Gateley Holdings PLC (LON:GTLY), the national commercial law firm and complementary professional services group, has today announced its unaudited results for the six months ended 31 October 2017 (“the Period”).
Financial Highlights
· Revenue up 9.8% to £38.6m (2016: £35.2m)
· Adjusted EBITDA* up 6.3% to £5.3m (2016: £5.0m)
· Profit before tax constant at £4.2m following further investment in the business through additional staff and service lines
· Strong and strengthening balance sheet with net assets of £16.4m (2016: £12.6m)
· Basic EPS constant at 3.1p
· Interim dividend of 2.2p per ordinary share (2016: 2.2p)
* Adjusted EBITDA excludes income or expenses that relate to non-underlying items and non-cash charges relating to share based payments
Operational Highlights
· Activity levels remain robust enabling continued investment in the growth of the business
· Total headcount up 6.4% in the Period to 763 including six new legal partner hires
· Continued successful integration of Gateley Capitus and Gateley Hamer acquisitions creating cross sell opportunities
· Investment in new Global Mobility consulting service line
· Further staff share options were issued in the Period under existing SAYE, SARS and CSOP schemes
· Group free float up from 34.0% to 40.3% and institutional shareholder register expanded following the successful and oversubscribed placing of former partner shares in October 2017
Michael Ward, CEO of Gateley, commented:
“I am delighted with the performance of the business in the first half of the financial year. We have seen robust activity levels across the Group yielding a 9.8% increase in revenue enabling us to further invest in the business through additional staff and service lines. Whilst we remain focused on seeking further acquisition opportunities, our ability to achieve organic growth by attracting talent, recruiting into growing service lines and delivering excellent customer service to our growing client base places us in a strong position for the second half of the year.
Our new Global Mobility service line is our latest example of strategic investment which, alongside our existing clients and contacts, will enable us to capitalise on the opportunities which we expect to emerge in an environment of ongoing political and economic uncertainty. Our acquisitions to date, Gateley Capitus and Gateley Hamer, are performing well with a distinctive cross-sell that is proving attractive to new and existing clients.
We continue to invest in our people through the release of further share options and I am delighted that participation remains strong across professional and support staff alike. We were also extremely pleased with the recent institutional placing which was oversubscribed. We saw strong demand from both existing and new institutions, as well as good internal take up from both longstanding employees and recent joiners.
The Board looks forward to the second half of the financial year with continued confidence.”
