17 March 2022

EMIS Group plc

("EMIS Group", "the Group" or "EMIS")

Preliminary unaudited results for the year ended 31 December 2021

"Strong performance above expectations"

EMIS Group plc (AIM: EMIS.L), the UK leader in connected healthcare software and services, today announces its preliminary unaudited results for the year ended 31 December 2021.

Financial highlights

¹   For an explanation of the alternative performance measures used in this report, please refer to the appendix. 

Business highlights - strong results with performance above expectations

·    Increased dividend for the eleventh consecutive year

·    Double-digit revenue growth in EMIS Enterprise, now accounting for more than 40% of profit

·    27 customers now using EMIS-X Analytics, 12 in EMIS Enterprise and 15 in EMIS Health (2020: 25 pilot customers) with good potential for growth

·   Post year end acquisitions of Edenbridge Healthcare and FourteenFish to grow EMIS Enterprise, enhancing the Group's data, analytics and digital portfolio and strengthening capabilities

·    As part of EMIS's Integrated Care Systems (ICS) strategy, continuing to deliver integrated care with EMIS-X interoperability technology enhancements released in key markets through 2021 and 2022 to date

·    Supported the NHS in delivering more than 100 million Covid-19 vaccinations (86% of the total)

Outlook - building growth momentum and well positioned for a strong 2022 

·  Supporting customers in the Covid-19 recovery, with relevant and innovative technology closely aligned with NHS strategy, 80% recurring revenue and leading market shares

·    EMIS-X technologies offer good potential to accelerate efficiency and growth in both EMIS Health and EMIS Enterprise

·    Strong balance sheet provides platform to deliver organic and inorganic growth ambitions

·    Focussed on delivering consistent revenue growth, as well as expanding margins over time

Andy Thorburn, Chief Executive Officer of EMIS Group, said:

"It has been a positive year of good growth and margin performance driving strong results, with the Group delivering the eleventh consecutive year of dividend growth.

"The NHS and wider healthcare sector continues to evolve as we emerge from the pandemic, with increasing recognition of technology as central to solving some of the challenges the industry now faces.

"EMIS Group is well placed with products directly aligned to market need, including integrated care software to the NHS, and data and analytics technology to the research and life sciences industry. This will be critical as the sector looks to provide the best healthcare possible to the UK population.

"We remain focussed on enabling better care through technology innovation, with a presence in all key healthcare markets and strong relationships at every level. We look forward to playing a significant role in the digital future of the healthcare industry. Overall we are building growth momentum and are well positioned to perform strongly again in 2022."

There will be a webcast and conference call of the results today at 9.00am for analysts and investors. Please contact Pauline Guenot at MHP Communications on 020 3128 8168 or email [email protected] for details.

Enquiries:

For further information, contact:

EMIS Group plc                                                                                    Tel: 0330 024 1269

Andy Thorburn, CEO

Peter Southby, CFO

www.emisgroupplc.com

@EMISGroup

Numis Securities Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)            Tel: 020 7260 1000

Josh Hughes/Simon Willis/James Black

MHP Communications                                                                         Tel: 020 3128 8567

Reg Hoare/James Bavister/Matthew Taylor/Pauline Guenot                  [email protected] 

Information for investors, including analyst consensus forecasts, can be found on the Group's website at www.emisgroupplc.com/investors.

Notes to Editors

EMIS Group is the UK leader in connected healthcare software and systems. Its solutions are widely used across every major UK healthcare setting. EMIS Group's aim is to join up healthcare through innovative technology, helping to deliver better health outcomes to the UK population, supporting longer and healthier lives.

EMIS Group has two core business segments: EMIS Health and EMIS Enterprise.

EMIS Health is a supplier of innovative integrated care technology to the NHS, including primary, community, acute and social care.

EMIS Enterprise is focussed on growth in the business-to-business technology sector within the healthcare market, including management of medicines, partner businesses, patient-facing services, data and analytics, and research and life sciences.

 
LEI: 213800K474ZZK76NX913

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S STATEMENT

Overview

It has been a positive year of good growth and strong results. We are building growth momentum with results above expectations for 2021. We have seen trading return to a more normal pattern in EMIS Health following the impact of the pandemic in 2020. Boosted by Pinnacle, we also benefitted from double-digit growth in EMIS Enterprise, which now accounts for more than 40% of our profits.

I'm incredibly proud of the EMIS team; we have lived our values during 2021 and moved forwards with our vision to be the leading provider of innovative healthcare technology that improves people's lives. We continue to strive to operate to the highest standards of clinical safety, data security, business integrity and healthcare ethics.

