Gb Group Regulatory News (GBG)

GB GROUP PLC

("GBG", "Group" or the "Company")

Continued Good Progress

Today at 1.00 p.m., GBG (AIM: GBG), the global identity data intelligence specialist, is holding its Annual General Meeting at its registered office premises in Chester. Ahead of the meeting, it provides the following statement which will be made by David Rasche, GBG's Non-Executive Chairman:

"Overview and Performance Update

Before I update you on progress made this financial year, I would like to recap on our accomplishments in 2018-19. In addition to reporting a financial performance that was ahead of original market expectations and the completion of two acquisitions, including IDology, our largest transaction to date, we also:

·; maintained our commitment to technological innovation and product development;

·; increased our focus on improving our customer service; and

·; improved our levels of employee engagement.

Such a successful year together with these achievements have given us confidence that we will deliver another good performance this year.

Moving on to 2019-20, I am pleased to report that we have made a good start to the year with revenue and profit performance in line with management's expectations. The first quarter has seen growth in both organic revenue and adjusted operating profit. The Group's balance sheet remains strong with solid cash conversion, which has enabled us to pay down a further £10m of debt in the period.

Strategic Progress and Business Wins

Our well-defined strategy is delivering good growth across our key focus areas of Location, Identity and Fraud. We continue to see our products gain good traction internationally with both new customer wins and upsell in the first quarter including:

·; Our Location business secured business with Patagonia USA and Moosejaw, both North American leisure and outdoor clothing companies, TFG, which owns 22 brands across the UK retail sector and Christian Aid, the UK-based charity that operates in 37 countries.

·; Our Identity business's North American customer wins include the long-established financial services company National Life Group and a new FinTech business, Albert Corporation, who provide technology and services to users to collate and automate their personal finances. In Europe, we signed up William Hill, the UK FTSE250 bookmaker and in AsiaPac Volt Bank, Australia's first digital start-up bank to receive a banking licence.

·; The Fraud business, which operates primarily in Asia Pacific, has secured increased business from a number of financial services customers including: AmBank, the 6th largest bank in Malaysia; and CIMB Niaga, one of Indonesia's largest banks which operates in 16 locations across Asia.

Capital Markets Event

The senior management team and I recently attended our second Capital Markets Event (CME) in London on 11 July 2019. It was good to meet with so many institutional investors and analysts and talk to them about the exciting aspects of the Identity solution area of our business. It was also great to hear first-hand their positive and supportive feedback of GBG's developments, prospects and the direction the business is headed.

Materials from the event are also available on GBG's website: https://www.gbgplc.com/investors/capital-markets-identity/ 

Integration of Acquisitions

In respect of IDology and VIX Verify, I am pleased to report that good progress continues to be made in respect of the post-acquisition integrations of these businesses.

Outlook

As to the future, we believe that organisations will have an even greater need for identity data intelligence solutions, not only to support their efforts to deliver exceptional service and online experiences to their consumers, but also to help them combat fraud and address the ever-increasing requirements of regulatory compliance. We operate within significant, long-term growth markets and are confident that we continue to be well placed - both technically and geographically - to take advantage of these opportunities. As a result, the Board expects that this will be another successful year.

Finally, on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank all of our shareholders for their ongoing support and engagement. I also extend my thanks to the GBG team for their part in achieving the significant progress we have made and their tireless commitment to our success."

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About GBG

GBG offers a series of solutions that help organisations quickly validate and verify the identity and location of their customers.

Our innovative technology leads the world in location intelligence and fraud detection. Our products are built on an unparalleled breadth of data obtained from over 200 global partners which helps us to verify the identity of 4.4 billion people globally.

Our headquarters are in the UK and we have nearly 1,000 team members across 16 countries. We work with clients in 72 countries including some of the best-known businesses around the world, ranging from US e-commerce giants to Asia's biggest banks and European household brands.

To find out more about how we help our clients establish trust with their customers, visit www.gbgplc.com, follow us on Twitter @gbgplc, or read more in our newsroom: www.gbgplc.com/newsroom