Spice said its utility and energy markets continued to offer "very significant" growth opportunities "whilst at the same time having defensive qualities".

In the second half of the year, Spice said it had continued to enjoy good levels of organic growth from existing operations and strong conversion of operating profits into cash.

Performance within the firm's electricity services business had been particularly strong with strong order flows from EDF Energy.

Spice has recently received its largest ever project order for the refurbishment of major electricity substations in London.

An expanded contract with telecoms firm AT&T is expected to be worth around £15m a year.

Spice's results for the year ended April 30 are expected to be announced on Monday, July 7.

In today's statement, the company added: "The board believes that Spice is well positioned for growth and that the markets in which we operate continue to offer significant opportunities for further growth going into the new financial year.

"Spice continues to look to the future with confidence."

The AIM-listed firm said the UK Listing Authority had conditionally confirmed its eligibility to move to the Official List and it was continuing preparations for the transition and drafting a related prospectus.

"We expect to update on this and set out our intended timetable for moving to the Official List at the time of the announcement of our full year results," the statement added.

Spice's share price rose by 5p to 562p in early trading this morning, valuing the business at £337.2m.

The company said that the integration of a billing services division, created through the acquisition of Revenue Assurance Services, into the group had gone well and to plan.

During the last six months several new clients had been secured and it estimated that its market share (measured by the number of client sites) had risen from 40 per cent to approximately 89 per cent in gas and from eight per cent to approximately 35 per cent in electricity.

"Whilst this does not immediately translate into earnings, it does mean that we have made significant progress in developing and securing our acquired markets. Cross selling has played a significant part in this progress," today's statement added.

Spice believes the recent escalation, and continued volatility, of energy prices will create a strong growth platform for its energy services business which had recently added store chain Matalan to its list of clients.