Emis Group Plc : Trading Update

Press Release                                                                                           12 July 2013

EMIS Group plc

("EMIS Group" or "the Group")

Trading Update for the six months ended 30 June 2013

EMIS Group plc (AIM: EMIS.L), the UK's leading supplier of clinical software and related services to GP practices and other healthcare practitioners and a major software supplier to high street pharmacies, today announces a trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2013.

Trading for the half year was in line with management expectations with continued revenue growth, and profitability in line with the comparative period, reflecting the anticipated phasing for the current full year.  EMIS slightly increased its market share and RX was broadly unchanged, and the Group continues to benefit from significant and growing revenue visibility.

The ongoing roll out of EMIS Web for GPs continued to proceed to plan and, at the period end, there were 2,580 live EMIS Web GP practices, an increase of 945 compared with 1,635 at 31 December 2012. There were also 948 unfulfilled orders for EMIS Web GP and 1,663 GP practices in the Familiarisation Service.

Following the announced withdrawal of CSC's iSoft from the UK primary care market, 174 former iSoft practices have migrated to EMIS during the first half of the year and the Group ultimately expects to win approximately two-thirds of the iSoft estate. A number of the iSoft practices are in Wales where NHS Wales has begun rolling out a centrally hosted IT service to its GPs with the first EMIS Web practice going live in June 2013.

The renewal of the English GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC) Framework is progressing as expected.  As previously announced, the Group has received a letter confirming the extension of the term of the existing GPSoC agreement to 31 December 2013 with the option of a further three months' extension. Political uncertainties in Australia continued to contribute to ongoing delays in revenues from the Australian defence contract.

RX Systems had another successful half year in which it maintained its significant market share, engaged in further pilots to link community pharmacies and GPs and concluded the integration of Multepos Computer Systems Limited, the pharmacy retail systems supplier, acquired on 14 January 2013.   

EMIS Group retains a strong balance sheet with net cash of £14.8 million at 30 June 2013 (30 June 2012: £17.7 million). Contrary to the normal seasonality of the cash flow profile, the cash balance reflects a temporary increase in debtors of circa £5 million after the significant restructuring of the NHS in England on 1 April 2013. 

As confirmed on 3 July, Chris Spencer became Chief Executive Officer having held the role since 21 March 2013 on an interim basis.

The Group intends to announce its half-year results during the first two weeks of September 2013. 

Chris Spencer, CEO, said:

"The first half of 2013 continued to be very busy for EMIS Group. We maintained the pace of the roll-out to GPs of EMIS Web, our transformational healthcare system, and RX Systems deepened its market penetration.  The effect of the NHS reorganisation, which took place on 1 April, has been as expected. 

"We were encouraged by recent comments by Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, when he said that we need to work differently to respond to the changing needs of the population and that means making joined-up services the norm, not the exception. EMIS continues to be uniquely placed to deliver this vision."

There will be a conference call for analysts at 08.30 this morning. Please contact Giles Robinson at MHP Communications on 0203 128 8788 for details.

For further information, contact:

EMIS Group plc                                                            Tel: 0113 380 3000

Chris Spencer, CEO

Peter Southby, CFO

www.emis-online.com

Numis Securities Limited                     Tel: 020 7260 1000

Michael Meade/Simon Willis/James Black

MHP Communications                                           

Reg Hoare/James White/Giles Robinson                          Tel: 020 3128 8788

Notes to Editors

The Group's core activities include software development, software licensing and support, hardware support and maintenance services, hardware sales, third party software sales and training services.

The Group's software includes all of the functionality specified in NHS accreditation standards for GPs, including holding the patient's cradle to grave electronic healthcare record, practice appointment booking systems and consultation and intelligent prescribing modules as well as a full range of high street pharmacy software products and related services.

EMIS Web represents the next generation of clinical software systems and the Directors believe it has the potential to transform the delivery of healthcare by enabling GPs and other healthcare practitioners to connect with each other and securely share access to a patient's cradle to grave electronic health record.