Wilmington PLC Pre-close Trading Update and Banking Arrangements (0014R)
25 Junio 2020 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMWIL
RNS Number : 0014R
Wilmington PLC
25 June 2020
25 June 2020
Wilmington plc
('Wilmington', 'the Group' or 'the Company')
Pre-close Trading Update and Banking Arrangements
Wilmington plc, the provider of data, information, education and
networking services in Risk & Compliance, Healthcare and
Professional knowledge areas, today provides an update on trading
ahead of its year end on 30 June 2020. It also confirms the outcome
of discussions with its debt providers on covenants and facility
limits.
Trading Update
The Group announced on 25 March 2020 that following the
anticipated impact of COVID-19 it was expecting revenue of between
GBP108m and GBP113m and adjusted PBT of between GBP8.5m and GBP12m
for its financial year ended 30 June 2020. The Group is pleased to
announce that it now expects both revenue and profits to be towards
the top end of that range. Although we have been unable to run any
face to face events or training, the conversion to virtual variants
has been more successful than originally expected, enabling us to
minimise, but not wholly offset the revenue impact. This has been
complemented by the resilience of our information and data
businesses, by operational cost savings and by accessing Government
support programs across the globe.
Networking events - which typically account for c.15% of annual
Group revenues
No face to face conferences and events have been held since
March, and none are currently planned for the second half of 2020.
Both the Compliance Week Annual Conference and RISE Nashville,
which are usually significant events for the Group have been
converted into virtual events. The Compliance Week Annual
Conference ran successfully over two days in mid-May and was
attended online by around 1,000 delegates and sponsors. RISE
Nashville has been rebranded as RISE National and will take place
virtually over 26, 29 and 30 June 2020. An additional 12 smaller
virtual conferences have been held over the last three months with
good feedback received from participants.
Education and training - which typically accounts for c.40% of
annual Group revenues
No face to face training has taken place since March. The focus
of each of the training businesses has been on converting as many
courses as possible to virtual which has helped mitigate some of
the decline that we had originally anticipated. Demand for
short-period training (i.e. 2 day courses or shorter) is lower than
we would have normally expected, but the conversion to virtual has
yielded cost savings that are helping to protect some of the margin
impact. Registrations for extended training programs such as ICA
diplomas have continued at normal levels and we are seeing customer
demand for virtual variants of the summer induction programs for
investment banks, albeit we anticipate student numbers will be
lower.
Information and Data - which typically accounts for c.45% of
annual Group revenues
We have seen no material impact on demand for data and
information products. 65% of data and information products are sold
via subscription, typically on an annual basis.
Looking forward, the first six months of our financial year
typically involve fewer conferences and events than the second
half. Our current expectation is that we do not anticipate running
many, if any, face to face networking events during the rest of
calendar year 2020. We are planning for alternative virtual events
whilst retaining the flexibility to convert back if regulations
permit and customers demand it. Similarly, we are organised to run
100% of training courses virtually for the rest of the calendar
year but can rapidly convert back to face to face if required.
Net debt and banking arrangements
The Group has a robust balance sheet and retains significant
current liquidity, with GBP19m of cash and undrawn bank facilities
of GBP16m as of the end of May. Our cashflow modelling, including
scenarios which assume no face to face events or training from now
until the end of December, indicates that the Group would remain
within existing facility limits albeit with limited headroom in
October under the most pessimistic scenarios.
The likely reduction in profitability that the Group could
experience as a result of COVID-19 means that gearing covenants
could be breached during the year ended 30 June 2021. Accordingly
the Board has arranged with its existing debt providers for a
temporary relaxation of covenant limits to take account of the
Group's most pessimistic scenarios. The new covenant limits are as
follows:
Testing date Original Limit New Limit
30 Sep 2020 3.0 times 5.0 times
31 Dec 2020 3.0 times 6.5 times
31 Mar 2021 3.0 times 5.5 times
30 Jun 2021 3.0 times 4.5 times
30 Sep 2021 3.0 times 3.0 times
To ensure the Group has sufficient facility headroom to deal
with the most pessimistic trading scenarios the Board has agreed in
principle with its lenders to access GBP15m of additional facility
headroom through the Government's Coronavirus Large Business
Interruption Scheme ("CLBILS") for 12 months from July 2020.
Facility agreements for the additional GBP15m are expected to be
formalised in July. The additional headroom this facility will
provide is not expected to be needed to be drawn under most
anticipated trading scenarios, but the Board believes it to be
prudent at this stage to secure the extra headroom in case
conditions deteriorate. The Board remains committed to resuming the
payment of dividends as soon as trading conditions permit and will
review the need for the CLBILS facility on an ongoing basis with
that in mind.
The Group expects to announce its results for the year ended 30
June 2020 on 17 September 2020.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse
Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this
announcement this inside information is now considered to be in the
public domain.
For further information, please contact:
Wilmington plc
Mark Milner, Chief Executive Officer
Richard Amos, Chief Financial Officer 020 7490 0049
FTI Consulting
Charles Palmer / Dwight Burden /
Emma Hall / Leah Dudley 020 3727 1000
Notes to Editors
Wilmington plc is the recognised knowledge leader and partner of
choice for information, education and networking in Risk &
Compliance, Healthcare and Professional areas. Wilmington employs
close to 1,000 people and sells to around 120 countries. Wilmington
is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
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contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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