Parity Regulatory News (PTY)

25 May 2017

 Parity Group plc

("Parity" or the "Group")

AGM Statement

At today's Annual General Meeting of Parity Group plc, the technology focussed consultancy and staffing business, John Conoley, the Non-Executive Chairman, will make the following statement:

"As the new Chairman for Parity Group, I am pleased to report that the Group has had a satisfactory start to the year, with clear evidence that we are maintaining strategic momentum.

Our focus remains on the priorities stated in the recent full year results announced on 23 March to accelerate the rebalancing of our business, by continuing the development of the more profitable Consultancy Services division. This drives our strategic objectives of higher margin value-added services, with longer term visibility and improved client engagement. We are achieving these objectives whilst continuing self-funded investment to grow sales capacity, and maintaining focus on cash generation and reducing net borrowing.

Notwithstanding the stronger relative growth in Consultancy, trading conditions in our core businesses remain largely unchanged in Q1 and we are pleased to confirm that overall trading since January remains in line with expectations.

We have seen increased demand for managed service solutions from our Parity Consultancy Services ('Consultancy') division to support both project management and technical solution delivery. Early successes in this area are supporting the development of more proactive solutions where the support of our recruitment business enables the Consultancy to scale quickly without a high bench cost whilst still maintaining our diligent and high quality service.

Parity Professionals experienced the usual seasonal drop in contractor volumes at the end of March, though this was exacerbated by the change in the assessment of taxation to contractors working in the public sector (IR35). Whilst client demand is maintained, there were some supply side issues due to the uncertainty that this change has created. Despite this, the process has been well managed and as a result, we are now able to have early visibility of the assessment needed and control expectations, thereby limiting any future impact on new placements.

Parity Group's broader portfolio of services puts us in a strong defensive position when economic uncertainty or legislative change drive clients to consider new solutions to meet their needs. The extension of the MoD MCOCS project and the early fruits of success with recent managed service wins provides us with further confidence in the restructuring we have focused on within the new strategy.

I am delighted to join the Parity Board, along with the experienced Non-executive David Firth, at this pivotal time for the business. The Board and management team continue to refine the strategy and target investment opportunities to accelerate the Group's development and provide shareholder value. We are all excited about the potential opportunities on the horizon.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that we have appointed WH Ireland as our nominated adviser and broker with immediate effect."

END