AGM and Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 6098E

Wilmington PLC

05 November 2015

 

5 November 2015

Wilmington plc

AGM and Interim Management Statement

Wilmington plc ("Wilmington" or "the business"), the knowledge leader in Risk & Compliance, Finance, Legal, and Insight announces its Interim Management Statement for the three month period to 30 September 2015 with comments reflecting trading to-date. This statement is also being made at the Group's Annual General Meeting being held today.

Trading Update

Wilmington has started the year positively with revenue up 8% during the three months ended 30 September 2014 accompanied by good profit growth. The business overall is performing well and in line with expectations, with good growth coming from the Finance division in particular. As previously reported, this growth was to some extent offset by continued declines in revenue from Legal and a mixed start from Insight. The Risk & Compliance division continues to grow despite a very strong comparator period, with encouraging growth from Axco and Compliance Week. Underlying revenue growth, adjusting for the acquisition of Financial Research Associates ("FRA" acquired 6 July 2015) and the disposal of the Media business was 1%, again reflecting the strong comparator period.

During the three month period, Wilmington continued to see growth in reported operating profits and operating margins.

Operational Review

Wilmington Risk & Compliance: This division provides in-depth regulatory and compliance accredited training and information, market intelligence, and analysis. It focuses on the international financial services and international insurance markets as well as the UK pensions industry.

Wilmington Risk & Compliance delivered revenue and contribution growth during the period, measured against a strong prior year comparator which had benefited from a number of large compliance based induction assignments.  The compliance business continues to enjoy significant demand for its accredited face-to-face training in both public events and bespoke in-house assignments. To strengthen our infrastructure and support the expected continued growth in revenue from compliance, we have also invested in a number of senior appointments over the last four months. In addition the Risk business, which primarily services the information needs of insurance and pensions professionals, delivered solid growth in its revenue and profits with Axco and Compliance Week showing good first quarter contributions. 

Wilmington Finance: This division provides corporate finance and capital markets training as well as training and support services for qualified accountants in the UK in the profession and industry.

Finance recorded strong revenue growth continuing the trends experienced in 2014/15. Given the operational gearing of the business, the revenue growth has delivered an increase in both margin and in profit. The Accountancy training and support business enjoyed a strong start, benefitting in particular from demand for technical and marketing support around the UK Government's additional July 2015 fiscal budget.

Wilmington Legal:  The Legal division provides a range of training, professional support services and information including Continuing Legal Education (CLE), expert witness training, databases and magazines to legal professionals.

The Legal division overall experienced a weaker than expected first quarter reflecting continued reduced demand for face to face CLE training and conferences. The exception has been CLT Scotland, which has benefited from increased Scottish Legislation and paralegal training demand.  Bond Solon, which provides law services and training for non-lawyers, also delivered encouraging revenue growth.  The overall revenue decline from Law services for Lawyers in England and Wales was offset to a large extent by our flexible cost base and the strong first quarter performance from CLT Scotland and Bond Solon.

Wilmington Insight: The Insight division provides analysis and clarity to customer-focused organisations, enabling them to better understand and connect with their markets.

As previously reported, the division has had a mixed start. It has seen a marked reduction in lower margin healthcare marketing data and mailing service sales, offset to a degree by strong growth from Onmedica. This has been supported by the continued momentum from NHiS which is enjoying increased demand for analyst-led insightful information. The data suppression and charities businesses remained largely flat as expected. Overall profits were down slightly on the same period in 2014. 

FRA: FRA will be reported under the Insight (for healthcare networking events) and under the Finance divisions (for finance networking events) going forward. FRA reported a good first three months' trading, enjoying particularly strong demand for its Healthcare events. FRA continues to generate an excellent pipeline of sponsorship sales, and there is strong early demand for its flagship healthcare event, RISE Nashville, to be held in March 2016. The integration of FRA is going well; we have already seen benefits of intra-group collaboration and expect to announce some exciting initiatives during 2016.

Cash Flow

Net debt as at 30 September 2015 was £36.3m (2014: £32.6m) reflecting the acquisition of FRA for £8.3m.

Outlook

The overall trading outlook has not changed since the full year 2015 results announcement. We continue to see the trends of tighter regulatory control and more complex legislation being implemented in most of our key markets, which in turn is driving demand for many of our products and services. We have also invested in our Compliance business which is providing the infrastructure and support for anticipated future growth. Overall, the financial performance is in line with the Board's expectations and Wilmington is on track to deliver against expectations for the full year.

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For further information, please contact:

Wilmington  plc   Pedro Ros, Chief Executive Officer Tony Foye, Chief Financial Officer FTI Consulting Charles Palmer / Emma Appleton

020 7422 6800 020 3727 1000

Notes to Editors

Wilmington plc is the recognised knowledge leader and partner of choice for information, education and networking in Risk & Compliance, Finance and Legal as well as the Insight leader in a number of chosen industries. Capitalised at approximately £230 million, Wilmington floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995

 

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