Trading Update and Notice of Results

Trading in line with managements’ expectations for first half and continued confidence in full year outlook

Personal Group Holdings Plc (AIM: PGH), the workforce benefits and services provider, is pleased to provide the following update on trading for the six-month period ending 30 June 2022 (HY22).

The Company expects to publish its interim results for HY 22 on 27 September 2022.

Trading

The Group has enjoyed positive trading for the first half of 2022, delivering both revenue and adjusted EBITDA in line with management’s expectations for the period and achieving continued progress against the Board’s key strategic objectives.

In particular, good momentum was seen across the business’ two largest divisions – Affordable Insurance and Benefits Platform.

The ability to carry out face-to-face sales continued to benefit the Group’s insurance division, with June 2022 recording the highest amount of new business signed in a single month since November 2018, helping to drive the Annualised Premium Income value up to £26.2m (December 2021: £24.4m). The level of claims in Q1 was higher than anticipated albeit this has subsequently started to return towards projected levels. Encouragingly, retention levels remain above the Group’s historical average demonstrating the continued relevance of the Group’s insurance products in these challenging economic times.

The relationship with Sage continues to strengthen with Annualised Recurring Revenue increasing to £2.1m at the end of the period (December 21: £1.6m) providing a large contribution towards the growth in the Benefits Platform division’s ARR to £3.8m (December 21: £3.2m).

Meanwhile Pay & Reward and Other Owned Benefits (Let’s Connect) were in line with management expectations, although, due to normal seasonality, significant contribution from the latter will be delivered in the second half of the year, subject to continued supply chain availability.

The Board was delighted to complete the acquisition of Quintige Consulting Group Limited at the end of the period, adding not only scale to the Group’s Pay & Reward division, but helping to consolidate the Group’s position as a leading provider of employee services in the UK.

Outlook

Notwithstanding the backdrop of the changing and challenging macro environment, the strength of trading in H1, strong retention levels and the Group’s growing Annual Premium Income and Annual Recurring Revenue provide the Board with assurance in achieving market expectations for the full year. The Board continues to look to the future with confidence.

Deborah Frost, Chief Executive of Personal Group, commented:

“Personal Group is, I believe, well positioned within a growing market with an increasingly relevant offering. We are now putting the impact of previous pandemic lockdowns firmly behind us and with the current momentum and increasing scale of the business, we are on course to deliver revenue and EBITDA growth for the full year, in line with expectations.

As a Board, we remain continually mindful of the external pressures that we are all facing and know that no one is exempt from the uncertainty that prevails. However, past experience shows in challenging times our products continue to strongly resonate with our customers, as demonstrated by our insurance retention rates remaining above our historical average.

I believe we are now building on foundations laid to enable healthy progress in the future. Our focus is on accelerating our growth trajectory in line with our stated strategy to become ‘a winning team creating a brighter future for the UK workforce.'”

In the TV clip below Deborah Frost, Personal Group’s Chief Executive pinpoints the major operational and financial highlights from the period. She also provides some details on the the group’s strategy going forwards.