Banks, government departments and other organisations turned to GB (GBG) to gird themselves against the ever-looming threat of fraud in the reported period. A 9 per cent rise in organic revenue, coupled with about £1.8m in turnover from IDscan - a specialist in verifying documents and biometric identities acquired in July - drove the identity data group's adjusted operating profit up 15 per cent to £5.2m.
Exclude IDscan and sales leapt 13 per cent in the identity proofing division, which provides fraud, risk and compliance services such as employee background checks. Revenue also rose 8 per cent in the identity solutions segment, which offers registration, location and data-driven marketing services. GB rolled out new products such as Citizensafe, but suffered from the late launch of Gov.uk Verify, a public identity-checking service, which looked to have sparked a share sell-off in October.
Management signed a global deal with Barclays and won work with large banks in China and the Philippines, which helped to boost international sales from 26 per cent to 31 per cent of turnover. Deferred revenue also surged 38 per cent to £15.5m, leading management to forecast second-half organic sales growth of at least a tenth. Broker finnCap expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £16m for the full year, giving EPS of 9.5p (from £13.2m and 10.3p in FY2016).
| GB (GBG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 243p | MARKET VALUE: | £326m | |
| TOUCH: | 241-243p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 357p | LOW: 208p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.9% | PE RATIO: | 37 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 62p* | NET DEBT: | 5% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 32.4 | 2.6 | 1.8 | nil |
| 2016 | 37.5 | 1.6 | 1.0 | nil |
| % change | +16 | -39 | -44 | - |
*Includes intangible assets of £99.7m, or 74p a share | ||||
