Personal Group shares slide on disappointing interim earnings

Employee benefits and insurance products provider Personal Group Holdings reported its results for the six months to 30 June on Tuesday, with revenue increasing by 10.2% to £21.0m.

The AIM-traded firm said new insurance business generation increased 12.5% to £6.3m, with major contract wins secured during the period including Samworth Brothers, Pendragon, Euro Car Parts and multiple health care sector companies.

Investment commenced in developing the Sage employee benefits product, the board reported, while EBITDA decreased by 29.9% to £3.2m.

Profit before tax decreased by 33.5% to £1.9m, and basic earnings per share were down 38.1% to 4.8p.

Dividends per share paid during the period were up 5.3% to 11p per share.

The group balance sheet remained strong according to the board, with total equity of £30.3m - down slightly from £31.9m at the start of the period - and no debt

Personal Group also confirmed its decision - made post period end - not to progress with mobile virtual network operator PG Mobile, with full closure by December 2016.

“Our core business, which now includes the Lets Connect business, continues to perform consistently well with continued growth in new sales and top line revenue,” said chief executive Mark Scanlon.

“2016 is an investment year for the group with this year's performance affected by investment in the Sage program particularly.

“This new and innovative product is planned to go live before the end of the year and we believe that the market opportunity here is large.”

Scanlon said other investments were also made in the company’s brand and hapi platform, further strengthening its market proposition.

“The group has taken the decision that the mobile virtual network operator named Personal Group Mobile, which provides smartphones and airtime on a salary sacrifice basis, is no longer viable in the current market and so the decision has been taken to run down this activity by the end of 2016.

“Though this is disappointing the group feels it is important to act quickly in these situations which I believe we have done.”

Scanlon added that the board remained optimistic about the group's future prospects, though at 1202 BST shares in Personal Group were down 2.09% to 467.5p.