Financial Results
Preliminary Results
13 March 2001
Preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2000
Aegis Group plc is the world’s largest independent media and marketing research group employing over 5,000 staff in 41 countries. The Group comprises two main businesses: Carat, which is one of the world’s largest media communications companies, and Aegis Research, a leading international market research network.
Record new business performance reflects effective strategy
- Record net new media business wins totalling $2,054 million (1999: $1,206 million)
- Strong European new business driven by account consolidation
- Turnover £5,712.5 million up 19.2% (1999: £4,791.8 million) - ahead of 8% global market growth
- Revenue up 46.2% to £473.0 million (1999: £323.5 million)
- Gross margin up to 6.7% (1999: 5.9%) – reflecting move towards higher margin services
- Underlying profit before tax rose 21.4% to £78.4 million (1999: £64.6 million)
- Underlying diluted EPS increased by 16.0% to 4.9p (1999: 4.2p)
- Full year dividend up 15.0% to 1.15p (1999: 1.0p)
- Strong operating cash flow at £96.2 million (1999: £76.3 million) – 113.8% of operating profit
- Continued investment of £26.9m in product, people and systems to grow Aegis’ competitive edge