TIDMKGH
RNS Number : 9574Z
Knights Group Holdings PLC
19 May 2023
19 May 2023
Knights Group Holdings plc
("Knights", the "Company" or the "Group")
Full Year Trading Update
Knights, a fast-growing legal and professional services business
in the UK, today provides a trading update for the year ended 30
April 2023.
The Group anticipates full year revenue of c.GBP142m, up by 13%
compared to the prior year (2022: GBP125.6m), with underlying
PBT(1) anticipated to be c. GBP21.5m, a 19% increase on the prior
year (2022: GBP18.1m).
Market leading lock-up(2) of 87 days at 30 April (FY 2022: 86
days), with debtor days of 30 days (FY 2022: 31 days) reflects the
Group's continued discipline of day-to-day cash collection and
working capital management. Net debt(3) as at 30 April 2023 is
expected to be c.GBP29m giving significant headroom against the
Group's Revolving Credit Facility of GBP60m.
The Group's reputation and culture continue to be instrumental
in attracting high quality talent across the regions in which it
operates, where it is increasingly well-positioned as it continues
to scale, selectively, as is the appeal of Knights' corporate model
in the current macro environment. The Group is also making strong
progress in driving operational improvements and productivity
across the business, with the benefits of this expected to be
realised in the new financial year and beyond, aided by a strong
team of Client Services Directors working in close alignment with
the operational teams.
Acquisitions announced during the year, Coffin Mew and Meade
King, are integrating well and performing in line with
expectations. The Group continues to selectively review a pipeline
of potential targets that align with its strategy, and earlier this
month agreed to acquire St James Law Limited, an independent full
service commercial law firm based in Newcastle, and Baines Wilson
LLP, primarily based in Carlisle, one of the leading independent
law firms in the North West. These acquisitions are in strategic
growth markets in the North of England, further strengthening
Knights' existing presence in the region.
David Beech, CEO of Knights, commented:
"Knights has made good progress during the year, delivering on
our strategy of selectively making acquisitions, attracting high
quality talent, driving operational improvements across the
business and strengthening our team of Client Services
Directors.
We enter the new financial year well placed to deliver organic
growth from our increased network of integrated regional offices,
with positive momentum across the business from new client wins and
a strong pipeline of partner hires."
Knights will provide a further update on trading with its full
year results announcement in mid July 2023.
Enquiries
Knights
David Beech, CEO Via MHP
Numis (Nomad and Broker)
Stuart Skinner, Kevin Cruickshank 020 7260 1000
MHP (Media enquiries)
Katie Hunt, Eleni Menikou, Rob 020 3128 8100
Collett-Creedy +44 (0)7736 464749
knights@mhpgroup.com
Notes to Editors
Knights is a fast-growing, legal and professional services
business, ranked within the UK's top 50 largest law firms by
revenue. Knights was one of the first law firms in the UK to move
from the traditional partnership model to a corporate structure in
2012 and has since grown rapidly. Knights has specialists in all
key areas of corporate and commercial law so that it can offer
end-to-end support to businesses of all sizes and in all sectors.
It is focussed on key UK markets outside London and currently
operates from 23 offices located in Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol,
Cheltenham, Chester, Crawley, Exeter, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln,
Maidstone, Manchester, Newbury, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth,
Sheffield, Southampton, Stoke, Teesside, Weybridge, Wilmslow and
York.
(1) Underlying PBT is before amortisation of acquired
intangibles, non-underlying costs relating to acquisitions,
non-recurring finance costs, restructuring costs in the reporting
period, and non-underlying share based payments. The Board believes
that these underlying figures provide a more meaningful measure of
the Group's underlying performance.
(2) Lock up is calculated as the combined debtor and WIP days as
at a point in time. Debtor days are calculated on a count back
basis using the gross debtors at the period end and compared with
total fees raised over prior months. WIP days are calculated based
on the gross work in progress (excluding that relating to clinical
negligence claims, insolvency, and ground rents, as these matters
operate mainly on a conditional fee arrangement and a different
profile to the rest of the business) and calculating how many days
billing this relates to, based on average fees (again excluding
clinical negligence claims, insolvency, and ground rents fees) per
month for the last 3 months.
Lock up days excludes the impact of acquisitions in the last
quarter of the reporting period.
(3) Net debt excludes lease liabilities.
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END
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