Formalising our environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy

EMIS has had sound governance and social value principles embedded in the culture of the organisation for many years. During 2021 we formalised this into an ESG strategy, with our environmental target for the business to become carbon neutral by 2030. The Group's new ESG committee will ensure that we continue to build social value targets and ambitions into our corporate strategy.

Our executive team is also committed to managing EMIS's environmental impact, continuing with our very important social purpose and having put in place best practice proactive governance policies and processes. We see ESG as central to our decision making and the way we run our business.

An inspirational place to work

Our continued goal is to create an inspirational culture and working environment that will attract and retain the best talent. Our people are the energy and the driving force behind our corporate purpose. By creating an inspirational place to work, we can enable our people to fulfil individual career ambitions at the same time as collectively taking the business to the next stage of growth. As we continue our journey to become an employer of choice, our focus is on the continued development of our culture with high levels of staff engagement, team collaboration, individual empowerment and increasing rewards.

Continuing to support our customers through Covid-19

Supporting our customers is one of the things we do best at EMIS. Facing the challenges of the last two years alongside the NHS has strengthened our relationships with our customers and partners at both a strategic and end user level. As a business we have once again pulled together to do the right thing for the health of the UK population, further strengthening our culture and uniting in a strong sense of purpose.

Throughout 2021 EMIS Group's Outcomes4Health software, acquired when Pinnacle joined the Group in early 2020, has supported the largest vaccination programme in NHS history and continues to evolve through the booster drive. Outcomes4Health was the only system used to support all non-hospital vaccinations for the first seven months of the programme and has to date supported 100 million vaccinations, representing 86% of the total delivered.

The EMIS-X platform and analytics applications have been pivotal to many essential Covid-19 research programmes. This includes the national OpenSAFELY programme, helping to provide powerful, data-driven insight based on real-life GP interactions into not only Covid-19 but also wider public health issues. This in turn has generated actionable insight that we have deployed back into core GP systems, with updated prescribing guidelines and protocols on Long Covid. This is a true representation of how research can make a rapid and positive impact on patient care and outcomes.

Technology investment to drive growth

Technology development has continued in line with our product roadmap and we remain committed to investment to drive growth, continuing to build momentum in the key areas of interoperability, elite partners, digital services for patients, community pharmacy and data and analytics.

We have completed the first phase of our EMIS-X technology refresh, with the next phase of cloud infrastructure upgrades in EMIS Health planned over the next two years to increase efficiency and expand margins.

We upgraded our A&E system to enable greater interoperability and updated our flagship GP software to increase customer satisfaction. We released new product enhancements for the community pharmacy market and added a broad range of services into our Patient marketplace, furthering the streamlined pathway for patients to book both NHS and non-NHS services delivered by community pharmacies and private healthcare providers.

Since the launch of EMIS-X Analytics ahead of schedule in 2020, we have moved further into the research and life sciences market during 2021. We are underway with a number of new projects with major global life sciences organisations including Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb. These projects have helped us further refine our technology and proposition, while generating a lot of interest for EMIS-X Analytics capability in this new market.

Every new development and software release, large or small, is aligned with our corporate purpose, to be the leading provider of innovative healthcare technology that improves people's lives.

Interoperability to support integrated care

During 2021 we have seen many integration and interoperability projects developed and released to the market, providing essential digital pathways to connect healthcare processes.

The NHS has a strategic drive to deliver integrated healthcare to increase efficiency and with our strong market shares in major healthcare markets, we are well placed to help achieve this aim. We remain focussed on delivering the future technology mandated by NHS policy makers to achieve their long-term goals.

For example, integrated care will be critical for the emerging Integrated Care System (ICS) organisations as they take control of NHS budgets to deliver co-ordinated, informed care underpinned by interoperable technology. EMIS is well placed to help, with 69% of ICSs using EMIS systems in three or more healthcare markets.

Post year end acquisitions of Edenbridge Healthcare and FourteenFish

Part of the Group's strategy is to grow by acquisition in the EMIS Enterprise sector, particularly focussed on the growth areas of data and analytics and integrated healthcare. In January 2022, the Group completed the acquisition of Edenbridge Healthcare, a leading provider of business intelligence tools for GP practices, federations and commissioners. It will expand our capabilities in the growing data and analytics market by providing real time insight to support GP practice access, efficiency, transformation and workforce planning.

