26 September 2023

 

Learning Technologies Group plc

HALF YEAR RESULTS 2023

 

Resilient performance with high levels of visibility from recurring revenues

FY23 performance expected to be in line with analyst estimates

 

 

Learning Technologies Group plc, a global market leader in digital learning and talent management, announces half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2023. All figures relate to that period unless otherwise stated.

 

Strategic and operational highlights

 

·	Resilient, diversified business model reflected in long-term contract wins for Software & Platforms and wins for major customers in Content & Services
·	Solid performance from SaaS and long-term contracts which account for 72% of H1 2023 revenue (H1 2022: 71%)
·	As indicated previously, challenging macroeconomic backdrop continues to impact transactional and project-based work
·	One-off issues relating to LEO integration within GP Strategies resolved in July, as previously indicated, with significant improvement in major KPIs in GPLX since Q2

 

Financial highlights

 

·	Reported revenues up 2% to £284.6 million (H1 2022: £277.8 million continuing operations)
·	Flat revenues on an organic constant currency basis: Content & Services up 2% and Software & Platforms down 5%
·	Adjusted EBIT slightly down 1% to £43.1 million (H1 2022: £43.6 million continuing operations)
·	Good cash performance with conversion of 65% (last year 60%)
·	Ongoing deleveraging supporting a planned voluntary debt repayment of $25 million on 29 September 2023, for an expected $0.4 million interest benefit in Q4 2023
·	Robust balance sheet with net debt of £108.4 million at 30 June 2023 (31 December 2022: £119.8 million) and net debt: EBITDA ratio of 0.9x (FY 2022: 1.1x), allowing for select accretive acquisitions

 

Dividend

 

·	The Board is pleased to declare an interim dividend of 0.45 pence per share (H1 2022: 0.45 pence).

 

Current trading and outlook

 

·	We continue to see resilience in our SaaS and long-term contracts, offset by lower transactional volumes in line with the broader macroeconomic environment as well as lower demand in GP Strategies, notably in China
·	GP Strategies is expected to deliver a significantly improved exit run-rate EBIT margin of c.17%, driven by improvements to GPLX and a commercial transformation programme
·	FY23 performance expected to be in line with analyst estimates, including updated expectations for FX and share-based payments1

 

¹ Median company-compiled analyst estimates, as at 14 September 2023, are £560.2m revenues and £98.0m Adjusted EBIT for FY23

 

Jonathan Satchell, Chief Executive Officer of Learning Technologies Group, said:

 

"LTG has delivered a resilient performance in a challenging macro backdrop, underpinned by our SaaS and long-term contracts, which represent 72% of H1 2023 revenues. Revenues, on an organic constant currency basis, were flat as a result of lower transactional volumes, as indicated in July. 

 

LTG remains uniquely placed to capture growth opportunities in a >$100 billion addressable market as a result of our scale and breadth of offering in digital learning and talent management. Our balance sheet supports investment and accretive acquisitions that fit with our business model, whilst also allowing us to make a voluntary debt repayment. Demand from organisations to recruit, motivate and retain the best talent, allied with improvements from our commercial transformation programme in GP Strategies, support our confidence of meeting analyst estimates for FY23."

Financial summary: 

 

		Continuing		Reported
£m unless otherwise stated	H1 2023	H1 2022	Change	H1 2022
Revenue	284.6	277.8	2%	281.8
Organic growth*	0.1%			5.2%
Software & Platforms organic growth	(4.7)%			6.5%
Content & Services organic growth	1.8%			1.6%
SaaS & long-term contracts	72%			71%
Adjusted EBIT	43.1	43.6	(1)%	44.1
Adjusted EBIT margin	15.1%	15.7%		15.6%
Statutory PBT	16.5	18.0	(8)%	18.5
Adj. Diluted EPS (pence)	3.293	3.666	(10)%	3.715
Basic EPS (pence) - continuing & discontinued	1.376			1.848
Net Debt / (Cash)	108.4			145.3
Dividend (pence)	0.45			0.45

* Organic growth on a constant currency basis

 

Analyst and investor presentation:

 

LTG will host an analyst and investor webcast at 09:00 today, 26 September 2023. The registration link can be found below:

 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6277184884607235423

 

Telephone dial-in details: +44 330 221 9922 (+1 (951) 384-3421 for international dial-in).

