NAHL Group PLC Full Year Trading Update (6636B)
February 03 2020 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMNAH
RNS Number : 6636B
NAHL Group PLC
03 February 2020
This announcement is deemed to constitute inside information
stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014
3 February 2020
NAHL Group PLC
("NAHL" or the "Group")
Full Year Trading Update
Further to the announcement on 23 December 2019, NAHL (AIM:
NAH), the leading consumer marketing and services business focused
on the UK legal services market, provides the following update to
shareholders.
Trading Update
As previously noted, 2019 was a challenging year. The UK
property market contracted further and the Group's Residential
Property division made a small loss. Despite performing marginally
ahead of expectations, the Personal Injury (PI) division faced
competitive pressures and continued panel volatility during the
period. This resulted in a higher cost of generating new claims and
impacted total volumes and placement, resulting in fewer claims
being passed through to the Group's ABS structures.
The Group confirms that its guidance for 2019 underlying
earnings* will be within the range previously announced and is
likely to be between 7.5% and 10% lower than Board
expectations.
2020 Outlook
The Group's Critical Care division traded well in 2019 and the
Board expects this to continue into 2020. Despite the difficult
backdrop for the UK property market, the Board expects its
Residential Property division to grow, albeit from a smaller base.
In Personal Injury, there remains considerable uncertainty
surrounding key elements of the Government's personal injury
reforms, originally planned for April 2020. This continues the
volatility in the Group's Panel Law Firm relationships and is
expected to delay growth in case processing within the Group's
wholly owned law firm, National Accident Law.
The Board is encouraged by the progress made in transforming the
business. However, in order to de-risk the Group in the light of
market circumstances, the Board has decided to slow the deployment
of working capital in the PI business and to suspend the Company's
dividend. Consequently, the Board's outlook for 2020 performance is
now significantly lower than previous expectations.
* Underlying earnings is based on profit attributable to
shareholders of NAHL (i.e. excluding profits attributable to
non-controlling interests) before the deduction of non-underlying
costs.
For further information please call:
NAHL Group plc via finnCap
Caroline Brown (Chair) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220
Russell Atkinson (CEO) 0500
James Saralis (CFO)
finnCap Ltd (NOMAD & Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220
Julian Blunt / James Thompson (Corporate Finance) 0500
Andrew Burdis (Corporate Broking)
FTI Consulting (Financial PR) Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727
Alex Beagley 1000
James Styles
Sam Macpherson
Notes to Editors
NAHL Group plc (AIM: NAH) is a leader in the Consumer Legal
Services ("CLS") market. The Group provides services and products
to individuals and businesses in the CLS market through its three
divisions:
-- Personal Injury provides outsourced marketing services to law
firms through National Accident Helpline and claims processing
services to individuals through Your Law, Law Together and National
Accident Law.
-- Critical Care provides a range of specialist services in the
catastrophic and serious injury market to both claimants and
defendants through Bush and Company Rehabilitation.
-- Residential Property provides marketing services to law firms
and conveyancers as well as surveys to individuals through Fitzalan
Partners. It also provides property searches through Searches
UK.
More information is available at www.nahlgroupplc.co.uk and
www.national-accident-helpline.co.uk.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
TSTEAAAAEDNEEAA
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 03, 2020 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Nahl (LSE:NAH)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Nahl (LSE:NAH)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024