Gateley reports revenue boost
Professional services group, Gateley has said it remains on course to meet full year expectations after seeing a near 10% increase in first half revenues.
The group said trading in the six months to October 31, 2017 had been robust with increases in activity levels generating a revenue rise of 9.8% to £38.6m (2016: £35.2m), with adjusted EBITDA up 6.3% to £5.3m (2016: £5.0m).
Pre-tax profit was constant at £4.2m following further investment in the business through additional staff and service lines.
It remains ready to exploit growth opportunities as they arise and will invest in the long-term future of the business via strategic recruitment and investment in new, complementary service lines.
The group, which now employs almost 500 people across it various operations, said it was proposing an interim dividend of 2.2p per share (2016: 2.2p).
Mike Ward, CEO, said: “Trading is robust and we anticipate this will continue into the second half of the current financial year.
“We are confident that our business is well balanced and resilient and we remain focused on delivering another year of growth in our core services and exploiting synergies between all group companies whilst looking to continue to enhance our offering to clients through further acquisitions.
“We look forward to the second half of the year with confidence and anticipate revenues in the second half to deliver group performance for the full year in line with market expectations.”
He said the group’s new Global Mobility service line was the latest example of its strategic investment which, alongside existing clients and contacts, would enable the group to capitalise on the opportunities which were expected to emerge in the current environment of ongoing political and economic uncertainty.
The group’s acquisitions to date, Gateley Capitus and Gateley Hamer, are both said to be 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,” he added.
Staff numbers rose by 7.2% to 490 during the period (2016: 6.9% to 419). This saw Personnel costs rise accordingly, by 13.6% to £24.3m (2016: £21.4m). Personnel costs as a percentage of revenue rose 2.1% from 60.8% to 62.9% as a result of increased annual pay awards together with enhanced staff recruitment including key appointments in Business Development, Global Mobility Services and other key professional positions.
New and existing staff have generated a 16% increase in group work in progress in the period, flowing through into the second half.
Utilisation of fee generating staff also improved to 85% (2016: 83%).
