The Mission Group Regulatory News (TMG)

15 July 2020

THE MISSION GROUP plc

("MISSION", "THE GROUP")

TRADING UPDATE AND NOTICE OF INTERIM RESULTS

MISSION (AIM: TMG), the alternative group for ambitious brands, today provides the following trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2020 ("the period").

Key Highlights

· Following a positive start to 2020 the Group entered the COVID-19 crisis in a position of strength.

· Robust trading performance in challenging market conditions, ahead of our initial projections at the outset of the pandemic.

· Proactive and prudent measures taken to conserve cash with net bank debt significantly reduced during the period.

· Strong Client retention throughout period with teams successfully focused on delivering new, innovative solutions for Clients.

· Continued to win new Clients and assignments across the Group, in recent weeks securing significant contract with INEOS for delivery in the second half of the year.

· Diversity of Client portfolio has ensured Group has been at forefront of activity in more robust sectors with strong performances in healthcare and technology.

Trading

As anticipated, whilst the pandemic has resulted in a material impact on Client demand, the Group has adapted well, a testament to our innovative and creative culture, ensuring MISSION is well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that are arising across our global markets.

As highlighted in our previous updates on 27 March and 21 April, the Group has taken proactive and decisive action throughout the crisis to protect the health and well-being of our people, ensure business continuity for our Clients and protect the financial strength of the business. As a result we have seen an improved performance against the Group's initial projections at the outset of the pandemic.

We expect to report revenues for the period of £29m (2019: £39m) and whilst the Group anticipates an interim loss before tax of c£2.2m (2020: profit of £3.4m) our historic second half year weighting in profitability means that, providing we do not experience further deterioration in our trading environment, we expect to deliver a profitable performance for the full year, albeit at materially lower levels than FY2019. On the assumption that the impact of COVID-19 is now past the worst and that the UK starts to see an economic recovery, the Board sees no reason why in FY2021, PBT cannot return to the pre-pandemic levels similar to those of FY2019, in a range between £9m-£10m.

The Group is well financed, having recently increased our committed banking facilities to £20m. Strong cash management throughout the period has resulted in a significant reduction in our net bank debt position since the end of the last financial year, which at 30 June 2020 was £1.2m (£4.9m as at 31 December 2019).

With Clients facing unique commercial challenges our focus has been on delivering seamless and exemplary Client service, continuing to innovate with new, creative solutions and technologies to address their quickly evolving business needs. An early example of this was the launch of the Safe Distancing Assistant, a wearable device designed for businesses needing to implement social distancing, by our Pathfindr division. To date we have sold over 15,000 units with a strong forward order book for the months ahead.

The diversity of our Client portfolio has ensured we have been at the forefront of activity in more resilient markets with notably strong performances in both the technology and healthcare sectors. April Six, our specialist technology and mobility Agency has added ten new Clients in the last three months including the European Space Agency and Scania Europe along with significant US account wins including Rimini Street, resulting in impressive revenue growth for this Agency. We have also continued to grow our presence in the healthcare market with strong revenue growth from our specialist Agency RJW. And this week we are delighted to announce that Bray Leino has won a significant contract with INEOS for delivery in the second half of the financial year and a large digital programme in the Far East.

Further progress was also made to grow our Client-partner relationships through increased collaboration across the Group. We have successfully won our first pitch mandate as MISSION, curating a bespoke team from across the Group to support new Client 'my online therapy' and we are pleased to have delivered excellent results for this campaign to date.

As a Group with an international network spanning eight different countries, our staff are adept at working remotely and we have been impressed with the proactivity and transformative energy seen across our teams over the recent months. As restrictions begin to lift we are exploring 'new ways of working' in order to continue to promote the clear benefits of remote working across the Group and have taken the decision to refine our four offices within the M25 down to just two sites in the second half of the calendar year, with expected annualised cost savings of c£0.7m.

Commenting, James Clifton, Chief Executive of The MISSION Group plc said:

"At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis we took the decision to plan for the worst but to strive for the best and I am very encouraged by the Group's performance during this challenging period. The nimble, entrepreneurial culture of MISSION has seen us continue to make progress against our growth plans, deliver innovative new strategies and solutions for our Clients and embrace new thinking and initiatives which will strengthen this business for the future.

"Whilst the short-term outlook remains uncertain and our performance in the second half of the year will inevitably be dependent on macro-economic recovery across our markets, we are confident in the Group's ability to weather the current trading environment and benefit from future opportunities as more normal trading conditions resume.

"I would like to finish by thanking our employees for their fortitude, adaptability and ongoing commitment."

David Morgan, Chairman of The MISSION Group plc said:

"I would like to compliment James and his management team on the swift and sensible actions that they took prior to lockdown. The business has thus performed remarkably well and whilst certain areas such as sponsorship, property and events have been impacted in the first half of the year, our core businesses have continued to progress. I am optimistic for the second half and confident that we will go into 2021 in very good shape and return to the progressive performance of recent years."

The Group will report its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2020 on 23 September 2020.

THE MISSION GROUP PLC

James Clifton, Chief Executive

Peter Fitzwilliam, Chief Financial Officer Tel: 020 7462 1415

SHORE CAPITAL (Nomad and Broker)

Mark Percy / James Thomas / Sarah Mather Tel: 020 7408 4090

HOUSTON (Financial PR and Investor Relations)

Kate Hoare / Laura Stewart Tel: 0203 760 7668

NOTES TO EDITORS

MISSION is a collective of creative Agencies. Employing 1,150 people in the UK, Europe, Asia and US, the Group combines the expertise of Integrated and Specialist Agencies to bring commercially effective solutions to business challenges.

Founded as a cooperative of like-minded entrepreneurs, MISSION has built an impressive track record. The Group has grown revenue and profit each year for the last nine years, winning prestigious and progressively bigger business across its blue-chip Client base and acquiring new Agencies with fantastic reputations, expanding its service capability even further.

In addition to the Group's creative Agencies sits Fuse, MISSION's central innovation hub through which the Group has successfully trialled and developed a number of emerging technologies. Many of these have been grown into successful commercial products that not only bring value to the MISSION family of Agencies, but which have been successfully able to realise market value at sale.

www.themission.co.uk