REG - Christie Group PLC - AGM Trading Update

ChristieAnnouncement

13/06/2024 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240613:nRSM2126Sa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 2126S  Christie Group PLC  13 June 2024

13 June 2024

 

Christie Group plc

("Christie Group" or the "Company")

 

AGM Trading Update

 

The Board of Christie Group plc (CTG.L) , the leading provider of Professional
& Financial Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services to
the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and
retail sectors is pleased to provide the following trading update for the
financial year to date (the five months from 1 January 2024 to 31 May 2024 or
the "Period") in advance of the Group's Annual General Meeting being held at
10.00 am today.

 

The Group has continued to see a more positive trading environment for its
transactional brokerage business compared to that experienced in the first
half of 2023, and this is reflected in an improved year-on-year performance
for the period.

 

Professional and Financial Services (PFS)

 

·     Agency and advisory activity has recovered well across its various
sectors following the disruption to M&A markets experienced during 2023.
Invoicing in the period in the Group's UK transactional business, Christie
& Co, is much improved on the prior year, with the potential to strengthen
further as the year progresses.

·     As the Group seeks to deepen and broaden its international
brokerage and advisory operations beyond its previous single-sector focus on
Hotels, it has continued to invest in recruiting skilled individuals to its
existing Christie & Co operations in France, Germany, Austria and Spain.
However, invoicing in its international operations has been weak in the early
part of the year and has served to partially offset the level of profit
otherwise achieved from its much-improved UK brokerage activity. The Board is
encouraged by the level of new instructions being secured across its
continental operations, which helps support the Group's international
expansion strategy.

·     Valuation activity in both Christie & Co and Pinders has been
solid, with ongoing demand for both transactionally-led valuations and
valuations for lending purposes.

·     The Group's financial brokerage business, Christie Finance, has
experienced a strong performance in the period from its diversified range of
services. It retains a positive outlook for the remainder of 2024 as lending
appetite into the Group's specialist sectors remains robust.

·   Our FCA-regulated insurance brokerage business, Christie Insurance,
has continued its recruitment of general insurance and life and protection
brokers, and is now achieving stronger levels of client retentions on invited
renewals and a developing pipeline of life and protection opportunities as it
starts to see the benefit of cross-referrals from other Group businesses.

 

Stock and Inventory Systems & Services (SISS)

 

·   The Group's hospitality stock audit, compliance and consultancy
business, Venners, has continued its growth trajectory, outperforming
management's expectations in the period.

·    The Group's Retail stocktaking business, Orridge, has achieved an
improved year-on-year performance from its UK operations. On the continent,
stocktaking revenues from Germany are expected to remain seasonally
concentrated in H2.

·    The Group's SaaS provider to the UK visitor attraction sector,
Vennersys, continues to grow its pipeline of engaged sales opportunities.
Despite some frustration in converting opportunities to revenue generating
contracts, total revenues for the period have grown by 30% on the prior year.

The Board maintains its expectation for the Group's improved performance in
2024, with PFS revenues once again expected to be weighted toward the
second-half.

 

Enquiries:

 

Christie Group plc

Dan
Prickett
07885 813101

Chief
Executive

 

Simon Hawkins
 
07767 354366

Chief Financial Officer

 

Shore Capital

Patrick Castle
 
020 7408 4090

Nominated Advisor and Broker

 

Notes to Editors:

Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional business services
group with 37 offices across the UK and Europe, catering to its specialist
markets in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare &
education and retail sectors.

 

Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions: Professional
& Financial Services (PFS) and Stock & Inventory Systems &
Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the brand names: PFS - Christie
& Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge,
Venners and Vennersys.

 

Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long-established reputation
for offering valued services to client companies in agency, valuation
services, investment, consultancy, project management, multi-functional
trading systems and online ticketing services, stock audit and inventory
management. The diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the
Group's core agency business.

 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No.
596/2014.

 

For more information, please go to https://www.christiegroup.com/

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  AGMBLGDLRBBDGSD