TIDMPGH
RNS Number : 7392T
Personal Group Holdings PLC
10 January 2017
Press Release 10 January 2017
Personal Group Holding PLC
(the "Company", "Personal Group", "PGH" or "Group")
Trading Update
Personal Group PLC, a leading provider of employee benefits and
employee related insurance products in the UK, is providing the
following trading update post the financial year ended 31 December
2016 ("FY 16").
The underlying performance of the business has remained strong,
with FY 16 EBITDA marginally ahead of expectations despite a lower
than expected top line out turn. This performance reflects the
continued strength of the Company's core insurance business, which
during the period saw its fifth consecutive year of record sales,
demonstrating the continued attractiveness of its products to
employers and employees.
As previously highlighted, HMRC undertook a review of salary
sacrifice during 2016, the results of which were announced towards
the end of the year. This caused some uncertainty, which meant a
proportion of employers delayed contract decisions at a crucial
time of year for the Lets Connect business. Whilst Lets Connect
represents a small percentage of the Group's overall profit, by its
nature, it represents a higher proportion of Group revenue. As a
result of this period of uncertainty, the Company expects a one-off
adverse impact to 2017 sales and profits guidance, but 2017 to be a
profit growth year, and the Company remains confident for the
outlook in the longer term.
PGH welcomes the clarity from the Autumn Statement as it now
allows the Company to progress on a sound footing. The continued
attractiveness of the Lets Connect product to employers and
employees is reflected in the signing of a significant contract
with the Royal Mail Group in October 2016. Furthermore, as
highlighted by a survey of over 4,000 end users, none of the key
attractions of the Lets Connect service were impacted by the
outcome of the review, including: convenience, absence of credit
checks, no upfront costs, affordability and trusted provision from
their employer.
Through the development of its technology platform, Hapi, the
Company has opened up new opportunities in the SME market
increasing the Company's available market in the private sector by
15.7 million employees to 26.2 million. The Company is now well
positioned to service over 85% of the UK working population. In
particular, the partnership contract signed with Sage in November
2016 offers a significant first introduction to this market. Sage
have established a specific team within their business to sell the
Company's tailored SME offering into their very considerable
customer base. It represents a significant opportunity for the
Group, which PGH looks forward to seeing take shape over the course
of 2017 and beyond.
Mark Scanlon, Chief Executive of Personal Group, commented: "It
is encouraging to see the underlying core business continuing to
perform well in the face of some challenges in 2016. The
attractiveness of the Lets Connect offer remains strong, and while
the uncertainty caused by the HMRC consultation into salary
sacrifice has been frustrating in the short run, and will impact
2017 sales and profit guidance. We look forward to growing this
business in the future.
"With the signing of the Sage agreement, 2016 also saw us make
significant progress in developing our available markets. We have
more than doubled our market opportunity to over 26 million private
sector employees. This gives us a strong platform from which to
develop the business further in 2017 and beyond."
-ENDS-
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have
been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this
announcement.
For more information please contact:
Personal Group Holdings Plc
Mark Scanlon / Mike Dugdale +44 (0)1908 605 000
Philip Dennis (Investor Relations) +44 (0)7947 868 206
Cenkos Securities Plc
Max Hartley / Stephen Keys (Nomad) +44 (0)20 7397 8900
Russell Kerr (Sales)
Hudson Sandler
Nick Lyon / Sophie Lister / Lucy Wollam +44 (0)20 7796 4133
Notes to editors
With over 30 years' experience of looking after its customers'
employees, Personal Group Holdings Plc (AIM: PGH) is a leading
provider of employee benefits and employee related insurance
products, offering benefits programmes to over 2 million employees
across the UK.
Personal Group's innovative approach to using technology to
deliver its programmes, combined with its face-to-face method of
communicating with employees, makes its offering compelling to blue
chip clients across the UK as a way of attracting, retaining and
motivating employees. The Group tailors its packages to include
insurance products such as hospital and convalescence plans, death
benefit and income protection plans, as well as lifestyle benefits
such as holiday and retail discounts, health and wellbeing benefits
and a range of tax efficient benefits.
Personal Group can also supply home technology via salary
sacrifice through its subsidiary Let's Connect. Offering the latest
iPads and other tablets, home computers and laptops, smart phones
and smart TVs is a highly engaging benefit from which both the
employer and employee can profit.
Personal Group has a strong client base across a range of
sectors including transport, where it works with the likes of
Network Rail, Stagecoach and EYMS Group Ltd, and healthcare, where
clients include Four Seasons Health Care, Priory Group and Spire
Healthcare. The Group also covers logistics, with companies such as
TNT Express and Bibby, and motoring with Manheim and JCT600 as
clients. In addition the Group also has a strong presence in food
manufacturing and service and clients include 2 Sisters Food Group
and Young's Seafood.
With over 520 clients the Group has grown considerably and
provides engaging and effective benefits packages across a breadth
of sectors.
For further information, please see www.personalgroup.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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