The owner of London Taxis International's unaudited preliminary results for the year to 31 July 2003 show turnover from continuing operations down 1% on previous year from £86.9m to £86.0m. The core vehicles division produced £4.5m operating profit (including £1.1m of China profit) (2002: £3.7m) on sales of £86.0m

Total loss on ordinary activities before finance charges and tax of £9.6m (2002: £2.2m) reflects significant one-off factors - including the loss on disposal of discontinued operations (Components) of £7.5m, Zingo development costs of £3.3m and pension contributions to the closed scheme of £2.4m

Taxi sales declined by 10.8% to 2,320 vehicles (2002: 2,602) reflecting weak economic climate in London. Zingo, the mobile phone taxi hailing service, is now installed in over 700 taxis in London and experiencing steady growth. Manganese says good progress is being made with potential new partners in China, and that the certification of taxis for US market is complete, with the first 26 vehicles now delivered to the group's US distributor. LTI has also received initial orders received from Spain and Thailand for 77 taxis.