System1 Group PLC (AIM: SYS1)

("System1", or "the Company")

Trading update

System1, the marketing services group, issues the following update on trading during the six months to end-September 2018.  The Company will announce its interim results on Friday, November 2, 2018.

The first half of the current year (H1) saw Gross Profit (our main top-line performance indicator) stabilizing, albeit at a slower rate than we anticipated at the start of the year.  We expect Gross Profit for the half year to be some 5% below that of the comparable period.

Operating Costs in H1 were tightly controlled and, excluding the Company's investment in the new Ad Ratings subscription service, are expected to be some 14% below those in the comparable 2017/18 period.

Underlying H1 Pre-tax profits, pre-Ad Ratings and share based payments, are expected to be around £1.9m, some 73% above the £1.1m achieved in H1 2017/18.

As reported in our update of September 10, 2018 H1 has seen substantial investment in Ad Ratings, a subscription service which will enable clients to compare the effectiveness of their historic adverts with those of competitors and to correlate advertising effectiveness with media spend.  Over H1, the Company has invested £1.7m in the new service.

Further material investment will take place during the remainder of the current financial year, as we move towards a phased launch of the service - due to begin towards the end of the financial year.

System1's financial position remains strong.  Despite the heavy investment in Ad Ratings and the payment of the 2017/18 final dividend during H1, at the end of the period the Company had a cash balance of £3.6m, compared with £5.8m at end-March 2018.  System1 has no debt.

The Company can be found at www.system1group.com.

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