REG - Knights Group Hldgs - Full Year Trading Update

Knights groupAnnouncement

20/05/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 0049P  Knights Group Holdings PLC  20 May 2024

Knights Group Holdings plc

("Knights", the "Company" or the "Group")

Full Year Trading Update

Good performance, in line with expectations

Knights, the legal and professional services business, today provides a
trading update for the year ended 30 April 2024.

The Group anticipates full year revenue of c.£150.0m, up 6% compared to the
prior year (FY23: £142.1m), with underlying PBT(1) expected to be at least
£25.0m, a 16% increase (FY23: £21.6m), within the range of market
expectations.

The Group continues to show excellent working capital discipline, with debtor
days(2) as at 30 April 2024 of 28 days (FY23: 30 days) resulting in a strong
balance sheet position at the year end.  Net debt(3) as at 30 April 2024 is
expected to be c.£35.2m, (FY23: £29.2m) after over £11m cash paid in
relation to acquisitions, including £2.5m in relation to the Convex Corporate
Finance Limited joint venture. As such, the Group retains significant headroom
within its £70m revolving credit facility.

Recruitment momentum has been strong, with the number of senior fee earners
joining the business up on the prior year. Knights' growing platform,
reputation and collaborative culture remain attractive to high calibre
professionals, and its corporate model provides a compelling alternative to
the partnership model, particularly in the current economic environment.

In the first half of the financial year, the Group strengthened its presence
in the North of England, with acquisitions in Newcastle and Carlisle, both of
which are integrating and performing well. Having focussed on driving
efficiencies and strengthening the Group's operational platform in the
financial year, Knights is positioned well to consider selective acquisitions
from its healthy pipeline of opportunities, in line with its value accretive
acquisition strategy.

In November 2023, Dave Wilson was appointed non-executive Chairman of the
Group, bringing extensive experience in scaling businesses organically and
through acquisitions, gained over 30 years in international, board-level and
operational positions.

 David Beech, CEO of Knights, said:

"Our people have delivered a good performance during the year. We continued to
execute our growth strategy, recruiting high quality talent and driving
operational improvements across the business, positioning us well to deliver
further growth in FY25."

Knights will provide a further update on trading with its full year results
announcement in July 2024.

 

Ends

 

Notes

(1) Underlying PBT is before amortisation of acquired intangibles,
non-underlying costs relating to acquisitions, non-recurring finance costs,
restructuring costs in the reporting period, and non-underlying share-based
payments The Board believes that these underlying figures provide a more
meaningful measure of the Group's underlying performance.

(2)  Debtor days are calculated on a count back basis using the gross debtors
at the period end and compared with total fees raised over prior months.

(3) Net debt includes cash and cash equivalents, borrowings and acquired debt
but excludes lease liabilities.

 

Enquiries

 Knights
 David Beech, CEO                                 Via MHP
 Numis (Nomad and Broker)
 Stuart Skinner, Kevin Cruickshank                020 7260 1000
  MHP (Media enquiries)
 Katie Hunt, Eleni Menikou, Rob Collett-Creedy    020 3128 8100

+44 (0)7884 494112

knights@mhpgroup.com

 

Notes to Editors

Knights is a legal and professional services business, ranked within the UK's
top 50 largest law firms by revenue. Knights was one of the first law firms in
the UK to move from the traditional partnership model to a corporate structure
in 2012 and has since grown rapidly. Knights has specialists in all key areas
of corporate and commercial law so that it can offer end-to-end support to
businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. It is focussed on key UK markets
outside London and currently operates from 23 offices located in Birmingham,
Brighton, Bristol, Carlisle, Cheltenham, Chester, Exeter, Kings Hill, Leeds,
Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester, Newbury, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham,
Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Stoke, Teesside, Weybridge, Wilmslow and York.

 

 

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