EMIS Group acquired the business for £4.0m in cash paid from the Group's existing cash resources, with further cash consideration of up to £6.0m payable on the attainment of certain performance targets. Edenbridge Healthcare's revenue last year was £1.0m with a profit of £0.2m.

The Edenbridge team has integrated well into the organisation, with an assimilation of cultural values and a common goal to integrate technology to improve patient healthcare. Integration work between product sets is underway. 

In March 2022 the Group completed the acquisition of FourteenFish Limited, adding a specialist knowledge of GP medical appraisals and training to the Group. FourteenFish is the chosen training system of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and will strengthen the Group's training proposition.

FourteenFish was acquired for £15.8m in cash paid from the Group's existing resources. FourteenFish's revenue last year was £2.4m, with a profit of £1.4m.

Summary and outlook

It's an exciting time for EMIS Group as we move towards the next stage of our evolution. Our focus on interoperability, integrated care and data and analytics positions us well for growth.

We are confident of delivering a higher level of consistent revenue growth, as well as expanding margins by completing the next stage of our technology and cloud refresh strategy over the coming years.

The pandemic has demonstrated what is possible with a shared objective across government, the NHS and healthcare technology suppliers. The industry has embraced greater interoperability and collaboration, resulting in the fast delivery of both essential technology and actionable data insights to improve population health. This has accelerated the adoption of digitisation and analytics across the NHS.

Technology remains critical to the NHS as it looks to life beyond the pandemic. EMIS strategy and technology development remain closely aligned with NHS policy, supporting both end-users and strategic NHS organisations alike, to deliver the shared goal of better health.

OPERATIONAL REVIEW

EMIS Health

The EMIS Health segment comprises business areas where revenue is generated from delivering core software and ancillary services to NHS organisations. This includes the primary, community and acute A&E markets.

Market shares

EMIS improved its UK GP market leadership position with a market share of 58% (2020: 57%). The Group holds a joint market leadership position in Acute A&E at 21% (2020: 21%) and the number two market position in community at 20% (2020: 20%).

Supporting primary care

The Group remains well placed for the framework mini-tender processes that are anticipated to occur through the coming years across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

England

EMIS continues to deliver against the GP IT Futures framework in England, from forward-thinking interoperability projects to a significant number of unplanned and essential projects implemented to support NHS Digital with Covid-19 initiatives.

As previously confirmed, the framework renewal, next due at the end of March 2023, is now being conducted on a financial viability status basis only. Given the financial strength of the Group, this is expected to be a formality.

The detailed terms and conditions for primary care systems and services are managed through the "evergreen" GP IT Futures catalogue. It is anticipated that current arrangements in England are likely to be extended for 18 months from 1 October 2022 because of the impact of the pandemic.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

EMIS continues to work with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) on the GP IT Reprovisioning Framework, closely aligning technology developments with market need and forming deployment plans.

During 2021 EMIS Health secured its position on the Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) primary care framework to supply GP IT systems and services, providing growth opportunities in this market.

In Northern Ireland, EMIS extended the current primary care contract until 2023. The business continues to work with GP practices and central organisations to support efficiency in working processes through technology and help meet their healthcare objectives.

Enabling integrated healthcare

Integrating care settings through technology is one of EMIS's strengths, with its broad reach across the key healthcare markets, strong market shares and technology built with interoperability at the core. EMIS-X is continuing a long history of the business being at the forefront of interoperability innovation.

During 2021 the Group released a number of products that integrate EMIS systems across different sectors (for example GPs and community pharmacies) and support NHS clinicians to offer a better service to patients, increase efficiency and improve working processes. This supports ICS strategies to join up care. The software released included:

·  GP community pharmacist consultation service - enabling non-clinical practice staff to refer patients with minor illnesses to their local community pharmacy via seamless interoperability between EMIS Web and ProScript Connect, powered by EMIS-X technology.

·    NHS Digital's transfer of care initiative - GP practices can now receive electronic discharges and outpatient letters from hospitals straight into EMIS Web through the national fast healthcare interoperability resources (FHIR) interoperability standard.

·    Symphony 3.1 A&E system - powering NHS urgent care networks to enable electronic handover between 111 and emergency departments.

·    Smart Pharmacy - the extended pilot of the new service was launched during 2021 to positive feedback. Integration between ProScript Connect, Patient Access and EMIS Web enables patients to order repeat medication online and track progress from order to home delivery.

·    PharmOutcomes - enabling community pharmacists to exchange national interoperability FHIR and HL7 standard messages, such as receiving hospital discharge information and NHS 111 referrals or informing GPs that they have undertaken a flu or Covid-19 vaccination.

