Personal : Interim Results

Interim Results

PERSONAL GROUP HOLDINGS PLC

('Personal Group' or 'the Group')

Interim Results

Personal Group Holdings Plc (AIM: PGH), a leading provider of employee benefits and employee related insurance products in the UK, is pleased to report its results for the six months ended 30 June 2016:

Highlights

• Revenue increased by 10.2% to £21.0m (2015: £19.0m)
• New insurance business generation increased 12.5% to £6.3m (2015: £5.6m)
• Major contract wins secured including Samworth Brothers, Pendragon, Euro Car Parts and multiple health care sector companies
• Investment has commenced in developing the Sage employee benefits product
• EBITDA* decreased by 29.9% to £3.2m (2015: £4.5m)
• Profit before tax decreased by 33.5% to £1.9m (2015: £2.9m)
• Basic EPS decreased by 38.1% to 4.8p (2015: 7.8p)
• Dividends per share paid in the period up 5.3% to 11.0 pence per share (2015: 10.45 pence)
• Group balance sheet remains strong with total equity (shareholders' funds) of £30.3m (31 December 2015: £31.9m) and no debt
• Decision made post period end not to progress with MVNO PG Mobile, full closure by December 2016

* EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation of intangible assets, goodwill impairment, share-based payment expenses, acquisition costs, restructuring costs, write back of contingent consideration and release of tax provision. This definition applies to all references to EBITDA within these interim results. A reconciliation from PBT to this adjusted EBITDA has been included in note 3.

Mark Scanlon, Chief Executive of Personal Group, commented:

'Our core business, which now includes the Lets Connect business, continues to perform consistently well with continued growth in new sales and top line revenue.

2016 is an investment year for the Group with this year's performance affected by investment in the Sage program particularly. This new and innovative product is planned to go live before the end of the year and we believe that the market opportunity here is large. Other investments have also been made in our brand and hapi platform, further strengthening our market proposition.

The Group has taken the decision that the Mobile Virtual Network Operator ('MVNO') named Personal Group Mobile ('PG Mobile'), which provides smartphones and airtime on a salary sacrifice basis is no longer viable in the current market and so the decision has been taken to run down this activity by the end of 2016. Though this is disappointing the Group feels it is important to act quickly in these situations which I believe we have done.

We remain optimistic about the Group's future prospects. '

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