NCC Group plc (LSE: NCC or “the Group”), the international, independent provider of Escrow and Assurance, is today publishing its Interim Management Statement to 16 April 2012, covering the trading period from 1 December 2011 to 31 March 2012.
In the first 10 months of the financial year, Group revenues are 25% ahead of the same period last year at £72.0m (March 2011: £57.6m) which reflects 18% organic growth.
Rob Cotton, Group Chief Executive, comments:
“We have continued to trade well, in line with our expectations and are on course to deliver strong levels of growth and profitability for the financial year to 31 May 2012. We remain well positioned for continued long term, sustained and increasingly international growth.”
Group Escrow continues to perform well with 14% revenue growth to date (March 2011: 8%), 7% being organic. Group Escrow renewals are now forecast to be £17.3m for the current financial year (March 2011: £15.5m.)
Escrow UK, the cornerstone of the NCC Group, has seen a 7% growth (March 2011: 6%) in revenue. The global verification order book continues to be solid and is at £1.8m (October 2011: £1.8m rebased) of which £1.4m is UK verifications (October 2011: £1.4m rebased).
Since its acquisition last year, Escrow Associates, based in Atlanta, has performed very well. It met the Board’s expectations which has resulted in the full earn out becoming payable.
The European and North American Escrow businesses’ rates of growth are 7% and 76% (March 2011: 10% and 14%) respectively. The organic growth of the North American business was 3% due to the effects of the acquisition of Escrow Associates as the Group consolidates under that brand, as well as the continued impact of the office relocation.
Group Escrow termination rates remain below 12% for contracts (March 2011: 12%).
The Assurance division continues to perform strongly with a 31% increase in revenue (March 2011: 97%) of which 25% was organic growth (March 2011: 15%).
This market continues to benefit from the heightened awareness of global hacking as more and more high profile organisations fall foul of significant attack or data loss.
The Group’s load and performance testing unit, Site Confidence, saw a 13% growth in contract revenues and continues to achieve monitoring renewal rates of better than 90%. The renewals base is valued at £5.6m for the year ended 31 May 2012 (March 2011: £4.8m.)
The Group’s testing businesses have a combined order book of £19.1m (March 2011: £19.1m). Security based testing orders are more than 20% greater than last year as market demand continues to increase, but other testing services are awaiting the completion of the renewal of a number of annual contracts which we are confident will renew shortly.
The recruitment and retention of the highest quality testers remains one of the most important activities and is key to the Group’s continued international success. To date the Group continues to be ahead of its planned recruitment and expects this trend to continue until year end.
Staff turnover across the whole Assurance division to date this year has been 2%, which again remains considerably better than the planning expectation of 10%.
The Assurance Division’s overall combined order book and renewals base currently stands at £24.7m (March 2011: £23.9m).
After full payment of the first stage of the iSEC earn out the Group net debt is £25.4m (March 2011: £26.7m) against the revolving credit facility of £35m and additional £2m overdraft facility.
The Group expects to report its year end results for the 12 months to 31 May 2012 on Thursday, 5 July 2012.
Enquiries:
NCC Group (www.nccgroup.com)
Rob Cotton, Chief Executive
Atul Patel, Group Finance Director
0161 209 5432
College Hill
Adrian Duffield/Rozi Morris
020 7457 2020