It’s taken a while, but Personal Group (PGH) now looks to be firing on all cylinders thanks to a positive contribution from its three trading divisions in the six months to June 2018.
The insurance group’s salary sacrifice scheme Let’s Connect, where employees of clients signing up to the scheme can save for items such as iPads and computers, benefited from a decision by the Royal Mail to offer the scheme to its employees. Trading in the fourth quarter in the run-up to Christmas is expected to see business levels rise significantly.
The core insurance division, which contributed around three-quarters of group revenues, saw new insurance sales up by 6 per cent from a year earlier, and the addressable market is now up to 32m, including 15.6m employees through its partnership with software group Sage.
Revenue generated by the SaaS arm, which offers software and processing facilities through its Hapi trading platform, more than doubled on a year earlier, with margins boosted by more use of providing clients directly rather than through a third-party.
Further growth is on the cards, with a growing recognition among companies of the need to offer employee incentives as the labour market continues to tighten.
House broker Cenkos is forecasting adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to December of £10.6m and EPS of 27.5p, from £10m and 26p in 2017.
| PERSONAL GROUP (PGH) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 537.5p | MARKET VALUE: | £166m | |
| TOUCH: | 530-545p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 545p | LOW: 368p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.3% | PE RATIO: | 18 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 108p* | NET CASH: | £18.4m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Gross premiums (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017 | 15.0 | 3.0 | 8.2 | 11.35 |
| 2018 | 15.8 | 3.9 | 10.5 | 11.5 |
| % change | +5 | +28 | +28 | +1 |
| Ex-div: | ** | |||
| Payment: | ** | |||
| **Dividends paid quarterly. 3rd quarter dividend of 5.75p paid on 21 Sep *Includes intangible assets of £11.3m or 36p per share | ||||
