RNS Number:2372L
Imagination Technologies Group PLC
19 May 2003
Imagination Technologies Group plc
("Imagination")
Results for the twelve months to 31 March 2003
Imagination Technologies Group plc, leading provider of System-on-Chip
Intellectual Property (IP), today announces results for the 12 months to 31
March 2003.
Business Update
* Significant growth in licensing partnerships - new agreements signed
with Texas Instruments, Sharp, Intel, Hitachi (now Renesas) and Frontier
Silicon, despite the challenging environment.
* Partners committed to ten chips - royalties to build from next
financial year.
* Strong position in key platforms - Mobile Phone/PDA, Digital Video/TV,
Digital Radio, In-car information and entertainment.
* Continued interest in our technologies with advanced stage of
negotiation on a number of potential license deals - in the short term these
deals will be the main driver behind our financial performance.
* Strategy of delivering complementary System-on-Chip ('SoC') IP cores from our
three fundamental technology families, PowerVR, Metagence and Ensigma,
showing significant success with growing number of partners.
* PURE Digital DAB products help to significantly develop the market.
Financials
* Second Half - significant improvement in financial performance
o Total revenues up 139% on first half.
o Technology revenues up 90% on the first half from increased partner
base.
o Significantly reduced pre-tax loss before goodwill amortisation and
losses from associates of #0.4m.
o Cash inflow with cash reserves of #6.1m at 31 March 2003.
* Full Year
o Total revenues up 45% at #19.6m (2002: #13.5m).
o Research and development investment increased by 18% to maintain the
Group's leading edge position and to support the growing customer base.
o Pre-tax loss before goodwill amortisation and losses from associates of
#4.4m (2002: #4.5m).
o Pre-tax loss of #5.6m (2002: #5.4m) after goodwill amortisation and
losses from associates.
o Order backlog of #12.5m at March 2003.
Geoff Shingles, Chairman, commented:
"The real strength of our SoC IP delivery strategy has begun to be demonstrated.
Despite a difficult year for the semiconductor industry we have been able to
significantly grow our licensing revenues and partnerships with key industry
players. Through these new relationships we have increased the number of partner
SoCs using our technologies by an order of magnitude, laying a strong foundation
for growing future royalty revenue streams. We are uniquely positioned to become
a top-tier IP provider as our strategy delivers and the economy and the
semiconductor industry recover."
19 May 2003
Enquiries:
Imagination Technologies Group plc Tel (today): 020 7457 2020
Geoff Shingles, Chairman Tel (thereafter): 01923 260 511
Hossein Yassaie, CEO
Trevor Selby, CFO
College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020
Matthew Smallwood
Kate Pope
Chairman's Statement
I am pleased to report that in spite of the tight industry environment,
Imagination Technologies has achieved the targets that we set for the second
half.
In the first half-year we began to experience the benefits of adhering to our
strategy to create a complementary portfolio of silicon Intellectual Property
(IP). This portfolio allows us to offer the most complete System-on-Chip (SoC)
solutions to the major semiconductor and fabless companies, our target markets.
The creation of this IP has been a vital strategic investment for us made at a
particularly difficult period in the industry. Our portfolio of IP enables the
full utilisation of improvements in semiconductor manufacturing technology and
brings the maximum benefits to our partners. In the first half, we reported that
we had closed important licensing deals with two new partners Hitachi and Intel.
As a consequence of our SoC strategy we are now able to provide complete SoC
solutions involving all three of our IP offerings. These are graphics and video
(PowerVR), multi-threaded processing (META) and universal communications
coprocessing (UCC). They permit us to furnish SoC designs for digital radio,
digital television, mobile and handheld devices.
In the second half, we expected to achieve two major license deals with new
partners and have concluded new agreements with Sharp and Texas Instruments. Our
second-half results were further enhanced by follow-on licenses from existing
partners Hitachi (now Renesas following a semiconductor merger with Mitsubishi)
and Frontier Silicon. This has resulted in a 90% increase in licensing and
customisation technology revenues in the second half compared to the first half.