Improving customer experience

EMIS Health's strategy of excellence in customer satisfaction is a key driver for business growth in the segment. Everything in the product development roadmap is designed to drive even more quality into the existing product portfolio, to ensure customer experience continues to improve.

During 2021 EMIS released a number of enhancements to increase customer satisfaction, including ways to speed up everyday processes in the system to drive efficiency. Accelerations in the software release process mean that essential updates are delivered to customers much more quickly. New updates to the EMIS Now online support portal have made reporting issues even easier and an improved communication process means that customers are kept up to date on any known issues, upcoming enhancements and software releases, improving customer engagement and satisfaction.

Gold standard learning

EMIS was accredited as a continued professional development (CPD) learning provider during 2021, supporting the launch of the EMIS Academy platform. This new system provides online access to the library of EMIS training content to help users make the most of EMIS systems. The learning team achieved gold standard accreditation from the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI) for the second year running as a mark of quality for the standard of EMIS's education content.

The March 2022 acquisition of FourteenFish further strengthens EMIS's education proposition.

EMIS Enterprise

The EMIS Enterprise segment comprises business areas where revenues are derived predominantly from business-to-business healthcare sector sources, including medicines management across both community and hospital pharmacy, the Patient business and the analytics, research and life sciences sector.

Market shares

The Group improved its market-leading position in community pharmacy during 2021 to 39% (2020: 38%) and maintained its number two market position in hospital pharmacy with a market share of 35% (2020: 36%).

Adding value to community pharmacy customers

The 2019 NHS Long Term Plan outlined the intention for community pharmacies to expand beyond their traditional dispensary function and provide a greater range of clinical services to their customers, to alleviate pressure on primary care. The pandemic has accelerated this requirement, from the dual pressures of providing Covid-19 vaccinations and increased demand for other services, such as seasonal flu vaccinations or minor ailments. As this adaptation gathers momentum, ProScript Connect was successfully transitioned into the cloud to allow for even greater interoperability in future.

The community pharmacy market is a competitive environment, and EMIS is focussed on providing innovative new developments to help customers fulfil their changing role, leading to retention and growth in this sector. Added value services released during 2021 include:

·  Pro Delivery Manager - management of home delivery services.

·  Centred Solutions - a third party dispensing workflow solution.

· PharmaSelf 24 - an automated prescription-collection system allowing patients to pick up medicine 24/7.

· Golden Tote - an automated repeat prescription process based on a hub and spoke model, provided for Numark, a division of Phoenix Healthcare Distribution.

Integration between ProScript Connect and the Pinnacle and Patient suite of products remains at the forefront of the community pharmacy strategy to provide further integrated care solutions.

Actionable data insight through EMIS-X Analytics

EMIS-X Analytics offers significant potential for EMIS Group to grow the business over time with opportunities in both the NHS and life sciences sectors.

EMIS is engaged with some of the largest research and life sciences companies in the world, including Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb, to explore how the business can enable and accelerate research with EMIS-X technology. The positive feedback so far from pilot projects has enabled EMIS to build a strong proposition as it moves further into the research and life sciences market during 2022. 27 customers now use EMIS-X Analytics, 12 of which are in EMIS Enterprise, including research and life sciences, and 15 are in EMIS Health (2020: 25 pilot customers).

The addition of Edenbridge Healthcare software and expertise has further strengthened the analytics proposition. The Edenbridge team brings specialist knowledge in applying analytics insight to make meaningful change to healthcare processes and patient outcomes on a locality-wide scale.

Data analytics powered by EMIS-X technology is already being used by a number of NHS organisations to provide insight on important local healthcare trends. This includes analysis on emergency department attendance, peak times and demographic details of patients, to inform resource planning and targeted patient engagement and education.

Patient Access and the digital front door: a better way to access healthcare

The "digital front door" for patients to access healthcare services remains vital to NHS policy. EMIS Group's Patient Access app enables the UK public to find and book "marketplace-style" NHS and private-provider healthcare services. During 2021, new services made available included a range of home testing kits, such as lab testing and diagnostic services. 51,060 services were booked through marketplace during 2021.

Patient Access is the UK's leading independent patient services app. During 2021, 14.0 million registered users (2020: 11.7 million), ordered 22.0 million repeat prescriptions (2020: 23.5 million - boosted by accelerated demand in the early months of the pandemic) and booked 1.5 million face-to-face GP appointments (2020: 2.5 million) and 49,000 community pharmacy consultations (2020: 41,000). The reduction in face-to-face GP appointments booked reflects the growth of online triage, telephone consultations, signposting to self-help where appropriate and the shift towards minor illness treatment and guidance being delivered within a community pharmacy setting.

