Christie Regulatory News (CTG)

12 September 2016

Christie Group plcInterim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2016

Christie Group plc ('Christie' or the 'Group'), the leading provider of Professional Business Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services to the leisure, retail and care markets, is pleased to announce its Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2016.

Key points:

· Revenue for the first half marginally lower than prior year at £31.6m (2015: £31.7m)

· Operating loss of £0.9m (2015: operating profit of £1.7m)

· Negative earnings per share of 4.95p per share (2015: 4.18p per share)

· Board expects a stronger and profitable second half

· Interim dividend maintained at 1.0p per share (2015: 1.0p per share)

· UK transactional pipelines at end of first half up 19% on H1 2015

· Strong European Hotel transaction activity

· Christie Finance's pipeline of loan transactions has grown by almost 50% on a year ago, while the average loan value arranged for clients has increased by 9%

· Impact of living wage on UK retail stocktaking operations offset by successful fee negotiations

· Christie & Co recognised as a "Superbrand" within the real estate sector

Commenting on the results, David Rugg, Chief Executive of Christie Group, said:

"After a difficult first half in the run up to the EU referendum, progress has resumed. We have stepped up the margin in our stocktaking division and are seeing increased activity in our transactional business. We look forward to a stronger finish to the year."

Enquiries:

Notes to Editors:

Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional business services group with 46 offices across the UK, Europe and Canada, catering to its specialist markets in the leisure, retail and care sectors.

Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions: Professional Business Services (PBS) and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the brand names: PBS - Christie & Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge, Venners and Vennersys.

Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long established reputation for offering essential services to client companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy, project management, multi-functional trading systems and online ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management. The diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the Group's core agency business.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014.

For more information, please go to www.christiegroup.com.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

As I envisaged in my AGM statement in June, reduced corporate activity in the M & A market in the run-up to the EU Referendum resulted in an operating loss of £0.9m (2015: £1.7m operating profit) on revenue of £31.6m (2015: £31.7m).

The quantum of the first-half operating loss was compounded by commissions foregone in a reaction to the EU referendum decision. This subdued revenue, coupled with a higher operating cost base which itself flowed from our decision to invest to drive further growth following that achieved in 2014 and 2015, combined to move our first-half performance back year-on-year. This investment has augmented the capacity within our Professional Business Services division.

Notwithstanding these factors, I am pleased to advise that post-Brexit and the ensuing short period of political instability which followed, business is returning towards more normal levels. Our continental operations remain both integral and supportive of what we do. European hotel transaction activity has been strong from a number of the countries in which we are present, with further territories expected to contribute as we move forwards.

The major UK banks which support our sectors have been incentivised to lend by the Bank of England. We can also expect strong inward UK investment based upon a rebased low sterling exchange rate.

Across our sectors we expect that inbound tourism should boom, whilst our hospitality businesses and petrol forecourts also benefit from the staycation. An ageing population supports the Care industry and even longer-working grandparents are boosting occupancy for Children's Day Nurseries. Consumer staples will ensure that convenience retailing continues to flourish.

Professional Business Services

Christie & Co has been identified by The Centre for Brand Analysis as a "Superbrand" in a survey commissioned by The Estates Gazette, a pleasing endorsement of its rebranding earlier this year.

The introduction of the Living Wage in April increased the operating costs of the businesses we sell where, in general, wage costs are the largest variable operating cost. This will in many cases have an effect on their short-term profitability. We have, however, as yet seen no uptick in the level of distress-driven sales mandates. 

Volumes of UK business sales have remained subdued. Notwithstanding this, we completed the sale of 6 regional Hilton hotels on behalf of Oaktree Capital, Westmont and Paulsons to 6 individual buyers. 

Across the Channel we have been busy selling the Radisson Sun Gardens Dubrovnik to a group of Chinese investors, illustrating once again our ability to close transactions outside of those countries where we have physical locations. Internationally, we have been provided with a number of key instructions across Europe such as two Novotel hotels in Hungary, Modlin Fortress in Warsaw and The Gresham in Dublin.

