ULS Technology (ULS) warned in October that the second half of the year would be more of a challenge. However, trading in the first half to September 2018 showed that the fall in housing transactions was offset by gaining a greater market share.
Operating an online conveyancing B2B platform, ULS pushed conveyancing completions ahead by 9 per cent to 43,000 and increased its market share by 11 per cent to 2.8 per cent. And in the past five years, completions have almost trebled.
The business model allows a mortgage broker to use the platform to identify a solicitor that is suitable for the house buyer. The solicitor then pays a fee to ULS, which can generate further revenue from solicitors using the system for legal searches and ID checks. Mortgage providers signed up to the platform include Lloyds Banking, Bank of Scotland and more recently Which Legal and the Post Office.
Early next year it will launch DigitalMove, a mobile app that will offer a secure journey for customers through the conveyancing procedure, enabling all parties to communicate more effectively and speeding up the process.
Underlying pre-tax profits grew by 6 per cent to £2.89m, with the headline figure distorted by contingency payments relating to its acquisition of Conveyancing Alliance Holdings.
| ULS TECHNOLOGY (ULS) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 77.4p | MARKET VALUE: | £50m | |
| TOUCH: | 77-77.8p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 161p | LOW: 75p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.0% | PE RATIO: | 25 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 16p* | NET DEBT: | 33% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017 | 15.3 | 0.63 | 0.29 | 1.15 |
| 2018 | 15.8 | 2.30 | 2.89 | 1.2 |
| % change | +3 | +267 | - | +4 |
| Ex-div: | 13 Dec | |||
| Payment: | 4 Jan | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £17.5m, or 27p a share | ||||