Access Code: 838-970-977

 

Enquiries:
Learning Technologies Group plc Jonathan Satchell, Chief Executive Kath Kearney-Croft, Chief Financial Officer	+44 (0)20 7832 3440
Numis Securities Limited (NOMAD and Corporate Broker) Nick Westlake, Ben Stoop, Tejas Padalkar	+44 (0)20 7260 1000
Goldman Sachs International (Joint Corporate Broker) Bertie Whitehead, Adam Laikin	+44 (0)20 7774 1000
FTI Consulting (Public Relations Adviser) Jamie Ricketts, Emma Hall, Lucy Highland, Jemima Gurney	+44 (0)20 3727 1000

 

 

About LTG

 

Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG) is a leader in the growing workplace digital learning and talent management market. The Group offers end-to-end learning and talent solutions ranging from strategic consultancy, through a range of content and platform solutions to analytical insights that enable corporate and government clients to close the gap between current and future workforce capability.

 

LTG is listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (LTG.L) and headquartered in London. The Group has offices in Europe, North America, South America and Asia-Pacific.

 

 

Chief Executive Review

 

Introduction

 

LTG is a global provider of integrated talent management and learning software and services.

Our purpose is shared by all of our companies: we help organisations keep up with ever-changing workforce development needs. Organisations need to recruit, motivate and retain the best talent. 

To meet this demand, we have built a broad offering to capture a >$100 billion addressable market for digital learning and talent management. The size of the opportunity reflects long-term, structural drivers. 

Our businesses are a cohesive federation of like-minded, highly profitable leaders in talent management and learning software and services with a common go-to-market strategy. Where it is advantageous to our strategy, performance and client needs, we collaborate on bilateral cross-selling and we integrate our businesses' systems. 

LTG continues to evolve by building out our offering through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions that complement the current business. Our strong cash generation and prudent balance sheet give us a platform to pursue select accretive acquisitions.

The Group remains well placed to benefit from AI and continues to make progress with its AI strategy.  A number of projects, trials and policies are underway across the Group. For example, GP Strategies is helping some of its largest clients to train their own AI models across learning and talent and recently launched its AI Consulting framework in May 2023. GP Strategies expects to launch its AI learning programme in October for Learning and Development leaders. Where relevant, our businesses are collaborating on AI initiatives. Character-based AI initiated by the PRELOADED team is being introduced to the largest GP Strategies client for character-based learning assistant exploration. As part of our long-term strategy, we will consider acquisitions of AI technology businesses who have good products but need access to the market.

 

Resilient performance with high levels of visibility from recurring revenues

Revenues from continuing operations for the six months to June 2023 grew by 2% to £284.6 million (H1 2022: £277.8 million). Our recurring revenues were offset by lower transactional volumes in the first half of 2023, as indicated in our July update, resulting in flat revenues on an organic constant currency basis. This performance in a challenging macro backdrop underlines the resilience of our model, with SaaS and long-term contracts representing 72% of H1 2023 revenue (H1 2022: 71%). 

 

As expected, the operational focus in H1 2023 remained the large-scale commercial transformation of GP Strategies, acquired in 2021. The addition of GP Strategies has been a step-change for our scale, tripling revenues and doubling profits. One-off issues in the first half of the year relating to the integration of LEO into GP Strategies' content division to form GPLX, impacted its first half performance.  These have now been resolved and we have seen an improvement in GPLX margins in July and August compared to H1 with further improvement expected in the remainder of the second half of the year. As expected, overall margins in GP Strategies are improving and we expect the exit run-rate adjusted EBIT margin for the entire GP Strategies business will be in line with expectations at c.17%.

Adjusted EBIT was slightly lower at £43.1 million (H1 2022: £43.6 million). Statutory operating profit from continuing operations improved 5% to £23.2 million (H1 2022: £22.2 million), including adjusting items of £19.9 million (H1 2022: £21.4 million).

