Wilmington Regulatory News (WIL)

18 May 2017

Wilmington plc

Q3 Trading Update

Wilmington plc ("Wilmington" or "the business") the provider of information, education and networking services in Risk & Compliance, Professional, and Healthcare knowledge areas is today providing a trading update for the nine-month period to 31 March 2017.

Trading Update

Group revenue was up 13% (up 8% in constant currency) during the nine months ended 31 March 2017. Overall, revenue is in line with expectations, with good organic growth coming from our core growth areas of Risk & Compliance and the Healthcare businesses. Revenue growth was further supported by good contributions from the acquisitions made over the last two years and from the beneficial impact of currency translation. Offsetting this growth was, as previously reported, declines in some areas of the Professional division and the legacy charities and data suppression businesses.

During the nine-month period, Wilmington continued to see growth in reported operating profits, although this profit growth has been partially offset as reported in the interim results by continued investment across the business particularly in the US and in the compliance training areas where we see significant scope for stronger growth in the medium term.

Operational Review

Risk & Compliance 

Risk & Compliance again delivered strong revenue growth up 11% driven mainly by compliance training. In support of this growth and as reported in the interim results, we have continued to invest in new products, in the new North American operation and in additional support staff to expand our infrastructure and drive ICA membership. We have also been successful recently in winning two large international training programs which will benefit the business over the summer and we have brought in additional resources accordingly. This additional resource has further impacted margins in the short term but is expected to benefit contribution in 2017/18. Further investment continues to be made in our new North American compliance training business and in Compliance Week to expand its geographical reach in terms of events and information coverage.

Professional

Revenue was up 5% benefitting from favourable currency translation and the strong maiden performance from SWAT as well as our other accountancy training operations. However, the division continues to see the impact of the challenging conditions within the legal market as well as the impact of the weaker start to the financial year for AMT albeit we have recently regained stability in the Asia Pacific market.

The process for the planned disposal of Ark is underway and negotiations continue with potential buyers. Whilst Project Sixth Gear will provide benefits to the whole group, much of the work is centred around integrating the training businesses making up the bulk of the Professional division. This initiative is progressing well and we are attracting high calibre applicants for the divisional head role.

Healthcare 

Revenue was up 23% driven by organic growth across the board from our healthcare businesses and acquisitions made over the last two years. This was partially offset by continued declines in our legacy non-healthcare data suppression and charities businesses which make up around 20% of the division. HSJ, acquired on 31 January 2017 has also performed well and the HSJ team has been transferred to our Underwood Street premises. Integration is progressing on plan and is expected to be largely completed by the end of our 2016/17 financial year.

Cash Flow

Net debt as at 31 March 2017 was £51.4m (2016: £34.5m). This reflects strong cash generation and includes £20.3m paid in cash for two acquisitions made during the period. The Group has an overall borrowing facility of £85m which was extended from £65m in January 2017.

Adjusted measures

Effective from 30 June 2017 Wilmington will include share based payments costs within its definition of adjusted results. Share based payment costs amounted to £0.6m in 2015/16 and are not expected to be materially different during 2016/17.

Outlook

Wilmington continues to see the trends of tighter regulatory control and more complex legislation being implemented in most of our key markets, which in turn is driving demand for many of our products and services. We have and will continue to invest in our Compliance business to provide the infrastructure and support for anticipated future growth.

Despite the continued investment in infrastructure, the financial performance is in line with the Board's expectations and Wilmington is on track to deliver against expectations for the full year.

The information communicated in this announcement is inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014

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Notes to Editors

Wilmington plc is the recognised knowledge leader and partner of choice for information, education and networking in Risk & Compliance, Professional and Healthcare areas. Capitalised at approximately £210 million, Wilmington floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995.