Jelf Group announces interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2015

Jelf, an independent full-service UK-based brokerage that supports businesses and individuals, has announced its interim results.

Financial highlights

Strong financial performance continues:

  • Revenues 11.0 per cent ahead of last year at £43.7m (2014: £39.3m)
  • EBITDAE pre-share costs increased by 24.6 per cent to £8.1m (2014: £6.5m)
  • EBITDAE margin pre-share costs increased by 12.3 per cent to 18.5 per cent (2014: 16.4%)
  • Fully diluted earnings per share increased by 12.8 per cent to 1.67p (2014: 1.48p)
  • Interim maiden dividend of 0.8p

The business continues to be cash generative and £2.5m of debt has been repaid early:

  • Net debt is £27.6m (excluding deferred consideration, net debt is £15.2m) compared with net debt of £13.1m (excluding deferred consideration, net debt is £8.9m) at 31 March 2014 reflecting the acquisition of The Beaumonts Insurance Group in December 2014.

Operating highlights

  • Organic growth achieved of 4.2 per cent (excluding the impact of acquisitions)
  • The insurance business EBITDAE has increased by 18.2 per cent to £5.3m (2014: £4.4m)
  • Employee benefits EBITDAE has increased by 27.2 per cent to £1.7m (2014: £1.4m)
  • Financial planning EBITDAE has increased by 167 per cent to £299k (2014: £112k)
  • Margins continue to improve while at the same time investment continues to be made in both sales capability and infrastructure
  • Jelf Insurance Partnership delivered £5.2m of revenues (2014: £4.7m) and £762k of EBITDAE (2014: £550k); it is on track with expectations and capturing the expected synergies of the acquisition
  • The Beaumonts Insurance Group, acquired in December 2014, is trading strongly and capturing the acquisition synergies ahead of expectations
  • Awarded Investor in Customers highest ‘three-star’ accolade for client service for the third year running