This progress is most encouraging improving the quality of future revenue
streams through the level of royalties that will ensue. Within our systems
business the success of our SoC chip design for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)
has also enabled us to deliver market-leading product under our PURE Digital
brand. This has established DAB as an exciting new medium whose capabilities
have rapidly become mainstream.
Financial Results
In the year ended 31 March 2003 group revenue was #19.6m an increase of 45%
(2002 #13.5m). Gross margins were 61%, with gross profit at #11.9m (2002 #9.0m).
In the second half-year total turnover was up by 139% from #5.8m to #13.8m and
gross profit increased by 107% from #3.9m to #8.0m. Our sales and administration
expenses excluding goodwill amortisation have increased by 14% on last year as
we have invested in our business development structure. We successfully opened
our Japanese office in Tokyo and this has been instrumental in achieving the new
partnerships with major companies in this important market and in growing our
licensable IP base. We have increased our expenditure in research and
development by 18%; down from the 37% increase last year when we invested to
develop our PowerVR and META cores for wider exploitation. This investment is
clearly coming to fruition. We expect to continue to invest in research and
development to create future revenues and support our growing customer base. Our
loss before tax was #5.6m (2002: #5.4m) after goodwill amortisation and losses
from associates. The loss before tax excluding goodwill amortisation and losses
from associates has declined marginally from #4.5m in 2002 to #4.4m in 2003
principally because the second half loss for the period ended 31 March 2003 was
reduced to #0.4m. We benefited from a #0.7m Research and Development tax credit
which netted off against withholding tax incurred on overseas earnings has
resulted in a net tax credit of #0.2m in the year.
Our balance sheet has stabilised as a result of the improved performance in the
second half. Operating cash flow during the year as a whole was negative #2.1m
and, after allowing for #1.2m capital spend mainly in state of the art computer
equipment for our engineers and scientists, our end of the year cash was #6.1m
(2002: #9.1m). More importantly, cash at the year-end showed an improvement on
the #5.3m at the end of the first half and the drain on our cash reserves as a
result of operating losses has been stemmed in the second half.
Encouragingly, we have carried forward an improved total order backlog of #12.5m
into the current financial year which includes #8.2m of technology business.
#2.0m of the latter has been invoiced and is included in creditors as deferred
revenue. The vast majority of the total backlog is expected to be recognised as
revenue in this financial year.
Outlook
This has certainly been a difficult year, but we are pleased that the expected
improved performance in the second half has been achieved and we now stand in a
very favourable position with more licensees than ever before using a wider and
richer range of our IP that is the most extensive offering available. This has
been achieved by a great deal of hard work and tenacity from our various teams
which have stuck to the task of propelling us through the toughest period that
the semiconductor industry has faced for many years. We feel that securing
successes through this tough period, that still has some time to run, will leave
the company in a very strong position. We believe the worst of the market
situation is behind us. While our royalty revenues build up significantly over
time, in the short term our financial performance is primarily dependent on
license revenues. The continued high level of interest in our technologies and
our substantially increased order backlog provides a strong basis for our future
progress.
I would like to thank our shareholders for their continued support.
Geoff Shingles
Chairman
19 May 2003
Chief Executive's Review
Business Update Overview
Over the last year and for the near future our technology revenues have been and
will continue to be largely driven by license fees and associated customisation
charges. It is very encouraging that we have seen, and continue to see,
significant interest in our technologies and we have been able to convert a
number of these into commercial licensing contracts during the year with
partners such as Texas Instruments, Sharp, Intel, Renesas (Hitachi & Mitsubishi
Semiconductor merger) and Frontier Silicon. As expected, royalty revenues in the
year have been modest with only one major SoC, namely the Chorus digital radio
device, currently in production.
