FRP Advisory full-year revenue, earnings rise

24th Jul 2024 13:43

(Sharecast News) - FRP Advisory Group reported significant growth and resilience in its full-year results on Wednesday, maintaining its strategic focus on organic growth supplemented by selective acquisitions.

The AIM-traded firm said its revenue increased 23% to £128.2m, with 19% of that growth being organic and 4% resulting from acquisitions.

Adjusted underlying EBITDA rose 37% to £37.1m, while profit before tax increased significantly to £29.9m, from £15.6m in the prior year.

The company also maintained a strong balance sheet, with year-end net cash of £29.7m, up from £22.9m in 2023.

Basic earnings per share were 13.9p, and total dividends for the year increased to 5p per share.

FRP also reported significant strides in its operational performance, as its team grew by 19%, adding 106 colleagues year-on-year, bringing the total to 657 employees excluding consultants.

That growth included 65 new colleagues from two acquisitions, while FRP promoted 15 colleagues to partner across various locations and service lines.

The restructuring team remained the most active in the UK administration appointment market, increasing its market share to 16%.

FRP Corporate Finance was meanwhile ranked as the 24th most active financial adviser in the UK M&A market, involved in 76 successful transactions with an aggregate deal value of £1.4bn.

The company said it also strengthened its operational infrastructure by launching a project management office to oversee key projects, implementing a managed security operations centre, and rolling out a network transformation to CATO SASE.

Additionally, a new people director was hired to progress the group's future people proposition.

Since the end of the financial year, FRP declared a dividend of £2.2m, equivalent to 0.9p per eligible share, which was paid on 14 June.

On 13 May, FRP announced the acquisition of Hilton-Baird Group for £7m plus net assets, marking its ninth acquisition since its initial public offering in 2020.

Hilton-Baird provides commercial finance and credit insurance brokerage, among other services.

Additionally, on 19 July, FRP announced the acquisition of Lexington Corporate Finance for a total consideration of £3m plus net assets.

Lexington is based in Cardiff and provides corporate finance services.

FRP also executed a secondary placing of around 20.4 million shares on 23 May, with new lock-in agreements ensuring that key shareholders, including the CEO and COO, were restricted from disposing of further shares before 31 July 2026.

In June, the board also launched a save-as-you-earn (SAYE) scheme, which received strong colleague participation.

"The group made excellent progress in the financial year to 30 April, growing revenues and profits for another consecutive year as we remained focused on the execution of our proven strategy: achieving strong organic growth, supplemented by selective acquisitions," said chief executive officer Geoff Rowley.

"All five of our pillars made a positive contribution in the year.

"Our restructuring team continued to be the most active in the UK administration appointment market, FRP Corporate Finance was ranked as the 24th most active financial adviser in the UK M&A market, and our Forensic Services team was very active on a high number of investigation and litigation / arbitration confidential projects."

Rowley said trading for the first full year of the combined financial advisory pillar had been positive, with heightened activity across all service lines.

"In the new financial year, activity levels across all our locations and pillars are encouraging, with trading in line with the board's expectations.

"Our M&A pipeline also remains healthy, giving us confidence of making further positive progress against our strategy."

At 1243 BST, shares in FRP Advisory Group were down 0.38% at 130p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.