Fusion Corporate Partners

Wilmington Group plc provides information and training to professional business markets globally. It operates in a variety of professional markets including accountancy, banking and finance, charities, healthcare, insurance, legal and pensions. Capitalised at approximately £71 million, Wilmington floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995.

• Charles Brady, Chief Executive
• Basil Brookes, Finance Director

Full Year Results for Year Ending June 2011

Highlights

• Revenue – increased by 6.9% to £83.8m (2010: £78.4m)
• Adjusted Profit Before Tax – increased by 2.2% to £13.4m (2010: £13.1m)
• Adjusted EBITA increased by 3.5% to £14.9m (2010: £14.4m)
• Statutory profit before tax £6.1m (2010: £7.3m)
• Adjusted Earnings per Share – increased by 11.3% to 11.8p (2010: 10.6p)
• Cash inflow from operations £15.8m – (2010: £15.5m)
• Cash conversion 111% (2010:110%)
• Adjusted Operating Margin – decreased to 17.8% (2010: 18.4%)

Proposed final dividend of 3.5 pence per share, making a full year maintained dividend of 7.0 pence per share

Returns from acquisitions

• ROI 17% 2011 (2010: 14.8%)

Publishing & Information

• Revenue increased 13.4% to £40.2m
• Underlying revenue, before acquisitions, stable at £35.3m
• Digital revenues 72% of sales (2010: 66%) Aim to be 78% in 2011/12

Training & Events

• Revenue increased 1.0% to £43.6m
• Excluding investment spend profits increased by 9.8% to £7.2m

Training and events businesses performed well, save for legal training where market conditions continue to be challenging; excellent performances by Mercia in the accountancy market and Matchett in the investment banking market

Overseas expansion continues: 26% (2010: 21%) of Group revenues were generated outside the UK, with offices in Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Dublin, Paris, New York and Chicago

David Summers, Chairman, commented, “The Group has shown resilience during the recent economic downturn, transitioning its activities to sustainable professional business markets and operating increasingly internationally. The Group has continued to invest in exciting new developments in subscription based digital publishing and professional training. We are also investing in the development of the International Compliance Training business to meet the significant demand for anti-money laundering and compliance training programmes. The current level of development activity is unprecedented in the history of the Group and I believe that these investments will deliver strong levels of growth in the medium term. While generally the economic environment continues to be very tough, with few signs of sustained improvement in the global economy, Wilmington’s business is robust. I anticipate that it will continue to deliver good levels of profitability and, once markets recover and the returns on our many exciting developments are realised, I believe it will deliver excellent returns for its shareholders.”

UK, London

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• Wilmington Group plc to acquire Axco Insurance Information Services for upto £22 million Posted on September 28, 2010
• Wilmington in talks to acquire Dods Posted on July 4, 2010