timing of
individual transactions and at times is not indicative of ongoing business
development within the Group.
* Notwithstanding the significant progress made by both the EMC and RFID
Divisions this year, the Group expects to report that revenues for the full
year ended 29 February 2008 will be below current market expectations.
OTHER
* In addition to growing organically, the Group is committed to growth
through acquisition. We continue to seek consolidation targets in both the
RFID and EMC sectors and have identified several companies that we believe
would be highly valuable complements to our core business. We will update
the market on our progress in due course.
-Ends-
For further information contact:
Block Shield Corporation Plc +1 408 830 5100
Pier Antoniucci, Chief Executive Officer
Hansard Group 020 7245 1100
Andrew Tan
Ambrian Partners Limited 020 7776 6421
Tim Goodman
END
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