Savings provider Hansard Global 's (HSD) efforts to diversify its global exposure and broaden its range of products are starting to pay off. The current value of new business sales doubled to £119m during the reported period, thanks in part to strong trading in the Middle East and Africa. Here sales increased to £37m from just £8m in the previous year. Chief executive Gordon Marr says this is not only due to the large amount of expats residing in the area, but also because the Middle East is the first region in which Hansard has introduced a new salesforce.
Management has invested in growing its distribution network of independent financial advisers (IFAs), as well as re-establishing relationships with past clients. The group sells long-term savings products to international investors wrapped up in a life insurance wrapper. However, pre-tax profits continued to suffer, primarily as a result of the run-off of Hansard Europe, closed to new business in 2013. Switching from products that had higher levels of upfront income, to those that earn fees more evenly over their lifetime, also dragged on income. As a result, fee and commission income fell by 9 per cent to £51m.
Analysts at house broker Panmure Gordon expect operating profits on a European embedded value basis of £6.7m for the year to June 2017, but downgraded their forecasts for IFRS EPS from 9.1p to 7p. This is compared with a loss of £1.1m and EPS of 6p in FY2015.
HANSARD GLOBAL (HSD) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 121p | MARKET VALUE: | £166m | |
| TOUCH: | 121-128p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 143p | LOW: 97p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 7.4% | PE RATIO: | 20 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 26p | EMBEDDED VALUE: | 143p | |
| Year to 30 June | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2012 | 11.1 | 8.2 | 13.9 |
| 2013 | 10.7 | 7.6 | 8.0 |
| 2014 | 8.3 | 6.0 | 8.4 |
| 2015 | 14.9 | 10.9 | 8.75 |
| 2016 | 8.4 | 6.0 | 8.9 |
| % change | -44 | -45 | +2 |
Ex-div: 29 Sep Payment: 17 Nov | |||
