Summary:
 i can report that abacus group plc’s results for the year ended
30 september 2007 are in line with board expectations
however it has been a challenging twelve months for the
group with market conditions deteriorating for most of the
second half and demand remaining at the lower levels in the
last two months of the year this external market pressure 
has been particularly frustrating for management who have
made significant progress within the group in a number 
of areas the two major acquisitions made in 2006 of 
deltron electronics plc and axess technology group were
successfully integrated and targeted savings achieved within
the agreed timescale management changes have been
effected where necessary cash control has been good with
further savings made where possible and strong operational
cash flow achieved the net debt has been reduced from
£661 million at the outset of the year to £599 million at 
30 september 2007
in his report martin kent ceo covers the individual
operations in fuller detail but i would like to highlight a few
areas for comment our french operation achieved a 6
increase in sales despite independent forecasts of an overall
market decline of 12 in the territory by contrast germany
saw a sales decline of 55 but this masks the steps taken
over the year to expand our sales presence with offices across
the various regions we believe that this broader base will give
abacus germany the opportunity to gain new franchises and
achieve growth in 2008 asia is also of growing importance 
to us and through our office in hong kong and employees 
in mainland china we support business that is transferred
from europe
the uk was the market to show earliest signs of the
slowdown and our distribution sales suffered accordingly
although market share was maintained however our
manufacturing business alpha 3 achieved a 5 uplift in 
sales and continued to show a strong performance
results in 2007
turnover was up 116 at £287 million compared with 
£257 million for 2006 however looking at each six months
separately the second half at £138 million was 69 lower
than the first half a decline of 89 against the same period 
in 2006 the reduction in abacus sales was generally in 
line with the performance of european markets as a whole
overall abacus retained its market share over this period
gross profit at £715 million compared with £647 million
£639 million after amortisation and intangibles for 2006 an
increase of 105 the underlying gross margin was 249 
a slight decrease on our target of 25
in july 2007 it was announced that the decision had been
taken to cease development of an inhouse erp system this
decision was the outcome of a review undertaken to establish
the future requirements of the group following its expansion
into mainland europe the change to a new external it system
resulted in a writeoff of £105 million made up predominantly
of writeoff of intangible assets and redundancy costs the
external erp system is less expensive to acquire and maintain
annually and will become fully operational earlier
chairman’s statement 
“
following the acquisitions of deltron and axess abacus group is ideally positioned to take
advantage of market improvements as and when they materialise 
”
4 abacus group plc
75875 pre  181207  2107  page 4 the profit before tax amortisation and exceptionals of 
£129 million was 84 higher than £119 million achieved 
in 2006 £06 million after amortisation and exceptionals
2006 loss of £01 million the basic earnings per share prior
to amortisation and exceptionals was 118p compared to
136p in 2006 03p after amortisation and exceptionals 
2006 nil
the dividends will remain unchanged for 2007 with a
proposed final dividend of 36p making a total for the year 
of 72p 2006 72p
management
it was announced in july that there had been some changes
in the senior management structure this was done in order
to align the board composition to best corporate governance
practice of having an equal number of executive and 
nonexecutive directors to achieve this a new operations
management board was established as such two executive
directors martin brooks technical director and patrick journo
resigned from the main abacus board martin brooks joined
the operations management board chaired by martin kent
ceo patrick journo subsequently resigned from the group 
outlook
despite the challenges of the past year there are encouraging
signs going forward not only is abacus solidly profitable
maintaining good gross margins for its industry and generating
cash in a weak market place but statistics are showing the
share of distributors is growing in all our main territories
following the acquisitions of deltron and axess abacus
group is ideally positioned to take advantage of market
improvements as and when they materialise indeed the 
short term situation appears slightly more favourable as 
over the past few months we have seen more settled 
market conditions 
finally i know the board joins me in wishing to thank all staff
for achieving so much progress within the group during a
difficult trading period
h westropp
chairman
27 november 2007
5 annual report  accounts 2007
75875 pre  181207  2107  page 5