The blame for the seemingly unspectacular results from Azlan Group Plc yesterday was placed at the door of its first half performance. Like so many technology newcomers to the London Stock Exchange, the Wokingham, Berkshire networking products distribution company had to issue a profits warning to pre-empt flak over poor maiden interim figures (CI No 2,528). However, with the combination of restructuring last September, and a few acquisitions in Europe, things have been turned around. Azlan is now back with a vengeance, according to chief executive Christian Martin, as it posted pre-tax profits for the year creeping up 1% to ú3.9m on turnover that rose 47% to ú90.5m. The problems were mainly confined to the UK, where costs were running faster than revenues, according to Martin. Azlan has added Italy to its own European community, as it announced the acquisition of Adcomp Data Systems Italia Srl, a Milan-based network computing distributor, for an initial consideration of just ú80,000. This will be followed by ú70,000 in shares next month and cash and shares until 1998 to a maximum of ú600,000. In the year to last December the Italian company made a small pre-tax profit, said Martin in his statement. The much-maligned UK business made a small increase in sales. The breakdown of figures includes intra-group business so the ú76.7m UK turnover figure, up 28%, needs to be viewed in this context, as do all the others. Azlan in the UK extended its relationships with IBM Corp and Cisco Systems Inc, by signing pan-European distribution agreements. A new training facility was opened in London and the Wokingham training branch was expanded. Azlan made four acquisitions in the year. The first was Research & Development SA (CI No 2,418) – now renamed Azlan SA – of Paris, which has grown its business by 50% in the year, according to Martin, turning over ú14.7m in the year. The German subsidiary was boosted by the purchase of the distribution division of Asonic Computer Equipment AG last October (CI No 2,518), and the Danish business was similarly augmented by Damgaard Data A/S’s acquisition in June 1994 (CI No 2,446). Sales in Germany rose 145% to ú15.3m during the year. Together with the Italian buy, Azlan is now operating out of 16 cities in seven countries. Azlan had cash balances at the year-end of ú4.5m, obviously now slightly depleted. Martin said that the prio rity this year though was consolidation, particularly in Italy, but he said that at the interim stage as well, and still bought more. The year has started very strongly, with sales and profits in April and May substantially ahead of last year, as they should be. The final dividend of 2.1 pence, makes a total of 3.1 pence, a rise of 55%.