Christie & Co provided advisory services relating to one of the largest hotel portfolio transactions completed in Q2 of this year, continuing its trend of advising on a significant proportion of the major UK hotel portfolio transactions that have taken place in recent years.

Our valuers were also busy supporting the sale of Liberation Group's owners LGV to Caledonia Group for £118m. A portfolio of both UK and Channel Island pubs, as well as around 300 convenience stores, were sold from Co-Op to McColls.

In the Medical sector, we continued to diversify and took instructions on a major aesthetics dispensing business. We have also been instructed to sell a portfolio of pharmacies on behalf of Lloyds Pharmacy. Dental projects also included the sale of a substantial pair of dental practices, Smile and Madeira Dental Care in Dorset, for in excess of the asking price of £2.5m.

In the Care division, and more specifically our Childcare & Education team, we successfully brokered the sale of Bush Babies Children's Nurseries to Busy Bees Childcare as well as selling First Class Child Care to Just Childcare in the first half. This success has continued into the second half, where we recently completed the sale of Positive Steps Children's Day Nurseries - also to Busy Bees Childcare - in a deal believed to be the largest in the sector this year.

Whilst corporate valuation instructions were lower, we saw an overall net increase of 12.5% in the number of single asset instructions received for SME owners, buyers and their banks.

Christie & Co's hotly anticipated research report entitled Adult Social Care 2016: Funding, Staffing & The Bottom Line was released in July 2016 at an event held at the Royal Nursing College in London which was attended by over 70 key clients and industry figures. It illustrates once again our skills and knowledge base that stretches well beyond property.

Christie Finance's pipeline of loan transactions has grown by almost 50% over the corresponding point last year, whilst the value of Christie Insurance's renewals book increased by 9%.

Pinders, our business appraiser, undertook a significant volume of business in the education sector, providing specialist advice relating to assets with a combined value of some £100m, on behalf of a number of lenders, who have increasingly targeted this sector.

Stock & Inventory Systems & Services

In our hospitality stocktaking business, Venners, new client wins have continued in 2016. Those we have added include Bravo Inns and Arena Racing Company. Our Consultancy offering has been taken on board by, amongst others, HQ Theatres, Lewis Partnership, Accor and Macdonald Hotels and in Ireland by Rezidor Hotels.

Golf club additions in Ireland include Holywood, Banbridge, Fort William and Lisburn, meaning that we now assist over 60 golf clubs to maximise profit from their bars, dining rooms and shops across the UK and Ireland.

In Retail stocktaking, new opportunities continue to arise for Orridge, based upon quality of service. New work has been secured with Englehorn, Habitat, Adidas and Hallhuber.

Our fee negotiations, triggered by the introduction of the Living Wage, are now complete and we have been able to recover the increased cost. Additionally, we have seen an encouraging response from new counter and supervisor bonus schemes which have been introduced alongside changes in working practices to increase productivity. In Germany, we have invested in larger capacity people carriers and more powerful technology to increase efficiency.

Within Vennersys, VenPoS Cloud, our Visitor Attraction software system, continues to attract new clients as we increase its wide functionality. New functionality includes the new VenPoS handy terminal which facilitates flexible stocktaking with linked reporting in our site manager suite. Our third party ticket generator allows our users to allocate tickets to the likes of Amazon to sell tickets on the attraction operators' behalf. We have introduced "My account" functionality to our consumer site allowing visitor attractions to increase efficiency by enabling their customers to self-manage their bookings as well as allowing visitor attractions to tailor promotions and advance purchase offers to members.

We have signed our first distillery at Glenmorangie, our first cemetery at Highgate, our first Maze - The Wizard Maze - and further stately homes, including Floors Castle.

Outlook

The EU Referendum inevitably disrupted our first half trading. Our markets in the UK remain steady, if unspectacular. The banks we work with have been freed to lend. Our UK markets are attracting inward investment based, in part, on a lower value of sterling.

Our team hails from 23 countries, many naturalised or with permit rights of residence abroad. We value the collaboration of all of our colleagues which is intrinsic to the success of our business. I thank each of them on your behalf for their continuing contribution.

