Learning Technologies hikes dividend as profits surge

In the year to the end of December 2018, earnings before interest and tax rose 104% to £27.2m, with revenue up 83% to £93.9m and recurring revenue 68% higher, primarily driven by the acquisition of US-based recruitment and talent management company PeopleFluent.

The company's Software & Platforms business saw organic revenue growth of 9% on a like-for-like basis, but Content & Services organic revenue declined 8% against a particularly strong prior year, which had delivered 21% organic growth.

The group, which hiked its final dividend by 67% to 0.35p a share, said it had a good start to 2019, with trading in line with management's expectations.

Chief executive officer Jonathan Satchell said: "2018 was an important year for LTG. We continued our evolution towards a predominantly software licence model delivering high margin recurring revenue, the majority of which comes from the US. We are delighted with the progress made at PeopleFluent which has extended our offering beyond corporate digital learning, into talent management, and underlined our track record of improving the operating model of businesses we acquire.

"We have made a good start to the year, which supports our confidence in further progress during 2019, and achieving our new strategic goal of run-rate revenues of £200m and run-rate EBIT of at least £55m by the end of 2021. This is supported by robust underlying performance, a strong balance sheet, and a healthy pipeline of attractive acquisition opportunities."

At 1425 GMT, the shares were up 13.4% to 77.32p.