Wilmington Group – financial results for the six months ended 31 December 2013

February 25, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

wilmington-logoWilmington Group plc, the provider of Information, Compliance and Education to professional markets today announces its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2013.

 

Financial highlights

  • Adjusted EBITA increased 15% to £8.2m (2012: £7.1m)
  • Adjusted EBITA margin improved to 19.0% (2012: 17.4%)
  • Adjusted Profit before Tax was up 18% to £7.1m (2012: £6.0m)
  • Adjusted Earnings per Share were up 14% at 6.2p (2012: 5.5p)
  • Group revenues for the period increased 5% to £43.1m (2012: £40.9m)
  • Profit before tax at £3.7m (2012: £5.1m)
  • Deferred revenue increased by 23% to £19.2m (2012: £15.6m)
  • Resumption of progressive dividend policy; interim dividend increased from 3.5p to 3.6p

Operational highlights

  • Acquisition of Compliance Week
  • Growing international revenues; now 35% of consolidated revenue (2012: 29%)
  • Subscriptions and repeatable revenue at 77% (2012:77%)
  • Disposal of surplus freehold property for £700,000 in cash
  • Strong momentum in Banking & Compliance and Pensions & Insurance
  • Some challenging conditions in Healthcare and Legal markets

Current Trading

Trading in line with management expectations, outlook for 2014 remains unchanged

Wilmington also announced today that Charles Brady is to retire as Group Chief Executive. Until the right successor is in place, Brady will remain as CEO..

Mark Asplin, Chairman, said, “Wilmington has had a good start to 2014. Recent acquisitions have been integrated and are contributing to Group performance. Our bigger businesses Banking & Compliance and Pensions & Insurance are performing well with each enjoying strong organic growth. As expected, Legal had a difficult end to the Legal CPD year and continues to face challenging market conditions. There have also been strong competitive pressures in our Healthcare division but our prognosis for the medium term is encouraging with new products and potentially new markets opening up for us.

Given our solid performance overall I am pleased to report that we have decided to reinstate our progressive dividend policy. In addition, cash flow is strong enabling us to invest in important internal systems which will provide the foundation for future growth, re-engineer the way we interact with our customers and transform the way we run our businesses.

The overall trading environment has not changed significantly since the full year 2013 results announcement.  Wilmington is a well-balanced business which is increasingly international and, as we move into the second half, our financial performance is on track to support our current expectations for the full year.”

For full details and notes on the accounts, click here.

UK, London

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Wilmington Group reports full year results for the year ended 30 June 2012

September 18, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Wilmington Group plc, the professional information and training group, has announced its results for the year ended 30 June 2012.

Highlights

  • Adjusted EBITA increased by 10.2% to £16.5m (2011: £14.9m)
  • Adjusted EBITA margins improved to 19.3% (2011:17.8%)
  • Adjusted Profit before Tax up 4.6% to £14.0 million (2011: £13.4 million) on revenues up 1.8% to £85.3m (2011: £83.8m): statutory profit before tax increased by 4.1% to £6.3m
  • Publishing & Information revenues from the higher margin online/digital business have increased to 76% (2011: 72%), with print decreasing to 11% (2011: 16%)
  • Continued strong cash generation, with 109% (2011: 111%) cash conversion of operating profit
  • Net debt £3.8m lower at £36.2m (2011: £40.0m)
  • Planned sale of surplus freehold property
  • Exited contract directory publishing
  • Proposed final dividend of 3.5 pence per share, making a full year maintained dividend of 7.0 pence per share

Mark Asplin, Chairman, commented: “As part of our transition to a higher margin better quality business, a number of major operational challenges have been successfully addressed during the year.  The result is a more streamlined, focussed and profitable business.

The legal training business is now more profitable and in better shape than it was twelve months ago, although market conditions affecting our client base remain difficult.  The phasing out of legacy publishing products will continue during the current year as the Group continues to invest in subscription based digital products and migrates its business away from print directories and services in which it does not own intellectual property. We expect the remainder of our core businesses to continue to show growth. We are also pleased with the progress we are making towards achieving our medium term financial targets.”

Full details of the results and an investors presentation are available here.

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