XPS announce strong full year results

XPS announce strong full year results

23 Jun 2022

Another year of strong and resilient growth

Final results for the year ended 31 March 2022

XPS Pensions Group plc (“XPS” or the “Group”), the Pensions Advisory and Administration business, is pleased to announce its full year results for the year ended 31 March 2022 (“FY 2022”).

Financial highlights

Continuing operations	FY 2022	FY 2021	Change YoY
Pensions Actuarial and Consulting	£63.7m	£60.7m	5%
Pensions Investment Consulting	£13.7m	£11.6m	18%
Total Advisory	£77.4m	£72.3m	7%
Pensions Administration	£50.8m	£46.8m	9%
SIP	£6.1m	£5.6m	9%
NPT	£4.3m	£3.2m	34%
Total Group Revenue	£138.6m	£127.9m	8%
Adj. EBITDA(1)	£34.1m	£32.0m	7%
Profit before tax	£16.9m	£11.4m	48%
Basic EPS	4.6p	4.4p	5%
Adj. diluted EPS(1)	10.2p	9.8p	4%
Full year dividend	7.2p	6.7p	7%

 

(1) Adjusted measures exclude the impact of acquisition related amortisation, share based payments, exceptional costs and the fair value adjustment to contingent consideration

 

• Strong performance across the Group with highest level of YoY organic growth since listing:
  • Total Group Revenue up 8% to £138.6 million, driven by higher levels of client activity
  • Adjusted EBITDA(1) up 7% YoY, broadly in line with revenue growth
• Advisory revenue growth of 7%:
  • Robust growth in Pensions Actuarial & Consulting with strong levels of client demand and GMP equalisation projects gaining momentum (+5% YoY)
  • Strong double digit growth in Pensions Investment Consulting revenues (+18% YoY)
• Pensions Administration revenue grew 9% YoY driven by new client wins and ongoing project work
• SIP revenues up 9% with strong underlying sales
• NPT revenues up 34% YoY with AUM now over £1.3 billion
• Strong balance sheet supported by highly cash generative platform - operating cash-flow conversion of 96%
• Net debt/adjusted EBITDA(1)  of 1.74x at 31 March 2022 (31 March 2021: 1.74x) – notwithstanding the SIP acquisition as well as capital investment in the business
• Statutory profit before tax up 48% YoY
• Adjusted diluted EPS(1) up 4% YoY to 10.2p
• Final Dividend of 4.8p resulting in total dividends for the year of 7.2p; following two years where we have prudently held our dividend, we are raising by 7% reflecting our confidence in the Group’s prospects

Operational Highlights:

• Significant new client wins including being appointed pensions advisory partner by BT Group plc
• Partnership announced with abrdn plc to launch a UK DB master trust
• Acquisition of Michael J Field Consulting Actuaries to expand our SIP business
• Investment in developing our proprietary administration platform to drive operational efficiencies in the future
• Developed our services including member analytics, GMP, trustee governance / secretarial services, risk transfer
• Winner of Actuarial Consulting Firm of the Year and Investment Consulting Firm of the Year at the Professional Pensions UK Pensions Awards 2021
• Strong client survey results with 93% of clients ‘satisfied’ or better
• Excellent staff survey results with 95% of staff agreeing or strongly agreeing that XPS is a good place to work
• We became carbon neutral and continued to be a signatory to the Stewardship Code for our investment advice

Paul Cuff, Co-CEO of XPS Pensions Group, commented:

“We are pleased with the Group’s performance, achieving another year of strong and resilient growth across all divisions. We had a busy year, continuing to innovate and develop new services for our clients in a range of areas as well as investing in our technology and people.  We completed the acquisition of Michael J Field Consulting Actuaries and welcomed new colleagues to the Group as well as announcing our DB master trust partnership with abrdn.

During the year we passed the five year anniversary of listing on the London Stock Exchange, and it is good to reflect on just how far we have come as a business over that period: more than doubling revenues, adjusted EBITDA and our client base. Throughout that time, we have had continuing objectives to be a great place to work and to provide outstanding service to our clients, and we are very proud of the terrific results of our staff and client surveys which show that in the eyes of our people and our clients we are succeeding well in this regard.

Our continued investment in our people and services is paying off both in terms of industry recognition and the new clients we have won this year, such as BT Group and many more significant wins with whom we are very pleased to be supporting.

Our clear strategic vision for the Group is to continue our strong growth trajectory across all four of our strategic pillars to become the pre-eminent independent firm in our industry.”

Ben Bramhall, Co-CEO of XPS Pensions Group, commented:

“Sustainability is hugely important to us, our employees and our clients and we are proud of the progress made this year in a range of areas, including going carbon neutral across our entire value chain during the year and the strong progress made on our diversity and inclusion agenda.

We would like to thank all our colleagues for how well they have looked after each other and our clients during the year, particularly with the pandemic at times still making life difficult.   We are very proud of them.   We have implemented a new flexible working framework called My XPS My Choice which has been warmly welcomed by our people who continue to work hard in supporting our clients with best in class advice and service.”

 

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