Gateley Holdings Regulatory News (GTLY)

Gateley (Holdings) Plc 

('Gateley', the 'Company' or the 'Group')

Trading Update

Gateley (AIM:GTLY), the national commercial law firm and complementary professional services group, is pleased to announce an update on trading ahead of its interim results for the six months ended 31 October 2017.

The Board is pleased with the performance of the business in the first six months of the financial year. Activity levels have been robust and this, together with particularly strong growth in Gateley's Corporate and Property service lines, has yielded revenues up 10% over this period.

The Board generally sees activity levels remaining solid and continues to invest in the business, taking advantage of growth opportunities as they arise. Following similar investment last year, total staff numbers, including six further strategic lateral partner hires, have risen from 717 as at 30 April 2017 to 763 as at 31 October 2017. As a result, Group EBITDA for the six months is in line with that achieved last year.

The Board looks forward to the second half of the financial year, and on the basis of current new business and work in progress levels, anticipates revenues in the second half to deliver a Group performance for the full year in line with market expectations.

Commenting, Michael Ward, Chief Executive Officer of Gateley, said:

"In line with our overall growth strategy, we have continued to take advantage of our brand recognition opportunities, service line enhancements and the delivery of excellent levels of client service. Whilst we remain focused on seeking further acquisition opportunities, our ability to achieve organic growth by attracting talent and recruiting into growing service lines places us in a strong position for the second half of the year. Our new Global Mobility service line is our latest example of strategic investment which, alongside our existing clients and contacts, will enable us to capitalise on the opportunities which we expect to emerge in an environment of ongoing political and economic uncertainty. Gateley Capitus and Gateley Hamer are also performing well with a distinctive cross-sell that is proving attractive to clients.

"We continue to invest in our people through the release of further share incentive option schemes where participation remains strong across professional and support staff alike. We were also extremely pleased with the recent share offer which was oversubscribed. We saw strong demand from existing and new institutions, as well as good internal take up from both longstanding employees and recent joiners."

The Board expects to announce the Group's half year results in early December 2017.