GB GROUP PLC
(“GBG”, “Group” or the “Company”)
Preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2022
Strong financial results and significant strategic progress
GB Group plc (AIM: GBG), the experts in digital location, identity verification and fraud software , today announces its unaudited results for the year ended 31 March 2022.
Financial highlights
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2022 |
2021 |
% change 2 |
|
|
Revenue |
£242.5m 1 |
£217.7m |
11.4% |
|
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Adjusted 3 operating profit |
£58.8m |
£57.9m |
1.6% |
|
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Adjusted 3 operating profit margin |
24.3% |
26.6% |
n/a |
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Profit before tax |
£21.7m |
£34.3m |
(36.8)% |
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|
Diluted earnings per share |
6.9p |
13.5p |
(48.9)% |
|
|
Adjusted 3 diluted earnings per share (restated) |
20.2p |
22.4p |
(9.8)% |
|
|
Deferred revenue balance |
£58.8m |
£42.8m |
37.3% |
|
|
Net assets |
£787.1m |
£364.3m |
116.1% |
|
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Net (debt)/cash |
(£107.0)m |
£21.1m |
n/a |
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Final dividend per share |
3.81p |
3.4p |
12.1% |
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Chris Clark, CEO, commented:
“ I am proud of the team's performance this year, their focus on delivering critical digital identity solutions with a great customer experience underpins GBG's strong financial results. Our excellent customer advocacy and record team engagement scores highlight each team member's huge contribution towards achieving our success and delivering on the considerable potential in our markets. The acquisition of Acuant marks a powerful and complementary addition to GBG, accelerating our strategic progress and strengthening our leadership position in the identity verification and fraud markets. “
Summary
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Strong financial results |
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· Revenue increased 11.4% to £242.5 million, which represented growth on an organic constant currency basis of 10.6% 4 . o Underlying growth was 15.5%, excluding the substantial one-off benefit related to the US stimulus in the prior year. · Growth across all segments underpinned by subscription and consumption revenue of £227.5 million (94% of total). Combined with growth in the deferred revenue balance and strong customer retention, this provides good forward revenue visibility. · Adjusted operating profits up 1.6% to £58.8 million with an adjusted operating margin of 24.3% (2021: 26.6%), reflecting investment in the business and the unwinding of prior year cost-saving measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic. · Strong cash generation enabled repayment of £30.1 million ($40.2 million) of the £157 million ($210 million) of debt drawn to finance the Acuant acquisition. Year-end net debt of £(107.0) million expected to reduce further during FY23. · Proposed final dividend of 3.81 pence (2021:3.40 pence) reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering increased returns to shareholders.
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Summary (continued)
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Accelerating our strategic progress |
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· Completed the acquisition of Acuant to create a leader in identity verification and identity fraud prevention with FY22 pro forma5 revenue of £273.8 million. · Integration has progressed well and is on track: o Acuant and IDology teams have combined to form the largest pure-play identity verification provider in the US, the world's largest identity market. o £3 million already implemented towards £5 million of FY23 synergy target plus a strong pipeline of cross-selling opportunities to derive revenue synergies. · Organic investment has focused on our data and solution portfolio, securing new customers and extending our geographic reach. This includes the bolt-on acquisition of Cloudcheck, a leader in New Zealand's identity verification market. · Benefiting from expanding total addressable markets; Identity verification and adjacent identity fraud markets expected to reach $25 billion6 by 2025. |
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Advancing our solutions |
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· Enhanced identity releases – ExpectID Flex API for US enterprise customers, ProID for SMEs in EMEA and low/no-code version of our GreenID platform in APAC. · Location released the latest generation of its advanced address capture solution. · Evolved our fraud portfolio with the successful Investigate platform integration. |
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Our highly engaged team |
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· Grew our team to over 1,250 people during the year, including team members joining through the Acuant and Cloudcheck acquisitions. · Record team engagement: 95% 'recommend GBG as a great place to work'.
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Setting new targets to increase our diversity and reduce our climate impact |
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· Our solutions make an important contribution to society, s afeguarding customers and consumers is at the heart of our proposition. · Setting new targets to increase our diversity and reduce our climate change impact including a target to be carbon neutral in our own operations by the end of FY23. |
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Confident in the outlook |
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· The Board is excited by the long runway of sustainable growth opportunities and our unique ability to capitalise on these given the significant strategic progress of the last few years and additional capability presented by the acquisition of Acuant. · As demonstrated by our ability to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic over the last two years, we have a resilient and adaptable business model and we are used to navigating macroeconomic uncertainty. · In FY23 we will continue to manage the business tightly through the current climate of rising inflation and interest rates. · Well-positioned to successfully achieve our strategic and financial objectives in FY23. |
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Chair succession |
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· We have announced today the appointment of Richard Longdon as a Non-Executive Director and Chair with effect from 1 September 2022. This will allow for a managed and orderly transition from the current Chair, David Rasche, who will step down from the Board on 30 September 2022. |