We continue to expect a stronger and profitable second half's trading.

Cash flow in the first half of the year reflects the first half trading performance combined with anticipated working capital outflow. The latter is expected to unwind in the second half of the year, with stronger second half trading improving cash generation.

We work in a real economy. Our underlying financial covenant is the millions of customers our clients' businesses serve, so our markets are both strong and soundly-based. We are optimistic of the prospects for our markets and our businesses.

Severe storms on the night of 22 June flooded our head office power supply forcing us to relocate to temporary accommodation for five weeks. On your behalf I thank our continuity planners and those who implemented our plans which enabled us to continue to trade with extremely limited disruption.

The Board has declared a maintained interim dividend of 1.0p (2015: 1.0p per share) which will be paid on 14 October 2016 to shareholders on the register on 23 September 2016.

Philip Gwyn

Chairman

(Loss) / profit for the period after tax attributable to:

 Earnings per share attributable to equity holders - pence

Consolidated interim statement of comprehensive income

Total comprehensive (losses) / income attributable to:

Consolidated interim statement of changes in shareholders' equity

Consolidated interim statement of financial position

Consolidated interim statement of cash flows

Notes to the consolidated interim financial statements

1. General information

Christie Group plc is the parent undertaking of a group of companies covering a range of related activities. These fall into two divisions - Professional Business Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services. Professional Business Services principally covers business valuation, consultancy and agency, mortgage and insurance services, and business appraisal. Stock & Inventory Systems & Services covers stock audit and counting, compliance and food safety audits and inventory preparation and valuation, hospitality and cinema software.

2. Basis of preparation

The interim financial information in this report has been prepared using accounting policies consistent with IFRS as adopted by the European Union. IFRS is subject to amendment and interpretation by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the IFRS Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) and there is an ongoing process of review and endorsement by the European Commission. The financial information has been prepared on the basis of IFRS that the Directors expect to be adopted by the European Union and applicable as at 31 December 2016.

The accounting policies applied are consistent with those of the annual financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2015, except for those noted below and except for the adoption of new standards and interpretations effective as of 1 January 2016. Taxes on income in the interim periods are accrued using the tax rate that would be applicable to expected total annual earnings.

A number of amendments apply for the first time in 2016. However, they do not materially impact the annual consolidated financial statements of the Group or the interim condensed consolidated financial statements of the Group.

Non-statutory accounts

These consolidated interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with IAS 34 'Interim Financial Reporting'. The financial information for the year ended 31 December 2015 set out in this interim report does not constitute the Group's statutory accounts for that period. The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditors reported on those accounts; their report was unqualified, did not contain a statement under either section 498(2) or section 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006 and did not include references to any matters to which the auditor drew attention by way of emphasis. The financial information for the periods ended 30 June 2016 and 30 June 2015 is unaudited. 

3. Critical accounting estimates and judgements

Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.

The Group makes estimates and assumptions concerning the future. The resulting accounting estimates will, by definition, seldom equal the related actual results. The estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are consistent with those applied to the consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2015.

4. Segment information

The Group is organised into two main business segments: Professional Business Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services.

The reportable segment results for continuing operations for the period ended 30 June 2016 are as follows:

The reportable segment results for continuing operations for the period ended 30 June 2015 are as follows:

The reportable segment results for continuing operations for the year ended 31 December 2015 are as follows:

The Group is not reliant on any key customers.

5. Taxation

Deferred tax assets have been recognised in respect of tax losses and other temporary differences giving rise to deferred tax assets where it is probable that these assets will be recovered.

The tax on the Group's profit before tax differs from the theoretical amount that would arise using the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK of 20%, based on the Group's profit before tax and before pension scheme finance costs, due to £44,000 arising from the reduction in the value of the brought forward deferred tax asset and a further £259,000 arising from other movements in the deferred tax asset.

6. Earnings per share

Basic earnings per share is calculated by dividing the profit attributable to equity holders of the Company by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period, which excludes the shares held in the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) trust.