Patient.info continues to be one of the UK's leading medical information sites. 96 million unique users viewed 187 million pages during 2021 (2020: 80 million users, 166 million page views). The high quality healthcare content provided on Patient.info attracts users to the site as a pipeline for Patient Access services, as well as driving advertising revenue. The business will continue to invest in content to attract more visitors and advertisers to generate more revenue.

Building the partner ecosystem for growth

The partner programme continued to perform well during 2021. The programme is a strong contributory factor to increased customer satisfaction for retention and growth in EMIS Health as well as a separate revenue stream. Building a powerful ecosystem of interoperable products offers innovative ways for end users to improve efficiency and digitise processes.

During 2021 EMIS formed elite partnerships with a number of partners that offer core solutions that integrate with the existing EMIS product set. This included a cloud-based telephone system, a digital consent system for elective surgery and a referrals system, all of which is third party technology that operates seamlessly with EMIS Web. As part of an elite partnership, EMIS will co-sell these products, driving increased revenue through the partner programme. The focus for 2022 will be to add more partners to both the overall ecosystem and the elite programme.

FINANCIAL REVIEW 

The results for the year ended 31 December 2021 reflect improved momentum with increases in the Group's revenue, recurring revenue, adjusted operating profit and adjusted operating margin. Reported operating profit was unchanged with reported operating margin therefore slightly lower and, as expected, cash flow was less strong than the comparative period as Covid-19-related VAT deferrals unwound and investment in the business to deliver future growth was maintained.

Group revenue increased by 6% to £168.2m (2020: £159.5m) and included revenue of £7.4m (2020: £2.2m) from the March 2020 Pinnacle acquisition. Recurring revenue grew by 4% to £134.8m (2020: £130.0m), representing 80% (2020: 82%) of the Group's total revenue.

Adjusted operating profit for the year, as set out in the table below, grew by 11% to £43.5m (2020: £39.3m), reflecting increases in both recurring and non-recurring revenue and a more normalised gross margin sales mix, partly offset by higher staff costs and increased operating expenses. Reported operating profit was £35.8m (2020: £35.8m). A reconciliation between the operating profit measures is given in the Group statement of comprehensive income and in the appendix to this report.

Segmental performance

The table below sets out the summary segmental performance:

1.     Excludes capitalisation and amortisation of development costs, amortisation of acquired intangibles and exceptional items.

In EMIS Health, revenue reflected a more normalised trading period for the segment with the comparative period having included higher than usual hardware sales. Overall revenue was marginally higher at £107.9m (2020: £107.8m) with the higher quality revenue mix (less lower margin hardware) resulting in an adjusted operating profit increase of 5% at £26.3m (2020: £25.1m), delivered while continuing to invest in developing the strategic roadmap. Reported divisional operating profit was 7% lower at £22.1m (2020: £23.8m) due to a reduction in the level of capitalised development costs and an increase in related amortisation.

In EMIS Enterprise, revenue increased by 17% to £60.3m (2020: £51.7m) and recurring revenue increased by 8%, reflecting an improved market and a relatively weak comparative period which was more affected by Covid-19 lockdowns. With the segment continuing to focus on executing in the areas of patient-facing services, analytics and pharmacy, including supporting the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme through its Pinnacle software, adjusted operating profit increased by 21% to £18.9m (2020: £15.7m) and reported operating profit also increased to £15.4m (2020: £13.5m).

Revenue

The analysis of revenue is summarised below with full segmental revenue analysis set out in note 4.

·    software subscription and support revenue increased to £104.5m (2020: £99.5m), reflecting the impact of the Pinnacle acquisition and higher revenues from the Group's existing customers;

·    interface and connectivity charges increased to £24.4m (2020: £20.3m) as a result of increased on-boarding within the partner programme;

·    other services revenue was higher at £16.3m (2020: £13.4m) with increased digitisation project work and growth in analytics;

·    hardware and related services reduced to £10.7m (2020: £17.3m) due to a more normal level of demand after a spike caused by the early months of the pandemic in the comparative period; and

·    perpetual licences, training, consultancy and implementation revenue was higher at £12.4m (2020: £9.0m) with an increasing level of project work across the business including one-off revenues in relation to the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme.

