Telecom Plus Regulatory News (TEP)

27 April 2023

Telecom Plus PLC

Year End Trading Update and Notice of Results

Telecom Plus PLC (trading as Utility Warehouse and UW), the UK's only supplier of bundled household utility services, today issues a trading update for its financial year ending 31 March 2023.

Highlights

● Record year of growth - almost 160,000 further households choosing UW

● Profits expected to be in line with expectations

● Ongoing strong interest in our income opportunity as cost of living pressures continue

● Total dividend of 80p for the full year (FY22: 57p)

Financial

We expect full year adjusted pre-tax profits to be slightly above £95m, in line with previously upgraded guidance, and confirm our intention to pay a total dividend for the year of 80p (FY22: 57p) per share.

Trading

Our unique multiservice proposition enabled us to provide households with over £30m of energy bill savings during the financial year.

We are pleased to have exceeded our full year growth targets, with Customer numbers increasing by 157,899 (FY22: 71,269) to 886,579 and service numbers by 533,239 (FY22: 191,112) to 2,798,148. This growth was achieved organically, and against the ongoing headwind of the market stabilisation charge.

Interest in the income opportunity which we offer to UW Partners continued to grow over the course of the year, particularly during the second half, with Partner numbers increasing to almost 60,000. Our recent annual 'Power Up' conference saw strong Partner attendance, 

reinforcing their high levels of confidence in the UW proposition and the growing demand for an additional income as the cost of living continues to rise.

Outlook

Falling wholesale prices are expected to feed through into lower energy bills later this year, albeit remaining at elevated levels. At the same time, there is considerable upward pressure on household budgets, with continued price inflation across the broadband, mobile and insurance markets. Against this backdrop, and with record numbers of new Partners joining UW to earn an additional income, we have confidence in our ability to deliver another year of double digit organic customer growth.

We look forward to providing a further update with our full year results for the financial year ended 31 March 2023, which we expect to announce on 27 June 2023.

Andrew Lindsay & Stuart Burnett, Co-CEOs, said:

"The business has delivered an exceptional performance over the last 12 months, with record results on virtually all metrics. 

"As the UK's only multiservice utility provider, UW remains uniquely positioned to help families not only save on their household bills but also to earn a much-needed additional income. This gives us confidence in our ability to deliver another year of double digit organic customer growth and to make further progress towards our target of welcoming an additional one million customers in the next 4-5 years."

For more information, please contact:

Telecom Plus PLC

Andrew Lindsay, Co-CEO 020 8955 5000

Stuart Burnett, Co-CEO

Nick Schoenfeld, CFO

Peel Hunt

Dan Webster / Andrew Clark 020 7418 8900

Numis Securities

Mark Lander / Joshua Hughes 020 7260 1000

MHP Communications

Reg Hoare / Catherine Chapman 020 3128 8339

About Telecom Plus PLC ("Telecom Plus"):

Telecom Plus, which owns and operates Utility Warehouse (UW), is the UK's leading multiservice utility provider, offering bundled household services - energy, broadband, mobile and insurance - through one account. 

Customers benefit from the convenience of a single monthly bill, consistently good value across all their utilities and exceptional levels of service.

Customers sign up through a network of local UW Partners all across the country. These Partners recommend UW's services to friends, family and people they know by word of mouth.

Telecom Plus is listed on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: TEP LN). For further information please visit telecomplus.co.uk

LEI code: 549300QGHDX5UKE58G86

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

This Announcement may contain "forward-looking statements" with respect to certain of the Company's plans and its current goals and expectations relating to its future financial condition, performance, strategic initiatives, objectives and results. Forward-looking statements sometimes use words such as "aim", "anticipate", "target", "expect", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "goal", "believe", "seek", "may", "could", "outlook" or other words of similar meaning. By their nature, all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Company's present and future business strategies, relate to future events and depend on circumstances which are or may be beyond the control of the Company which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements in this Announcement, including, but not limited to, domestic and global economic business conditions; market-related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates; the policies and actions of governmental and regulatory authorities; the effect of competition, inflation and deflation; the effect of legislative, fiscal, tax and regulatory developments in the jurisdictions in which the Company and its respective affiliates operate; the effect of volatility in the equity, capital and credit markets on profitability and ability to access capital and credit; a decline in credit ratings of the Company; the effect of operational risks; an unexpected decline in sales for the Company; any limitations of internal financial reporting controls; and the loss of key personnel. Any forward-looking statements made in this Announcement by or on behalf of the Company speak only as of the date they are made. Save as required by the Market Abuse Regulation, the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, the Listing Rules or by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements and will not publicly release any revisions it may make to these forward-looking statements that may occur due to any change in its expectations or to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Announcement.