Personal Group Holdings has issued an update on trading for the six-month period ended June 30. This is ahead of its planned publication of interim half-year results on Sept. 27.
The employee benefits provider said it enjoyed positive trading for the first half of 2022, with both revenue and adjusted EBITDA meeting management’s expectations for the period and achieving continued progress against the board’s key strategic objectives. It was able to register good momentum across its two largest business divisions – affordable insurance and benefits platform.
With the company now able to conduct face-to-face sales following the easing of COVID restrictions, its insurance division in June registered the highest amount of new business signed in a single month since November 2018. This helped drive annualised premium income to £26.2 million, compared to £24.4 million in December 2021.
According to Personal Group, the level of claims for the first quarter was higher than anticipated, but it subsequently started to return towards projected levels. The company also said that it was an encouraging sign that retention levels remain above the group’s historical average, demonstrating the continued relevance of its insurance products amid challenging economic times.
The relationship with Sage continues to strengthen, with annualised recurring revenue (ARR) increasing to £2.1 million from £1.6 million in December 2021. This made a significant contribution to the growth of the benefits platform division’s ARR to £3.8 million.
The group’s pay and reward and other owned benefits businesses performed in line with expectations.
Personal Group also completed the acquisition of Quintige Consulting Group at the end of the period, adding scale to its pay and reward division and helping consolidate its position in the UK employee services market.
“Personal Group is, I believe, well positioned within a growing market with an increasingly relevant offering,” said Deborah Frost, chief executive of Personal Group. “We are now putting the impact of previous pandemic lockdowns firmly behind us and with the current momentum and increasing scale of the business, we are on course to deliver revenue and EBITDA growth for the full year, in line with expectations.
“As a board, we remain continually mindful of the external pressures that we are all facing and know that no one is exempt from the uncertainty that prevails. However, past experience shows in challenging times our products continue to strongly resonate with our customers, as demonstrated by our insurance retention rates remaining above our historical average.”