The high level of recurring revenue and the strength of the Group's customer relationships give the business confidence to invest in developing future products and services, while providing good visibility of future financial performance.

Profitability

Adjusted operating profit increased by 11% on the comparative period at £43.5m (2020: £39.3m) with the adjusted operating margin increasing to 25.9% (2020: 24.6%).

Total staff costs (including capitalised development costs) were 9% higher than in 2020, reflecting higher package and reward levels for an increasingly skilled and in-demand workforce. Year-end staff numbers decreased to 1,429 (2020: 1,591) and the average headcount was lower at 1,508 (2020: 1,579), owing to a combination of attrition, principally in India, changes in skills required and planned operational efficiency.

Other operating expenses increased with additional costs associated with the technology transformation programme, including Microsoft and AWS.

While adjusted operating profit moved ahead, reported operating profit was unchanged at £35.8m (2020: £35.8m), reflecting a lower level of capitalisation of development costs with teams focussing more on improving customer experience, a slightly higher level of amortisation and a one-time acquisition accounting related credit in the prior year. Profit before tax was lower at £36.1m (2020: £36.9m) with the prior year including a one off £0.8m business disposal credit.

Taxation

The tax charge for the year was £7.0m (2020: £6.8m) including £0.3m resulting from the recalculation of deferred tax at the increased future rate of 25%. The effective tax rate for the year before the deferred tax rate change, release of contingent acquisition consideration, other income and share of result of joint venture and associate was 19.1% (2020: 19.1%).

Earnings per share (EPS)

As there was no change in the Company's issued share capital during the year, EPS movements were driven largely by changes in adjusted and reported profit. Adjusted basic and diluted EPS were 10% higher at 56.1p and 55.5p respectively (2020: 51.0p and 50.4p). The statutory basic and diluted EPS were both lower at 46.2p and 45.6p respectively (2020: 48.1p and 47.6p).

Dividend

Subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting on 5 May 2022, the Board proposes an increase in the final dividend to 17.6p (2020: 16.0p) per ordinary share, payable on 17 May 2022 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 19 April 2022. This would make a total dividend of 35.2p (2020: 32.0p) per ordinary share for 2022. This is 10% higher than in the prior year, reflecting the underlying growth of the Group and its positive future prospects.

Cash flow and net cash

The principal movements in net cash (rounded) were as follows:

Cash generated from operations decreased to £50.1m (2020: £64.1m) with the decrease due principally to working capital movements. In particular, this reflected the repayment of £7.3m of VAT, the deferral of which had benefitted the comparative period by £7.3m. Adjusted cash from operations is stated after deducting capitalised development costs and adjusting for the cash impact of any exceptional items where appropriate. On this adjusted basis, cash flow from operations was 22% lower than in 2020 at £46.0m (2020: £58.9m).

Capital expenditure on property, plant and equipment and purchased software excluding capitalised development costs remained tightly controlled at £2.3m (2020: £2.9m). Capital additions in the year included £1.7m on computer equipment and £0.5m on property assets.

The Group paid £2.0m of deferred consideration in respect of the 2020 acquisition of the Pinnacle business and £2.4m to acquire shares to satisfy future requirements of employee share schemes, partially offset by £0.9m received for shares transferred to employees.

After transactions in own shares, tax, dividends, lease payments and finance/other transactions, the total net cash inflow of £11.0m resulted in a year-end net cash position of £64.0m (2020: £53.0m).

As at 31 December 2021, the Group had available undrawn bank facilities of £30.0m in place until December 2024. An accordion arrangement is in place to increase the bank facilities up to £60.0m if required, providing total liquidity of up to £124.0m at the year end.

Group statement of comprehensive income (unaudited)

for the year ended 31 December 2021

¹   Including an exceptional credit from release of contingent acquisition consideration of £nil (2020: £1,020,000).

²   For an explanation of the alternative performance measures used in this report, please refer to the appendix.

³   Excluding amortisation of computer software used internally of £1,138,000 (2020: £1,151,000).

⁴   During the prior year the Group released £1,020,000 of contingent acquisition consideration in respect of the Dovetail acquisition resulting in a corresponding credit to the Group statement of comprehensive income.

⁵ During the prior year the Group received £782,000 of previously unrecognised additional consideration in relation to the 2019 disposal of the Specialist & Care business.
 

Group balance sheet (unaudited)

as at 31 December 2021

Group statement of cash flows (unaudited)

for the year ended 31 December 2021

Group statement of changes in equity (unaudited)

for the year ended 31 December 2021