LTG is a cash generative business, which enables us to make a voluntary debt repayment of $25 million on 29 September 2023, giving an expected $1.7 million benefit per annum on interest payments at current interest rates.

As announced in December 2022, a non-core asset within GP Strategies had been identified for disposal in 2023. The sale of this business is progressing well and we expect to provide a further update before the end of the year.

           

Corporate Governance

ESG initiatives remain at the forefront of our business process and strategy as we continue to advance towards our 2023 targets, including making progress during the first half of the year around sustainable procurement, scope 3 data, colleague engagement and training.

We implemented a group-wide sustainable procurement policy and will continue to refine our data and supplier review process, including cascading our recently updated supplier code of conduct policy. These steps help us to ensure that our supply chain is aligned to our goals in the ESG space. In addition, we are focusing heavily on our scope 3 data, looking more in-depth at our upstream purchased goods and service category and evaluating our supply chain. Our Ecovadis scores from our February 2023 submission improved substantially and we have reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by more than 60% over our 2019 baseline year. 

From the colleague perspective, we reactivated our engagement survey to measure satisfaction and had a response rate of 75%.  Whilst there is no room for complacency, we were heartened by most of results and qualitative feedback.  We have implemented disciplined processes for action planning and follow-up and we have several other colleague initiatives underway in parallel to include delivering our in-house designed core leadership programme, and strengthening our performance enablement process to proactively address development planning and well-being. I am also excited to share that our largest subsidiary, GP Strategies, had numerous internal promotions further diversifying their senior leadership team.

We remain focused and committed to meeting the ESG goals that we set forth in the 2022 annual report.

 

Operational Review

 

With effect from this interim report, reporting divisions have been updated to reflect internal reporting on a business unit basis, and the revised format is consistent with that used by the Chief Operating Decision Maker. Following the reorganisation and integration of LEO and PDT into GP Strategies, the Content & Services division now includes all three businesses in addition to Affirmity and PRELOADED.  The Software and Platforms division reflects the results for the Product companies.  The categorisation of the companies under the division heading is outlined below. Note 3 to the accounts includes a restatement of the prior year's comparative result.

 

Content & Services (74% of H1 2023 Group revenue)

 

Content & Services comprises GP Strategies, PRELOADED and Affirmity. GP Strategies is a global workforce transformation provider of organisational and technical performance learning solutions.  PRELOADED is a BAFTA-winning immersive games studio.  Affirmity provides a portfolio of software, consulting services and blended learning solutions to help US-based enterprise and mid-market companies measure diversity, build inclusive workforces and operate effective DE&I and affirmative action programmes.

 

Revenue increased by 4.5% to £211.5 million (H1 2022: £202.3 million) reflecting the benefit of the strength of the US dollar and 1.8% organic constant currency growth with particularly strong growth in Affirmity and PRELOADED. There was moderate growth in GP Strategies despite lengthening sales cycles and the challenging macro environment impacting on transactional and project-based work.  As outlined previously, the integration challenges within GPLX that impacted performance in the first half of the year have been resolved.

 

Long-term contracts continued to perform as organisations maintained their investment in delivering effective workforce transformation solutions in a digital, flexible and fast-paced corporate environment.    

 

Effective 1 January 2023, LEO Learning, a digital learning specialist was integrated with GP Strategies' global content design team to create the world's largest and most creative custom content and learning experience design offering, called GPLX. Simultaneously, PDT Global joined GP Strategies' Leadership Training division to create a combined force in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I).  These additions to GP Strategies' portfolio enhance its capabilities as a world-leading learning and talent transformation company. 

 

GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organisations by delivering innovative and superior consulting, training, and business improvement solutions. Clients include Global 500 companies, automotive, financial services, technology, aerospace and defence industries, and other commercial and government customers.  The business has experienced good growth in managed learning services with the ramp up of new accounts, and in the Americas division with the expansion and growth in existing accounts and non-US automotive accounts. AMEA had strong growth in H1 2023 following a slower Covid recovery in H1 2022. This was partially offset by the temporary GPLX H1 integration challenges and lower transactional revenue due to a slowdown in spending in large Human Capital Management implementation projects.

PRELOADED has seen a strong start to the year and continues to win highly innovative contracts with significant clients including a global entertainment company and a global international social media company.   