With respect to the growing number of partner SoCs using our IP cores, we have
had our three key IP cores, namely PowerVR graphics and video processor cores,
META multi-threaded DSP/RISC processors and our Ensigma Universal Communications
Coprocessors (UCC), successfully designed into 10 SoCs. We anticipate that these
will reach production and start generating royalty income within the next 6 to
18 months. We expect this to result in improved royalty revenues during 2003/
04, albeit from a low base, with very significant royalty revenues starting to
flow through during 2004/05 and beyond.
It is our ability to combine our extensive range of novel and efficient IP
cores, competitive in their own right, enabling complete SoC solutions that
gives us very real uniqueness and drives our progress. The fact that we are able
to offer "solution-centric" complementary IP cores in growing areas of the
market means that from the outset a significant proportion of our customers tend
to license multiple IP cores. This is also leading to repeat business involving
the same or other IP cores becoming a feature of our business. Our business
model is tailored to encourage our customers to deploy multiple IP cores in the
same SoC through favourable package deals as per-chip content of our IP cores
increases. This approach makes a very attractive proposition for our partners
while maximising our royalty revenues. Importantly, it also creates a real
barrier to entry to competitors with a single or small number of IP offerings.
Technology Development Update
Our strategy is centred on delivering a number of novel and fundamental
SoC-ready silicon IP cores that enable important functionalities essential to a
broad range of applications. It is this approach that is enabling many new
customer engagements and a rapidly growing customer base for our three families
of fundamental technologies PowerVR, Metagence and Ensigma. During 2002/3 we
made progress in all key areas of our business.
PowerVR now has a comprehensive set of visual IP cores in 2D/3D graphics,
digital video/TV, and display IP that can address the requirements of many
markets including mobile phone, PDAs, digital TV/set-top box, PC/console and
arcade. Of particular importance has been PowerVR MBX, our scalable graphics
family that is increasingly taking a leadership position in mobile, in-car, and
handheld gaming markets. This technology is being supported under a number of
key operating systems including SymbianOS, Windows CE and Linux and is gaining
the support of many content developers as it is being widely adopted. Our
standard and high definition digital video engines and our latest advanced
interlace-to-progressive technologies have played a key role in securing design
wins in both low-cost digital TV space and next generation advanced flat-panel
TV systems. The diversity of our range of PowerVR graphics and video
technologies has attracted real interest from significant semiconductor
companies across a broad range of applications. Licensees for our PowerVR range
of IP cores now include Frontier Silicon, Hitachi, Intel, Sharp and Texas
Instruments. We continue to develop our next generation advanced graphics
technologies which keep our core technology at the leading edge as well as
allowing us to target opportunities in the PC, console and arcade markets.
META, our RISC/DSP processor, is the second fundamental IP family which, by
virtue of its revolutionary multi-threaded capabilities, is able to address the
multimedia/audio, communication and general processing demands of many modern
and emerging systems. META IP cores are supported by our industry-leading
CodeScape development tools as well as a range of multimedia application
software, such as personal and home audio, ported/developed by Ensigma. META
licensees include Digital One, Frontier Silicon and Sharp.
Ensigma, in addition to providing the group with audio/multimedia application
software IP running on META, has developed the first generation of the
innovative and important Universal Communications Coprocessor (UCC). This IP
core offers programmable, customisable, and multi-standard engines that can,
under a common architecture, address the requirements of a number of radio and
TV broadcasts (e.g. terrestrial, satellite and their geographical variations),
analogue TV standards (NTSC, PAL and SECAM), emerging mobile digital TV formats,
and wireless communication standards (e.g. 802.11), which will be essential for
future home media communication. Looking to the future, an example of the
benefits of this technology is the concept of the "universal TV" where a single
programmable engine can be used to implement many digital terrestrial and/or
satellite reception standards as well as traditional analogue TV processing.
Such flexibility has huge advantages when one considers the geographical markets
that a universal TV could address efficiently and economically. As we deliver
all aspects of this technology over time and address the many broadcast and
communication standards, we believe this unique capability will have far
reaching market implications. Ensigma technology has been licensed by Digital
One, Frontier Silicon and Sharp.
