Company Announcements

Dillistone Group Plc

("Dillistone" or the "Group")

AGM Statement

At the Annual General Meeting ('AGM') of Dillistone Group Plc, the AIM quoted supplier of software and services to the recruitment industry, being held today at 10:30 am, Mike Love, Chairman of Dillistone, will make the following AGM statement:

"The major focus for 2019 is the Group restructuring exercise which is progressing well with the expanded office space in Basingstoke already fully functional.  We expect that our London facility will be completely vacated by September of this year and the majority of our employees are expected to remain with the Group.

"Response to the changes we are making has largely been positive.  An example of this would be our product development effort, where we are already seeing benefits from our more integrated structure.  We expect to launch additional functionality for our FileFinder, Infinity and GatedTalent platforms later this year, with a significant amount of 'cross team' effort having underpinned this work.

"In the long term, the streamlined business will allow us to deliver superior service to our clients and superior results to our shareholders.   In the short term, of course, we are facing additional costs as a result of the decisions we have taken.  We've previously stated that these costs are likely to be in the region of £500k-£900k.  This remains the Board's view and we expect to provide more detail on this at the time of our Interim Announcement.  The costs of the reorganisation are expected to be met from our own internal resources and from the £500,000 bank loan recently announced. We do not expect to seek the support of shareholders for the cost of restructuring.

"Costs in general have been well controlled across the Group and so, while some products are showing stronger growth than others and with the benefits of costs savings in H2 from the restructuring, the Group expects to deliver a small profit (prior to restructuring costs and acquisition related costs) for the year as a whole, in line with market expectations. 

"GatedTalent continues to progress well and we are currently expecting it to start to make a profit at EBITDA level (before group charges) by September 2019.  The Board is confident that the restructuring will deliver long term benefits to all stakeholders and is optimistic for the future."

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Notes to Editors:

Dillistone Group Plc (www.dillistonegroup.com) is a leader in the supply and support of software and services to the recruitment industry. It has five brands operating through three divisions: Dillistone Systems, which targets the executive search industry (www.dillistone.com); Voyager Software, which targets other recruitment markets (www.voyagersoftware.com); and GatedTalent, the next generation executive recruitment platform (www.GatedTalent.com).

Dillistone has made three acquisitions: Voyager Software in September 2011, FCP Internet in July 2013 and ISV Software in September 2014.  The Group operates under the FileFinder, Infinity, Evolve, ISV and GatedTalent brands.

Dillistone was admitted to AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange plc, in June 2006.  The Group employs over 100 people globally with offices in London, Basingstoke, Southampton, Frankfurt, New Jersey and Sydney.