Better digital advertising and a new 'Underdog' television campaign encouraged droves of aggrieved UK citizens to pursue a personal injury claim through NAHL (NAH) last year. That helped the National Accident Helpline operator post a 29 per cent increase in underlying operating profit to £12.7m.
The marketer passes on personal injury claims to a panel of 50 law firms, who cover some of its costs and pay a small margin in return. It's currently focused on drumming up higher-margin claims from non-road-traffic accidents and medical negligence. These accounted for just over three-quarters of the 83,000 vetted enquiries that it delivered to its partners last year, about 58 per cent of which they took on. The upshot was that NAHL widened its underlying operating margin by four percentage points to 29 per cent.
NAHL plans to introduce a new medical negligence screening service that will improve vetting and reduce the cost and duration of cases. The group also expanded into the residential property claims market with its purchase of online marketer Fitzalan Partners in February. Management is on the hunt for further acquisitions that will take the business into additional segments of consumer legal services.
Broker Investec hiked its forecasts and now expects pre-tax profit of £14.6m, giving EPS of 27p (from £12.5m and 23.8p last year).
| NAHL (NAH) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 275p | MARKET VALUE: | £113m | |
| TOUCH: | 272-275p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 280p | LOW: 190p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 5.7% | PE RATIO: | 12 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 88p* | NET CASH: | £1.2m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | na | na | na | na |
| 2011 | 45.1 | 12.9 | 30.5 | na |
| 2012 | 50.8 | 15.2 | 37.0 | na |
| 2013 (restated) | 49.1 | 14.7 | 25.1 | na |
| 2014† | 43.8 | 12.1 | 23.0 | 15.7 |
| % change | -11 | -18 | -8 | - |
Ex-div: 23 Apr Payment: 29 May *Includes intangible assets of £39.9m, or 97p a share †NAHL floated in May 2014 | ||||