 

During the first half of 2023, Affirmity delivered strong revenue growth driven by an improvement to the client renewal rate, cross-selling at renewal and adding new clients. 

 

Software & Platforms (26% of H1 2023 Group revenue)

 

The Software & Platforms division comprises SaaS and on-premise licenced product solutions as well as hosting, support and maintenance services. PeopleFluent provides cloud-based talent management solutions and services to large-enterprise clients that require recruiting, performance, succession, compensation, learning and organisation charting capabilities beyond what is available within their current HR systems.  Breezy provides a largely self-service SaaS talent acquisition solution aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. Bridge is an employee-focused learning and performance platform operating in the higher growth, mid-market with proven potential to move into sectors of the enterprise market. Rustici Software is a global expert in e-learning interoperability software.  Open LMS provides the largest scale capability in the global open-source Moodle™ services market. VectorVMS is a market-leading SaaS-based technology for the contingent workforce. 

Software & Platforms revenue of £72.9 million (H1 2022: £75.5 million) declined 3% due to a combination of mixed business performance and FX tailwinds. On an organic constant currency basis Software & Platforms declined 4.7% driven by a 10.8% decline in PeopleFluent as expected, lower revenue in Breezy due to softer transactional revenue from the US SME recruitment market and lower year-on-year performance in Reflektive due to softness in technology sector customers and the commencement of a strategy to migrate customers to a version of Reflektive within Bridge. This was partially offset by continued strong growth in Rustici and Bridge, and moderate growth in OpenLMS.

 

The macroeconomic picture has suppressed Breezy's performance in H1 2023, as a 49% reduction in transactional revenue related to job postings, now representing c15% of Breezy revenues, masks a 3% growth in platform hosting revenues.   

 

Rustici has continued to deliver strong organic revenue growth in the first half of the year driven by its Content Controller product which represents 60% of the growth (as it is the youngest and fastest growing) and SCORM Cloud products.

 

Open LMS had moderate organic constant currency revenue growth as customers rebased their requirements following strong performance in the Covid years.   

 

VectorVMS reported a slight softening in revenues compared to the first half of 2022 as a result of customers reducing their utilisation of contingent labour and healthcare labour rates moderating after strong demand in Covid years. 

 

Dividend

 

On 14 July 2023, the Company paid a final dividend of 1.15 pence per share, giving a total dividend for 2022 of 1.60 pence per share. Given its confidence in the continuing success of the Group, the Board is pleased to declare an interim dividend of 0.45 pence per share (2022: 0.45 pence per share). This dividend will be paid on 27 October 2023 to all shareholders on the register as at 6 October 2023.

 

Current trading and outlook

 

In line with the pattern established in the first half of 2023, LTG continues to see resilient trading in our SaaS and long-term contracts, offset by lower transactional volumes, consistent with current macroeconomic trends. While GP Strategies has seen lower demand in certain regions such as China, it is expected to deliver a significantly improved exit run-rate EBIT margin of c.17%, driven by improvements to GPLX and a commercial transformation programme.

The Board expects FY23 performance to be in line with analyst estimates, including updated expectations for FX and share-based payments.  The Group remains well-placed to capitalise on greater project activity as macro conditions improve.

LTG remains uniquely placed to capture growth opportunities in a >$100 billion addressable market as a result of our scale and breadth of offering in digital learning and talent management.  Our balance sheet supports accretive acquisitions that fit with our culture. Demand from organisations to recruit, motivate and retain the best talent, allied with improvements from our commercial transformation programme in GP Strategies, support our confidence of further progress in the second half of the year.

 

 

 

Jonathan Satchell

Chief Executive 

26 September 2023

 

 

 

Chief Financial Officer's Review

 

In the six months ended 30 June 2023, despite the challenging economic climate, revenues for continuing operations increased by 2% to £284.6 million (H1 2022: £277.8 million). The Group has experienced growth and resilience in SaaS and long-term contracts in contrast to transactional revenue with the proportion of this category of revenue increasing to 72% from 71% in H1 2022. 

