Cello hails 'good start' to year

In a statement to be made at the annual general meeting, chairman Allan Rich said the group had seen a strong start in the crucial US market and that the overall income pipeline is good.

Rich said: "Defined Health, which joined the group in early February, has performed very well in its first couple of months and has a strong outlook. Following the recent fundraise, the group is making encouraging progress in pursuit of its acquisition led strategy for growth, to complement the good rate of organic growth of Cello Health.

"Cello Signal has also made a good start to the year and has a solid bookings pipeline. The transition towards web based systems solutions continues to progress rapidly across the business, with a pleasing level of wins so far this year."

He added that due to the timing of some key contracts this year, the business will be somewhat more weighted to the second half but this is unlikely to affect the overall first half profit delivery.

Cello said its balance sheet remains "very strong" and it is confident of a successful full-year 2017.

At 0845 BST, the shares were up 0.4% to 126p.