PURE Digital has become well established as a leading brand and continues to do
an outstanding job in pathfinding new markets, demonstrating and promoting our
technologies, and offering engineering design capabilities to our partners and
customers. It achieves these objectives by using SoCs that our licensing
partners develop using our IP cores, in innovative and market developing
products. In July it launched the PURE EVOKE-1, the first #99 digital radio,
which used our own META & Ensigma based DAB IP through our Frontier Silicon and
Digital One partnerships. This has attracted huge interest and we have shipped a
significant volume in order to drive the development of this emerging market.
The new PURE hi-fi DAB tuner, DRX-701ES, again based on our own META and Ensigma
IP, followed the standard set by its predecessor and won the prestigious "What
Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision Tuner Product of the Year 2002" award. PURE Digital will
continue to showcase and deliver our IP in state-of-the-art products including
the latest portable "PocketDAB" radio, digital radios with advanced capabilities
and as novel consumer AV ('Audio Visual') products enabled by Frontier Silicon's
Logie chip. In the longer term, PURE Digital will enable wireless LAN home
products enabling linking of many home appliances that use our technologies.
Market Exploitation Progress Update
During the last year, despite the tight market conditions, we have made
significant progress in developing our existing partnerships and securing new
customers for our technologies in many markets. Our focus has been on the
following areas:
* Mobile Phone/PDA - We have made major progress in establishing our mobile
graphics family, PowerVR MBX, as an emerging standard in these markets. We
already have three major licensing partners including the leader in the
mobile chip market, Texas Instruments and Renesas who are using various
members of the PowerVR MBX family in their SoCs. The PowerVR MBX family of
cores is marketed directly by ourselves as well as by ARM for use with ARM
microprocessor cores and as part of ARM's PrimeXsys platform solution. We
are currently in discussion either directly or via ARM with a number of
other major players who are considering using this technology.
* Digital Video/TV - Many of our technologies including META, PowerVR
Digital Video and Display IP Cores, Ensigma UCC for DAB/DVB have already
been integrated in Frontier Silicon's advanced SoC "Logie", our first SoC to
address this area. Frontier Silicon expects to have consumer products from
OEMs in the shops later in 2003. This super-integrated chip enables Digital
TV/set-top box, DAB, DVD, and PVR (Personal Video Recording) functionality
to be integrated in a consumer product without the need for any additional
chips. In a further development with Frontier, we are also designing a SoC
with the same advanced functionality to address the satellite TV market. In
general terms, we see two distinct areas of growth in the digital TV market
that we have aligned ourselves to. One is the general and mainstream
transition from analogue to digital TVs, fuelled by non-subscription (e.g
Freeview) digital TV transmission in many countries including the UK. This
trend requires low cost digital TV solutions, either in the form of a
set-top box or as a digital ready TV. The second is the emerging flat-panel
TVs based on LCD or plasma displays. This requires advanced technologies
that allow the traditionally interlaced TV signals to be displayed in high
quality progressive scan mode on a flat-panel whilst maintaining and even
enhancing the image displayed. The high definition digital video decode and
advanced audio requirements of this market segments are well supported with
our IP offerings. We believe this growing market segment is fertile ground
for new or expanding partnerships.
* Car Information System (CIS) - Car information systems are increasingly
demanding advanced 3D and 2D graphics for navigation and dashboard
applications. Renesas, a market leader, is already well advanced in
developing SoCs using our PowerVR technologies to address this growing
market. Discussions with other potential partners are in progress and we
expect to see further success during the coming year.
