Annual Report Rws Holdings
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RWS HOLDINGS PLC ANNUAL REPORT UK USA FRANCE GERMANY SWITZERLAND CHINA JAPAN WWW.RWS.COM RWS Group’s new UK Head Office in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire RWS GROUP CONTENTS Executive Chairman’s Statement 2 Board of Directors 5 Directors’ Report 6 Directors’ Remuneration Report 9 Statement of Directors’ Responsibilities 11 Independent Auditors’ Report to the Shareholders of RWS Holdings plc 12 Financial statements Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income 14 Consolidated Statement of Financial Position 15 Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity 16 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 17 Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements 18 Parent Company Financial Statements 40 Shareholder Information 45 RWS Holdings plc 1 EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT It gives me great pleasure to be able to report another Results and Financial Review year of progress for RWS against a challenging and volatile economic backdrop. For its seventh consecutive The Group has achieved a strong underlying operational year as a public company it has delivered growth in performance, reflecting robust growth in the core patent sales, underlying profits and dividends, demonstrating the translations business, partially offset by the more challenging strength and resilience of the Group’s core, market leading trading conditions facing our technical translations activities, patent translations business which has achieved significant especially in Germany. However, the technical translations client wins in Europe and North America during the year. business in Germany has stablised since the summer. Our Chinese activities moved into profit for the first time and Business Overview PatBase continued its excellent growth. RWS is the world’s leading provider of patent translations Sales advanced by 9.6% to £60.6m (2009: £55.3m) and one of Europe’s leading players in the provision conclusively confirming that the Group has successfully of intellectual property support services and high level absorbed the full impact of the London Agreement. technical, legal and financial translation services. Its main business – patent translation – translates well over 50,000 Underlying operating profit before amortization of patents and intellectual property related documents each intangibles, and in 2010 the net cost of relocation, was year. It has a blue chip multinational client base from up 2.9% to £14.3m (2009: £13.9m), despite the £0.3m Europe, North America and Asia, active in patent filing negative (2009: £0.6m positive) impact of currency in the medical, pharmaceutical, chemical, aerospace, fluctuations. Profit before tax, intangibles amortization defence, automotive and telecoms industries, as well and relocation costs was £14.6m (2009: £14.5m) with as patent agents acting on behalf of such clients. The a further decline in interest income in excess of £0.2m. Group has two principal business activities; Translations, Reported profit before tax was £13.7m (2009: £14.0m) which accounts for over 90% of sales and incorporates and basic earnings per share 23.2p (2009: 35.0p). The patent, commercial and technical translation services, effective cash tax rate was 22.9% (2009: 29.3%); the rate and Information, which includes a comprehensive range is lower than the prior year due to additional deductions for of patent search, retrieval and monitoring services as well share options exercised and increased capital allowances as PatBase, the largest searchable commercial patent in respect of the new office building. database, available as a subscription service. Diluted adjusted earnings per share were up by 1% to 24.9p Strategy (2009: 24.6p) on a 2.5% increase in the number of shares in issue following the exercise of all remaining options in Our strategy is focused upon organic growth complemented December 2009 and before the £4.4m exceptional credit by deploying our substantial cash holdings for selective in 2009 flowing from the release of a corporation tax acquisitions, providing they can be demonstrated to provision agreed with HMRC in February 2009. enhance shareholder value. Organic growth is driven by increases in the worldwide patent filing activities At 30 September 2010 shareholders’ funds had reached of our existing and potential multinational clients, the £52.7m (2009: £48.1m), of which net cash represented growing demand for language services and our ability £17.9m (2009: £24.3m). In July 2010 the Group to increase our market share by winning new clients purchased its new headquarters building, based locally in attracted by our leading position and reputation, in an Buckinghamshire, for £10.0m, plus VAT of £1.6m. This VAT otherwise fragmented sector. Whilst the global number cash outlay was recovered after the financial year end, of applications has fallen modestly during the recession, in November 2010. In preparation for the move in late we have successfully grown market share amongst our December, fit