 

Revenue in Content & Services increased 5% to £211.5 million (H1 2022: £202.3 million) with the division now accounting for 74% of Group revenue (H1 2022: 73%).  Organic constant currency revenue growth was 1.8% (H1 2022: 1.6%), due to a combination of moderate growth in GP Strategies and strong growth in Affirmity and PRELOADED. Long-term contracts accounted for 65% of the division's revenue, an increase from 62% in H1 2022, a testament to the resilience of recurring revenue. GP Strategies saw strong growth in managed learning services contracts, and AMEA following a slower Covid recovery in 2022, and the Americas division. Offsetting this good growth were the temporary H1 integration challenges in GPLX, slowdown in spending in large implementation projects and the macroeconomic climate affecting transactional revenues. PRELOADED revenue growth was fuelled by an increased US presence alongside developing stronger long-term client relationships resulting in increased work from existing clients. Affirmity also delivered strong growth driven by an improvement to the client renewal rate, cross-selling at renewal and acquiring new clients. 

 

Revenue in Software & Platforms decreased 3% to £72.9 million (H1 2022: £75.5 million) with the division now representing 26% of Group revenue (H1 2022: 27%).  On an organic constant currency basis Software & Platforms declined 4.7% (H1 2022: 6.5% growth) driven by an expected 10.8% decline in PeopleFluent, continued challenges in Breezy as the transaction business related to the SME US labour market remained subdued despite resilient SaaS revenues, and Reflektive due to softness in technology sector customers and the strategy to migrate customers to a version of Reflektive within Bridge. These challenges were partially offset by continued growth in Rustici driven by its Content Controller product and moderate growth in OpenLMS as customers rebalance their requirements following the Covid years, including some organisations losing their government sponsored funding and a move back to face-to-face learning.  

 

Adjusted EBIT from continuing operations decreased slightly to £43.1 million (H1 2022: £43.6 million continuing operations). The resulting adjusted EBIT margin of 15.1% was down from 15.7% in H1 2022, driven primarily by lower revenue in the Software & Platforms division resulting in operational deleverage and the temporary H1 challenges in GPLX which are now resolved.

 

Adjusted EBIT margin in the Content & Services division at 11.8% (H1 2022: 12.0%) was broadly in line with the prior year.  Software & Platforms adjusted EBIT margin reduced from 25.5% in H1 2022 to 24.8% due to a decline in revenues resulting in slight operational deleverage.

 

The Group reported an increase in operating profit of 5% to £23.2 million (H1 2022: £22.2 million continuing operations, £21.4 million reported) which is stated after amortisation of acquired intangibles, various acquisition earn-out charges, loss on disposal of fixed assets, transaction and integration costs. Amortisation of acquired intangibles decreased to £16.6 million (H1 2022: £18.0 million). Acquisition earn-out charges decreased to £1.1 million (H1 2022: £2.3 million). Contingent consideration arrangements are in place for eThink, eCreators, and PDT and are all dependent on challenging incremental revenue growth targets.  Loss on disposal of fixed assets were £0.9 million (H1 2022: £0.2 million).  Integration costs decreased to £1.2 million (H1 2022: £2.3 million) related to the integration of GP Strategies, with further costs expected in H2.  We remain on track to complete the integration in line with our initial estimate of $13 million. For further details of the items excluded from statutory operating profit, see note 6.

 

Net finance expenses of £6.7 million (H1 2022: £4.2 million) include interest on borrowings of £7.0 million (H1 2022: £3.1 million), £0.3 million (H1 2022: £0.3 million) relating to the Group's leases under IFRS 16, and £0.5 million interest receivable (H1 2022: £0.2 million). 

 

The Group reported a profit before tax of £16.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2023 (H1 2022: £18.0 million). The tax charge of £4.5 million (H1 2022: tax charge of £3.8 million) is primarily driven by applying UK and international tax rates to associated results offset by the net favourable impact of tax rate changes on deferred assets and liabilities and net non-deductible foreign exchange adjustments.  

 

Discontinued operations, reflecting the closure of the UK Apprenticeship business, generated a loss after taxation of £1.1 million for the period (H1 2022: £0.4 million profit).