* Digital Radio & Audio - Our development partnership with Digital One has
led to the delivery of the Chorus SoC that combines our META and DAB
technologies. Despite serious competition, this product marketed by Frontier
Silicon has taken the vast majority of the new and growing DAB market. Our
multi-threaded META core, its extensive peripherals and the Ensigma DAB
technology have resulted in Chorus's unparalleled competitive edge in terms
of super-integration, low-cost, low-power and audio quality. Specifically
the Chorus chip has enabled, for the first time, sub-#100 digital radios and
has achieved design wins with many consumer audio manufacturers including
Goodmans, Cambridge Audio, Acoustic Solutions, Ministry of Sound and our own
PURE Digital. Frontier Silicon expects further design wins and progress in
consumer and automotive applications. We expect to play a significant role
in this market as it develops and the volume ramps up with mass adoption of
digital radio at home, in-car and on the move. Ensigma has launched the
Personal Digital Audio Platform (PDAP) for META, which enables portable
audio/DAB systems. This technology is available for Frontier Silicon's
Chorus chip and a number of consumer OEMs are developing products based on
this solution. We are also in discussions with a number of potential
partners who are interested in using the META core in portable audio
applications. The development of an Ensigma home audio software platform
targeting META is enabling applications including surround sound.
* Amusement and Gaming - Our partnership with Renesas and its first customer
Sammy is well advanced in this area. The project uses many of our
technologies including graphics, digital video, display/TV and audio cores.
* PC/Console - We are currently developing our next generation advanced
graphics technologies, which are a key vehicle for taking our fundamental 3D
technology forward and is also a platform that allows us to target PC,
console and arcade market opportunities.
The Future
Our carefully targeted and innovative range of complementary IP cores have been
designed to enable us to effectively target important growth markets with as
comprehensive a solution as possible. In particular we have managed to ensure
that we have unparalleled offerings for mobile phone/PDA graphics, digital TV,
digital radio/audio, and in-car navigation markets. As a result and despite the
difficult market conditions during financial year 2002/03, we have secured a
number of significant partnerships with world-leading players in our industry.
These design wins clearly endorse both our technology and our overall strategy.
The successes during the past twelve months have already secured us many SoC
design wins, which form a strong foundation for significant future growth in our
royalty revenues. Meanwhile, in the short term our technology revenues will
primarily be driven by license and customisation fees. Whilst it is difficult to
be precise on timing, with our increasing range of 'off-the-shelf' IP cores and
our on-going work to expand our IP offerings, we believe that during the current
financial year we will see further significant partnerships and opportunities
for exploiting our technologies.
Hossein Yassaie
Chief Executive
19 May 2003
CONSOLIDATED PROFIT & LOSS ACCOUNT
Year to 31st March 2003 2002
Total Total
Notes #'000 #'000
Group turnover 1 19,568 13,504
Cost of sales (7,649) (4,460)
Gross profit 11,919 9,044
Research and development expenses (12,891) (10,944)
Sales and administrative expenses (4,652) (3,991)
Other operating income 42 63
Group operating loss before goodwill amortisation (4,541) (5,018)
Goodwill amortisation (1,041) (810)
Group operating loss (5,582) (5,828)
Share of loss of associated undertaking (170) (86)
Total operating loss (5,752) (5,914)
Net interest receivable 177 482
Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (5,575) (5,432)
Taxation 3 248 (115)
Loss on ordinary activities after taxation (5,327) (5,547)
Loss per share
- Basic 6 (3.1p) (3.3p)
- Basic before goodwill 6 (2.5p) (2.8p)
amortisation
- Diluted 6 (3.1p) (3.3p)
- Diluted before goodwill 6 (2.5p) (2.8p)
amortisation
All results arise from continuing operations.
