1 February 2023

FDM GROUP (HOLDINGS) PLC ("FDM GROUP", "FDM" or "THE GROUP")

YEAR END TRADING UPDATE

FDM Group, a global professional services provider with a focus on Information Technology, today provides a trading update for the year to 31 December 2022, ahead of its full year results, which will be released on 15 March 2023.

Group Trading in the Period and Closing Balance Sheet

The Group performed well in 2022, with each of its primary regions showing year-on-year growth in Consultants deployed, and a particularly strong performance in North America. The Board expects the Group's financial performance for the year to 31 December 2022 to be in line with its expectations.  

Revenue for the year to 31 December 2022 is expected to be £330 million, up 23% in comparison to the prior year (2021: £267 million). On a constant currency basis revenue increased by 20%.

The Group ended the year with 4,905 Consultants placed with clients (2021: 4,033), an increase of 22% on the prior year.

The UK closed with 1,958 Consultants deployed (2021: 1,806), an increase of 8% year-on-year. The Group experienced more challenging market conditions in this region later in the year, as the uncertainty that followed September's mini-budget and subsequent changes in UK Government impacted certain customers' decision-making.

North America delivered good growth in Consultant headcount, with pleasing contributions from both the US and Canada, as the Group's initiatives to help meet growing demand took effect. The region closed 48% higher year-on-year, with 1,618 Consultants deployed (2021: 1,095).

APAC increased headcount by 15% year-on-year, closing with 1,011 Consultants deployed (2021: 880). Australia and Singapore each passed their own milestones of 400 and 300 respectively during the year.

The Group's EMEA operations performed well, increasing headcount by 26% to 318 Consultants deployed (2020: 252), with the Group's business in Poland, which opened in the first half of 2021, delivering an encouraging performance.

The Group delivered 3,179 training completions during the year (2021: 2,410 training completions) the highest number in the Group's history.

The Group's balance sheet remains robust with closing cash balances of £46 million (2021: £53 million). Cash conversion remained good at 108.3% (2021: 124.1%). The Group has no debt.

Outlook     

Rod Flavell, Group CEO, commented:

"FDM has delivered good growth during 2022, returning a financial performance in line with the Board's expectations.

As we enter 2023 there remains a high degree of macro-economic and political uncertainty in some of the regions where we operate. However, across the Group we continue to see healthy levels of client engagement and activity.

Our scalable and flexible business model and diversified portfolio of clients, sectors and operating regions mean that we are well positioned to weather these uncertainties in 2023 and to continue to deliver long-term growth for our stakeholders."   

This announcement may contain statements which constitute 'forward-looking statements'. Although FDM Group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. Because these statements involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

ENDS

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