out costs of £1.5m had already been spent target blue-chip customers who have historically remained by 30 September 2010. Other significant cash outlays committed to protecting their intellectual property through included corporation tax of £3.9m and the final dividend the cycle. In terms of acquisitive growth, having been for 2009 and interim dividend for 2010, totalling £5.1m. pleased with the return on acquisitions made to date, we continue to search for suitable potential acquisitions in the Currency movements played a significant role in the high level technical translation and intellectual property comparison of profitability. In 2009 the opening balance support services spaces. We seek niche businesses sheet was converted at a Euro/GBP rate of 79.4 and the capable of delivering well above industry average levels closing balance sheet at 91.7, a favourable swing of 15.5%. of profitability. Whilst developed economies have been The 2010 year end rate was 87.0, giving rise to losses of in recession, and profits have fallen, we have, however, £0.3m (2009: gains £0.6m). The Group has now arranged found that sellers’ price expectations have been too high to to hedge its Euro trading exposure for the whole of 2010-11 fulfil our acquisition criteria. at an average rate of 87.0, and its US$ trading exposure has been hedged at an average rate of 1.54 = £1. 2 RWS Holdings plc Dividend showing modest growth on the prior year, but remain well below pre-recession levels. The Directors recommend a final dividend of 10.25p per share. The interim dividend, paid in July, was 3.15p The PatBase database subscription service has enjoyed per share, so that the total payout in respect of the year further worldwide subscriber interest. We continue to invest will amount to 13.4p per share, an increase of 15% over in improving its coverage and searchability. This investment 2009, reflecting our confidence in the continued progress has paid dividends in the form of a further 27% growth of the Group. in subscription revenues in the period. The scalability and operational gearing of PatBase has allowed it to grow to The proposed total dividend is 1.7 times covered by contribute over 10% of Group profits. after tax profits. Subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting, the final dividend will be paid Principal Risks on 18 February 2011 to all shareholders on the register at 21 January 2011. The Directors, having further reviewed the Group’s risk profile, remain convinced that the principal risks to the business are Operating Review errors in the provision of the Group’s services, in a mismatch between currencies (especially as between the euro and Translations sterling), and in regulatory changes to patent translation The Group’s core business (accounting for 70% of sales) requirements in Europe. Additionally, as with any people remains patent translations and has experienced excellent business delivering high quality services, the Group depends growth. It has been able to leverage its market leadership upon its ability to attract and retain well trained staff. worldwide in this specialist activity to add to an already impressive array of blue-chip multinational clients, with These risks are mitigated as follows: good levels of client wins in Europe and North America this year. We provide a high quality and competitive n Failings in service provision are most likely to arise as “translate and file” service which began in Europe over a result of human error. RWS was one of the earliest 15 years ago and over time has been successfully adopters of ISO certification and invests in exhaustive and extended on a global scale. Corporates, particularly US regularly updated procedures to minimise the risk of error. multinationals, wishing to file via the national and PCT In addition, the Group carries substantial professional routes recognise the benefits of our WorldFile service and indemnity insurance. it is proving to be a popular one-stop brand. Demand for our Beijing patent translation service grew substantially, with n Currency risk is normally addressed via hedging sales up by 47% compared to the prior year, enabling it to operations. Currently, sterling/dollar exposure for the whole move into profit for the first time. of 2010/11 has been hedged at $1.54 = £1, and sterling/ euro exposure is similarly hedged at Euro 1.15 = £1. Technical translation services delivered 23% of Group revenues. These comprise commercial and technical non- n The London Agreement was implemented in May 2008 patent translations requiring a high degree of accuracy and the financial years 2008/09 and 2009/10 have and quality. This offering normally experiences higher therefore borne the full effect, which was broadly in line levels of competition than our patent translation activities, with our expectations. RWS would also be impacted if a and given the fragile economic environment and lower further initiative – the European Community Patent – were levels of available work, competition had intensified, to become effective. This latter initiative was decisively acutely so in Germany.