Trading Statement
29 December 2003 - 8:57PM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:6852T
ARC Risk Management Group PLC
29 December 2003
ARC Risk Management Group PLC
("ARC" or the "Company")
Trading Statement and Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting
Since the Chairman's statement, which accompanied the interim results for the
half year to 30 September 2003, the Board has continued to develop the Company's
products in general and red24 in particular.
The Board is pleased to report that both the Hiscox and HSBC product launches,
encompassing the red24 and red24 Alert services, are expected to take place in
January. This is expected to raise significantly the revenues derived from this
product and should provide sufficient momentum for the red24 division to reach
breakeven within a few months. The weeks since the contracts were announced have
been spent determining and putting in place the precise fulfilment requirements,
including a significant investment in the printing of special individual red24
cards for the customers and finalising policy wordings.
In South Africa further investment has already been made both in the CRM (crisis
response and management) call centre that supports the red24 product and in
investment in additional staff, the latter reflecting the increase in the number
of incidents related to personal security in various parts of the world.
The Board has also been encouraged by the level of interest in our service,
especially from the United States and the Asia/Pacific region. In order to
maximise this potential and to be in a position to respond rapidly to increasing
demand, further investment in the Company may be required. However, the Board's
authority to raise equity capital on a non-pre-emptive basis, which exists by
virtue of resolutions passed at the Annual General Meeting held last July, is
restricted to shares to a nominal value of #500,000. Of this figure, shares with
a nominal value of approximately #395,000 have already been issued.
The Board has concluded that it would not be in the best interests of
shareholders to wait for the next Annual General Meeting, which is unlikely to
be held before July 2004, to increase its authority to issue new shares for
cash, and has, therefore, decided to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting of
the Company to provide the necessary authority to raise additional equity
capital if the opportunity to do so arises.
A notice convening an Extraordinary General Meeting at 2.30 p.m. on 22 January
2004 has today been posted to shareholders. Further copies are available from
the offices of Seymour Pierce Limited, Bucklersbury House, 3 Queen Victoria
Street, London EC4N 8EL for at least one month.
Enquiries:
ARC Risk Management Group Plc Tel: 020 7332 5600
Rob Whiting, CEO
Bishopsgate Communications Tel: 020 7430 1600
Maxine Barnes
Dominic Barretto
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
TSTGCBDDLUDGGXC