Wilmington (WIL.L. Market capitalisation: £338m, 375p, 2.3% of JIC Portfolio. Medium Risk/High Reward = 3.0% target weight)
Wilmington plc is a United Kingdom-based company, which is engaged in providing data, information, education and training services in the global governance, risk and compliance (GRC), health, safety, and environmental markets. The Company's segments include Training & Education and Intelligence. It Training & Education division provides compliance training and technical support for customers across a range of industries, including financial services, accountancy and healthcare. It offers a range of products, including formal qualifications, continuing education and mandatory training, through instructor-led and self-guided formats. Its Intelligence division consists of businesses, which provide must-have, authoritative risk and compliance data to a range of industries globally, including insurance, pensions and healthcare. Its brands include APM International, Axco, Bond Solon, FRA and others.
Year-end trading update
Conclusion: Revenues of £126m look around £6.0m short of forecasts. But adjusted pre-tax profits, a little ahead; £27.6m v £27.3m. 9.0% revenue growth and 13% profit growth is pretty good. It has made good progress in focusing the Group on core areas. This has simplified the business and also led to improved margins. Following the sale of MiExact and the healthcare businesses, it is in a strong cash position, with £67.8m (20% of the market capitalisation) on 30th June. Further acquisitions are likely, which should further enhance growth in earnings per share.
Current forecasts for June 2025 value the shares at 16.1x earnings per share. If one strips out cash, that drops to 13.3x. I think we will see upgrades to those earnings forecasts, especially when it deploys its cash to make further acquisitions. It's up 13% since I bought it in February. I think it will make further progress over the course of this year, and I need to get up to my target weight of 3.0%.
Wilmington plc, (LSE: WIL, 'Wilmington', 'the Group') the provider of data, information, education and training in the global Governance, Risk and Compliance ('GRC') markets, today provides a trading update for the year ended 30 June 2024.
Group organic revenue growth is expected to be 9%, with reported revenues in the order of £126.0m (2023: £123.5m).
Adjusted* profit before tax (unaudited) is expected to be £27.6m (2023: £24.3m), up 13% on last year.
Cash conversion continued to be strong with Group net cash on 30 June 2024 at £67.8m (30 June 2023: £42.2m) after the completion of the sale of the MiExact and the Healthcare businesses and the acquisition of Astutis during the year.
Wilmington expects to publish its year end results on 16 September 2024.
Mark Milner, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"We have seen another year of strong organic revenue and profit growth with revenues up 9% and profits up some 13%, reflecting our focus on a slimmed down higher quality portfolio of growing businesses around the world. Margins have also continued to improve strongly.
"With two disposals and one acquisition, we have continued to actively manage our portfolio of businesses and are pursuing various opportunities to invest our cash in acquisitions to improve our growth and profitability. We have also started to transfer our businesses onto our single operating platform, which will enable us to continue to improve our performance."
*Adjusted profit before tax (PBT) is calculated as PBT after adding back amortisation and impairment of intangible assets (except computer software) and profits/losses on disposals and business closures. Market consensus Adjusted profit before tax is £27.3m.
