24 May 2023

XPS Pensions Group plc

Record growth with operational gearing

Capital Markets Event & Post-close trading update

XPS Pensions Group plc ("XPS" or the "Group") is pleased to provide its post-close trading update (unaudited) for the year ending 31 March 2023 ahead of its full year results expected to be released on 22 June. 

The Group is also today hosting a Capital Markets Event for analysts and institutional investors in London and we look forward to discussing the market opportunity ahead for XPS.  If you wish to attend the livestream, please register at www.xpsgroup.com. A recording of the presentation will be published on the XPS website following the event.

Trading update

The Group performed strongly with revenues growing 20% year on year to £166 million (FY 22: £138.6 million), 17% organically.    

The resilience and predictability of our business model has driven a strong performance for the year. As previously highlighted, the inflation-linkage of our contracts across our services has contributed to growth, albeit for many contracts this happened mid-year and so is not fully reflected in FY23.

Underlying the strong performance, Advisory revenues grew 26% year on year (23% organic).  The Advisory business has continued to see high levels of client activity, driven in part by continued regulatory changes and demand for advice in response to the increased volatility in financial markets, following the "mini-budget" in September 2022.  We have also seen significant growth in defined contribution consulting, scheme secretarial work and corporate consulting.  An area of particularly strong growth has been risk transfer services as funding positions have improved and clients have looked to accelerate de-risking. Within Advisory, Pensions Actuarial and Consulting revenues grew 24% year on year (21% organic) and Pensions Investment Consulting revenues grew 31% year on year - all organic.

Pensions Administration revenues grew 10% year on year driven by new client wins coming on stream as well as strong demand for project work.          

SIP revenues grew 54% year on year; driven by strong underlying sales, the impact of the increase in the bank base rate and the full year impact of the Michael J Field acquisition completed in February 2022.  The National Pensions Trust (NPT) business has been impacted by volatile asset prices as well as competitive price pressures.  As a result, revenues were flat year on year, however we have continued to add more members to the platform as well as the increase in regular contributions which has contributed to AUM at 31 March 2022 increasing to £1.4 billion.

The Group has continued to invest in people and technology to support future growth. The Board is pleased with the Group's performance for the year and anticipates the full year results to be slightly ahead of its previous expectations.

Paul Cuff, Co-CEO commented:

"We are pleased to confirm a strong financial performance for the year.  It was a year in which we saw the benefit of many years of investment in the Group's services and our culture pay off, as we were well placed to provide high quality support to our clients across the wide range of challenges they faced against a backdrop of extraordinary change in financial markets.  I am very proud of how well we have served them throughout, and I would like to again thank all our people for their extraordinary dedication.

We are hosting our first ever Capital Markets Event this afternoon where we will showcase the strength and depth of our business units as well as articulating the incredible opportunities for growth that lie ahead of us."

-Ends-

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Notes to Editors:

XPS Pensions Group is a leading pension consulting and administration business focussed on UK pension schemes. XPS combines expertise, insight and technology to address the needs of over 1,500 pension schemes and their sponsoring employers on an ongoing and project basis. We undertake pensions administration for over 1 million members and provide advisory services to schemes and corporate sponsors in respect of schemes of all sizes, including 56 with assets over £1bn.