 

Basic earnings per share for continuing and discontinued operations in H1 2023 was 1.376 pence (H1 2022: 1.848 pence). Adjusted diluted earnings per share for continuing operations as set out in Note 9 was 10% down on the prior year at 3.293 pence (H1 2022: 3.666 pence) reflecting marginally lower adjusted operating profit, a significant increase in interest costs and a higher number of shares including the potential dilutive impact of share options.

 

Gross cash of £78.1 million and net debt of £108.4 million, excluding £12.6 million of lease liabilities, at 30 June 2023 compares with gross cash of £94.8 million and net debt of £119.8 million, excluding £14.9 million of lease liabilities, at 31 December 2022. The covenant net debt / adjusted EBITDA ratio was 0.9x in June 2023 (1.1x in December 2022).

 

Share-based payments are lower year-on-year due to a release of prior year costs resulting from leavers and performance criteria not being met.  

 

Cash generated from operations was strong at £32.6 million (H1 2022: £26.8 million) as we tightly manage our working capital, and net cash flow from operating activities was £26.7 million (H1 2022: £18.6 million).   

 

Free cash flow² was £5.6 million (H1 2022: £8.2 million) as set out below, and we expect free cash flow to continue to be H2 weighted.

 

£m	H1 2023	H1 20223	Variance
Statutory operating profit	23.2	21.4	1.8
Adjusting items	19.9	22.7	(2.8)
Adjusted EBIT	43.1	44.1	(1.0)
Depreciation & Amortisation	7.1	7.8	(0.7)
Share based payment charges	3.1	4.1	(1.0)
Dec / (Inc) in working capital4	(12.1)	(17.7)	5.6
Capital expenditure	(7.2)	(5.0)	(2.2)
Lease liabilities	(3.2)	(4.0)	0.8
Other	(2.8)	(3.0)	0.2
Adjusted operating cash flow2	28.0	26.3	1.7
Cash Conversion2	65%	60%	5% pts
Net Interest paid	(10.6)	(3.7)	(6.9)
Tax paid	(5.9)	(8.2)	2.3
Integration & transaction costs	(1.2)	(2.3)	1.1
Earnout & contingent consideration	(4.7)	(6.2)	1.5
Proceeds from asset sale	-	2.3	(2.3)
Free cash flow2	5.6	8.2	(2.6)

 

 

Adjusted operating cash flow was £1.7 million higher than H1 2022 primarily reflecting a lower working capital investment offset by higher capital expenditure in the period and lower share-based payment charges. Cash conversion was 65%, an improvement from 60% in H1 2022. 

 

Net interest payments increased to £10.6 million from £3.7 million, including £4.5m related to interest costs from 2022 payable in January 2023 as the loan was rolled for 6 months to mitigate interest rate rises in H2 2022. Tax payments decreased to £5.9 million (H1 2022: £8.2 million) due to a combination of the reorganisation and prior year payments.  Integration and transaction costs primarily relate to the GP Strategies acquisition in late 2021. Earnout payments relate to Breezy and eCreators. Proceeds from asset sale were £nil in H1 2023, with the 2022 net cash inflow due to the sale of an investment of £2.3 million related to the sale of the NAS JV completed in April 2022.  

 

The Group plans to voluntarily repay $25 million of its term loan in addition to the normal quarterly payment of $9.6 million on 29 September 2023. The expected benefit of the voluntary repayment in 2023, at current interest rates, is c.$1.7 million per annum.

 

Net assets decreased to £419.6 million at 30 June 2023 (31 December 2022: £426.3 million) and total equity per share² decreased from 54.0 pence per share to 53.0 pence per share.

