Employee benefits specialist Personal Group (PGH) has been busy investing in mobile technology to provide additional services to its predominantly blue-chip customers. Acquisition costs and restructuring dented headline profit at the half-year stage, but like-for-like cash profit rose by 9.5 per cent to £4.9m, driven by an 8.4 per cent rise in new business premiums to a record £5.6m.
Through its Let's Connect subsidiary, Personal offers schemes whereby clients' employees can purchase tablets, home computers and laptops via salary sacrifice. It has now added its own mobile operator, Personal Group Mobile, which means employees can also purchase mobile handsets and airtime under the same structure.
Like-for-like sales in Let's Connect were up by 29 per cent, while more than a third of total new sales came from employees of companies that were new to the company. Major contract wins during the period included car retailer Lookers (LOOK) and hire business Northgate (NTG).
Meanwhile, a new technology platform, 'hapi', gives end users access to a range of products including convalescence and income protection plans, as well as holiday and retail discounts. Analysts at Cenkos are forecasting pre-tax profit of £10.6m and EPS of 27.2p, rising to £15.3m and 40p in 2016 (from £10.6m and 27.1p in 2014).
| PERSONAL GROUP (PGH) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 515p | MARKET VALUE: | £157m | |
| TOUCH: | 505-525p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 570p | LOW: 455p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.9% | PE RATIO: | 21 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 87p** | NET CASH: | £4.3m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Gross premiums (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p)* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 11.9 | 3.5 | 8.6 | 9.8 |
| 2015 | 13.9 | 2.9 | 7.8 | 10.45 |
| % change | +16 | -16 | -10 | +7 |
Ex-div:- Payment:- *Dividends paid quarterly. Third-quarter interim of 5.225p paid on 24 September **Includes intangible assets of £13m or 43p a share | ||||
