For the first time ever, GB Group’s (GBG) international revenues have bypassed those from the UK – constituting 57 per cent of the top line over the six months to September, up from 35 per cent. Encouraging news, given that the company – a provider of data identity intelligence services – has been targeting such a scenario for “a number of years”.
Organic sales growth came in at 17 per cent, with improvements across all business areas and across all geographies – although flattered by the fact that certain contracts within the fraud division were brought forward to the first half. The group saw various new customer wins, with the likes of John Lewis Partnership, GNC and Bank of Beijing coming on board in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region respectively.
GBG also benefited from the acquisitions of Australian business VIX Verify and US-based IDology (its largest purchase to date), which both took place in the second half of last year. True, these deals were fuelled by borrowings – leading GB to record period-end net debt of £53.8m, against cash of £18.6m a year earlier. That said, this figure represents a £12.5m improvement from the March year-end.
House broker Peel Hunt expects adjusted EPS of 15.8p for the year to March 2020, up from 17.9p in FY2019.
| GB GROUP (GBG) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 666p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.29bn | |
| TOUCH: | 666-671p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 683p | LOW: 408p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.4% | PE RATIO: | 76 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 174p* | NET DEBT**: | 16% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2018 | 58.3 | 3.6 | 1.9 | nil |
| 2019 | 94.3 | 8.6 | 3.0 | nil |
| % change | +62 | +141 | +58 | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
*Includes intangible assets of £426m, or 220p a share **Net debt does not include £6.4m in lease liabilities | ||||
