Ian O’Doherty & Tim Clancy of Appreciate Group: Final results which outperformed and exceeded expectations

Ian O’Doherty CEO & Tim Clancy CFO of Appreciate Group #APP discuss their final results, which outperformed and exceeded expectations last year, bouncing back strongly with profitability in both divisions.

Financial highlights

· Profit before tax and exceptional items+ of £8.4m (Restated* FY21: £2.3m)

- Strong recovery in profitability of both divisions

- Excludes exceptional costs of £2.7m (Restated* FY21: £2.5m of exceptional items), largely in relation to certain intangibles related write offs, including the impact of changes in IFRS guidance on the treatment of cloud-based technology costs

- Adjusted PBT ahead of market expectations, as announced in year-end trading update on 28 April

· Group revenue up 15.4% to £123.3m (FY21: £106.8m) driven by a strong performance in the Corporate business

· Good progress with key areas of Corporate and digital billings:

o Billings~ excluding Christmas Savings were £222.0m, up 3.6% (FY21: £214.3m), following three consecutive quarters of double-digit growth from Q2 onwards

o Digital billings~ (excluding billings from free school meals) up 20.5% to £54.8m (FY21: £45.5m)

o Total Group billings~ down to £385.8m (FY21: £406.5m) following reduction in billings~ from Christmas Savings which were impacted by lockdown measures, restricting agent collections

· Solid financial position maintained:

o Total funds held, including monies held in trust and bank deposits, at 31 March 2022, were £139.7m (FY21: £163.5m)

o Year-end free cash and cash equivalents (excluding monies held in trust) amounted to £20.2m (FY21: £31.4m), reflecting the normalisation of customer spending patterns during the year

· Underlying earnings per share of 3.46p (Restated* FY21 0.90p)

· The Board has recommended a final dividend of 1.2p, making a full dividend for the year of 1.8p per share (FY21: 1.0p)

To read the full RNS click HERE