Diluted earnings per share is calculated by adjusting the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding to assume conversion of all dilutive potential ordinary shares. The Company has only one category of potential dilutive ordinary shares: share options. Where a loss for the year has been recognised the share options are considered anti-dilutive and so not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share.

The calculation is performed for the share options to determine the number of shares that could have been acquired at fair value (determined as the average annual market share price of the Company's shares) based on the monetary value of the subscription rights attached to outstanding share options. The number of shares calculated as above is compared with the number of shares that would have been issued assuming the exercise of the share options.

7. Dividends

A final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 December 2015 of 1.5p per share, amounting to a total dividend of £394,000, was approved and paid to the Christie Group plc registrar on 4 July 2016. The funds were transferred to shareholders on 8 July 2016.

An interim dividend in respect of 2016 of 1.0p per share, amounting to a dividend of £265,000, was declared by the directors at their meeting on 7 September 2016. These financial statements do not reflect this dividend payable.

The dividend of 1.0p per share will be payable to shareholders on the record on 23 September 2016. The ex-dividend date will be 22 September 2016. The dividend will be paid on 14 October 2016.

8. Share capital

The Company has one class of ordinary shares which carry no right to fixed income.

Investment in own shares

The Group has established an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) trust in order to meet its future contingent obligations under the Group's share option schemes. The ESOP purchases shares in the market for distribution at a later date in accordance with the terms of the Group's share option schemes. The rights to dividend on the shares held have been waived.

At 30 June 2016 the total payments by the Group to the ESOP to finance the purchase of ordinary shares were £2,639,000 (30 June 2015: £2,658,000; 31 December 2015: £2,643,000). This figure is inclusive of shares purchased and subsequently issued to satisfy employee share awards. The market value at 30 June 2016 of the ordinary shares held in the ESOP was £203,000 (30 June 2015: £487,000; 31 December 2015: £299,000). The investment in own shares represents 247,000 shares (30 June 2015: 368,000; 31 December 2015: 235,000) with a nominal value of 2p each.

9. Retirement benefit obligations

The obligation outstanding of £14,721,000 (30 June 2015: £13,728,000; 31 December 2015: £11,958,000) includes £962,000 (30 June 2015: £980,000; 31 December 2015: £986,000) relating to David Rugg who transferred 80% of his accrued benefits out of the Christie Group Pension and Assurance Scheme during 2014 leaving the residual benefit payable to Mr Rugg under agreement of the Christie Group plc Remuneration Committee.

The Group operates two defined benefit schemes (closed to new members) providing pensions on final pensionable pay. The contributions are determined by qualified actuaries on the basis of triennial valuations using the projected unit method.

When a member retires, the pension and any spouse's pension is either secured by an annuity contract or paid from the managed fund. Assets of the schemes are reduced by the purchase price of any annuity purchase and the benefits no longer regarded as liabilities of the scheme.

The amounts recognised in the statement of comprehensive income and the movement in the liability recognised in the statement of financial position have been based on the forecast position for the year ended 31 December 2016 after adjusting for the actual contributions to be paid in the period.

The movement in the liability recognised in the statement of financial position is as follows:

The amounts recognised in the income statement and statement of comprehensive income are as follows:

The principal actuarial assumptions used were as follows:

Assumptions regarding future mortality experience were consistent with those disclosed in the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2015.

10. Note to the cash flow statement

Cash (used in) / generated from operations

 11. Cash and cash equivalents include the following for the purposes of the cash flow statement:

12. Related-party transactions

There is no controlling interest in the Group's shares.

During the period rentals of £164,000 (30 June 2015: £162,000; 31 December 2015: £325,000) were paid to Carmelite Property Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales, and jointly owned by The Christie Group Pension and Assurance Scheme, The Venners Retirement Benefit Fund and The Fitzroy Square Pension Fund, by Christie Group plc in accordance with the terms of a long-term lease agreement.

13. Publication of Interim Report

The 2016 Interim Financial Statements are available on the Company's website www.christiegroup.com