BALANCE SHEET
2003 2002
#'000 #'000
Fixed assets
Intangible assets 5,034 6,005
Tangible assets 3,875 4,418
Investment in associate 459 581
9,368 11,004
Current assets
Stock and work in progress 1,571 891
Debtors 3,293 4,463
Cash at bank and in hand 6,082 9,135
10,946 14,489
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year (5,900) (5,324)
Net current assets 5,046 9,165
Total assets less current liabilities 14,414 20,169
Creditors: amounts falling due after one year - (437)
Net assets 14,414 19,732
Capital and reserves
Called up share capital 17,039 17,032
Share premium account 25,854 25,757
Other capital reserves 221 -
Shares to be issued 274 578
Warrant reserve 1,201 1,222
Merger reserve 2,402 2,402
Profit and loss account (32,577) (27,259)
Shareholders' funds - equity 14,414 19,732
CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
2003 2002
#'000 #'000 #'000 #'000
Cash outflow from operating activities (2,085) (1,562)
Returns on investment and servicing of finance
Interest received 199 503
Interest paid (2) (3)
Net cash inflow from returns on investments and 197 500
servicing of finance
Taxation 248 (115)
Capital expenditure and financial investments
Purchase of tangible fixed assets (996) (1,518)
Purchase of intangible fixed assets (217) (184)
Net cash outflow for capital expenditure and financial investments (1,213) (1,702)
Cash outflow before use of liquid resources and financing (2,853) (2,879)
Acquisition
Purchase of subsidiary undertakings (200) (2,240)
Cash acquired on acquisition of subsidiary undertakings - 1,757
Net cash outflow from acquisitions and disposals (200) (483)
Management of liquid resources
Cash inflow from liquidation of short term deposits 3,530 2,092
Financing
Issue of shares - 67
Increase/(decrease) in cash in the period 477 (1,203)
Reconciliation of operating loss to operating cash flows
2003 2002
#'000 #'000
Operating loss (5,582) (5,828)
Depreciation and amortisation charges 2,709 2,434
Investment in associate in respect of services provided (307) (360)
(Increase)/decrease in stock (728) 200
Decrease/(increase) in debtors 1,150 (1,204)
Increase in creditors: amounts falling due within one year 1,110 2,959
(Decrease)/increase in creditors: amounts falling due after one (437) 237
year
Net cash outflow from operating activities (2,085) (1,562)
Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net funds
2003 2002
#'000 #'000
Increase/(decrease) in cash in the period 477 (1,203)
Cash flow from decrease in liquid resources (3,530) (2,092)
Movement in net funds in the period (3,053) (3,295)
Net funds at 1st April 9,135 12,430
Net funds at 31st March 6,082 9,135
NOTES
1. Segmental Analysis
Turnover is analysed by geographical area of sales as follows:
2003 2002
#'000 #'000
United Kingdom and Europe 10,241 9,669
North America 1,541 528
Rest of the World 7,786 3,307
19,568 13,504
All turnover originated from the United Kingdom and Europe
2. The Directors do not propose the payment of a dividend.
3. The taxation credit for the financial period includes a Research and
Development tax credit of #724,000 offset by tax deducted at source on overseas
earnings not recoverable in the period. No corporation tax charge has arisen due
to accumulated tax losses.
4. Copies of the Group's full Report & Accounts will be sent to
shareholders by 8th July 2003. Additional copies will be available from the
Company's registered office, Home Park Estate, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire WD4
8LZ.
5. The Annual General Meeting of Imagination Technologies Group plc will be
held at Home Park Estate, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire WD4 8LZ at 11.00am on
30th July 2003.
6. Loss per share
2003 2002
#'000 #'000
Loss attributable to shareholders (5,327) (5,547)
Goodwill amortisation 1,041 810
Loss attributable to shareholders before goodwill amortisation (4,286) (4,737)
2003 2002
Shares '000's Shares '000's
Weighted average number of shares in issue 170,386 167,437
Effect of dilutive shares Options 1,503 1,856
Warrants 60 127
Diluted weighted average number of shares potentially in issue 171,949 169,420
2003 2002
Loss per share - Basic (3.1p) (3.3p)
- Basic before goodwill amortisation (2.5p) (2.8p)
- Diluted (3.1p) (3.3p)
- Diluted before goodwill amortisation (2.5p) (2.8p)
The above Profit and Loss Accounts and Balance Sheets are an abridged statement
of the full Group accounts for the years ended 31 March 2003 and 2002, on which
the reports of the Auditors, KPMG Audit PLC, are unqualified and which did not
include a statement under Section 237(2) or 237(3) of the Companies Act 1985.
The Statutory Accounts will be filed with the Registrar of Companies in due
course. The 2002 Statutory Accounts have been filed with the Registrar of
Companies.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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