Begbies boosted by Birmingham expansion
AN INCREASE in insolvency cases and expansion of its Birmingham operation has seen professional services firm Begbies Traynor improve its performance.
Interim results for the six months to October 2009 show revenue from the group’s operation rise by 21% to £34m, compared to £28.3m in the same period a year previously.
EBITA increased by 13% to £4.6m and pretax profit during the period rose 69% to £3.6m.
In a statement to the Stock Exchange today the firm said expansion in Birmingham, Cambridge and internationally through the Cayman Islands had been signifcant factors in achieving growth.
In addition to increased insolvency work, the group also saw its Corporate Finance Resource base in the Tax division align to current market conditions.
A joint venture with US-based financial advisory consultant, Mesirow Financial Consulting and the commercial launch of the Red Flag Alert corporate health monitoring sysem were also flagged up by the firm as growth factors.
The continuing effects of recession are expected to keep the company busy with insolvency work, while it said its outlook remain positive due to a continued improvement in its corporate finance work.
The tax division is expected to return to profitability in the second half of the current financial year.
However, it warned that the impact of the continuing temporary economic support measures on the economy, together with the level of potential growth in insolvency for the year was now not expected to offset fully the weaker than anticipated performance of the tax practice. Accordingly, the board anticipates results for the year as a whole will be slightly below current consensus market expectations.
Ric Traynor, Executive Chairman of Begbies Traynor Group, said: “The group has delivered double digit organic growth in both revenues and profits in the first half, due to the excellent performance of our core insolvency and recovery business.
“The board expects the Group performance for the year as a whole to be comfortably ahead of last year, with our insolvency activities remaining at historically high levels.”