 

² Alternative Performance Measure (APM) term defined and explained in the Glossary

³ As reported in H1 2022

⁴ Excludes integration & transaction costs

 

 

 

 

Kath Kearney-Croft

CFO

26 September 2023

 

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income			Six months to 30 June 2023	Six months to 30 June 2022	Year to 31 Dec 2022
	Note		£'000	£'000	£'000
Revenue	3		284,582	277,836	588,587
Operating expenses			(258,320)	(252,991)	(532,743)
Share-based payment charge			(3,081)	(4,061)	(6,693)
Profit on sale of joint venture			-	1,242	1,242
Share of profit from equity accounted investment			-	155	155
Operating profit			23,181	22,181	50,548
Adjusted EBIT			43,115	43,585	99,925
Adjusting items included in Operating profit	6		(19,934)	(21,404)	(49,377)
Operating profit			23,181	22,181	50,548
Finance expenses	7		(7,243)	(4,361)	(10,475)
Finance income	7		539	184	429
Profit before taxation from continuing operations			16,477	18,004	40,502
Income tax charge	4		(4,472)	(3,841)	(9,784)
Profit after taxation from continuing operations			12,005	14,163	30,718
(Loss) / Profit on discontinued operations, net of tax	5		(1,125)	394	(312)
Profit for the period/year			10,880	14,557	30,406
Profit for the period/year attributable to the owners of the parent			10,880	14,557	30,406
Other comprehensive income:
Exchange differences on translating foreign operations			(11,920)	34,483	30,961
Total comprehensive (loss)/profit for the period/year			(1,040)	49,040	61,367
Earnings per share from continuing operations
Basic (pence)	9		1.518	1.798	3.897
Diluted (pence)	9		1.476	1.749	3.748
Adjusted earnings per share
Basic (pence)	9		3.387	3.768	8.351
Diluted (pence)	9		3.293	3.666	8.032
Earnings per share from continuing and discontinued operations
Basic (pence)	9		1.376	1.848	3.857
Diluted (pence)	9		1.338	1.798	3.710
Adjusted earnings per share
Basic (pence)	9		3.253	3.818	8.443
Diluted (pence)	9		3.163	3.715	8.121

 

Consolidated statement of financial position	Note	30 June 2023 £'000	30 June 2022 £'000	31 Dec 2022 £'000
NON-CURRENT ASSETS
Property, plant and equipment	11	2,433	3,233	2,857
Right-of-use assets	11	10,449	14,235	11,808
Intangible assets	10	527,173	585,623	560,972
Deferred tax assets	15	7,331	4,584	4,084
Other receivables, deposits and prepayments		2,146	324	1,874
Amounts recoverable on contracts		-	1,362	1,303
		549,532	609,361	582,898
CURRENT ASSETS
Trade receivables	12	105,768	122,872	136,025
Other receivables, deposits and prepayments	13	14,620	17,876	16,765
Amounts recoverable on contracts		39,349	41,800	33,221
Inventory		2,403	4,823	2,432
Amounts due from related parties		-	96	59
Cash and cash equivalents	14	78,132	71,933	94,847
Restricted cash balances	14	2,303	3,158	2,608
		242,575	262,558	285,957
Assets in disposal groups classified as held for sale	19	6,695	-	8,369
TOTAL ASSETS		798,802	871,919	877,224
CURRENT LIABILITIES
Lease liabilities	17	4,162	8,194	5,082
Trade and other payables	16	141,581	174,470	180,634
Amounts due to related parties		-	6	-
Borrowings	17	31,220	23,845	36,714
Provisions	18	1,621	7,185	1,602
Corporation tax		5,468	4,395	602
ESPP scheme liability		881	703	500
		184,933	218,798	225,134
NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES
Lease liabilities	17	8,486	13,196	9,792
Deferred tax liabilities	15	23,547	26,101	27,265
Other long-term liabilities		1,466	806	3,517
Borrowings	17	155,289	193,367	177,944
Corporation tax payable		763	1,428	1,431
Provisions	18	534	949	1,857
		190,085	235,847	221,806
Liabilities directly associated with assets in disposal groups classified as held for sale	19	4,137	-	3,984
TOTAL LIABILITIES		379,155	454,645	450,924
NET ASSETS		419,647	417,274	426,300
EQUITY
Share capital		2,967	3,037	2,962
Share premium account		318,699	317,406	318,183
Merger relief reserve		31,983	31,983	31,983
Reverse acquisition reserve		(22,933)	(22,933)	(22,933)
Share based payment reserve		17,674	13,322	14,714
Foreign exchange translation reserve		13,809	29,251	25,729
Accumulated retained earnings		57,448	45,208	55,662
TOTAL EQUITY		419,647	417,274	426,300