Company Announcements

1 August 2022

GlobalData Plc

Half Year Results

30 June 2022

Executing the Strategy: 10% underlying¹ revenue growth, continued margin expansion and strong contribution from M&A.

Resilient, Cash-backed Growth: Increased subscription revenues, with stable cost base and high cash generation.

GlobalData Plc (AIM: DATA, GlobalData, the Group), the leading provider of industry intelligence, today publishes its results for the half year ended 30 June 2022.

Highlights

Financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2022 (HY 2022).

Financial Highlights

·      Strong H1 revenue performance, up 23% with underlying¹ revenue growth accelerating to 10% and subscription revenue growth of 21%, which makes up 83% of Group revenues.

·      Adjusted EBITDA grew by 27% to £39.0m (HY 2021: £30.7m), improving margin by a further 1 percentage point to 35% (HY 2021: 34%), illustrating the operational leverage of the business and now in line with our previously stated ambition of 35-40% Adjusted EBITDA margin. Statutory operating profit grew by 32% to £24.1m.

·      Invoiced Forward Revenue⁴ at the end of H1 grew by 37% year on year to £114.6m (H1 2021: £83.8m), which reflected underlying growth of 13% and provides strong visibility for the second half.

·      Highly cash generative business model with free cash flow⁶ of £45.7m (H1 2021: £34.7m). Cash flow from operations increased by 38% to £56.1m (H1 2021: £40.8m), which represents operating cash conversion of 144% on an Adjusted EBITDA basis (H1 2021: 133%).

·      EPS dropped marginally to 9.4p, reflecting increased finance costs, inclusive of a non-cash interest charge of £4.0m, and increased amortisation of acquired intangible assets. On an adjusted basis, EPS grew by 27%.

·      Interim dividend increase of 26% to 7.7 pence per ordinary share (H1 2021: 6.1 pence), broadly in line with growth of Adjusted EBITDA.

Operational Highlights

·      Accelerating underlying growth to 10% by further embedding value to our expanding blue-chip client base.

Through our strategic growth initiatives and product innovation, we have been able to deliver greater value to our clients. Investment in the quality of the platform has translated directly to sales - driving subscriptions to more content for a larger user-base with annual price growth.

·      Generating value from targeted acquisitions

Whilst the focus remains on organic growth, we are on track with the integration of the two strategic acquisitions completed in H2 2021, the Life Sciences business and LMC Automotive and Agribusiness information ("LMC"), with performance in line with expectations. In addition, we have completed the acquisition of Media Business Insight ("MBI") in June 2022, which brings new and unique gold standard data sets across the film, TV and media markets to the Group. We have also signed an agreement and received regulatory approval to acquire TS Lombard Limited, an economic research firm, which we anticipate will complete before the end of Q3 2022.

·      Further debt funding to support future M&A activity

On 26 July 2022, we received indicative bank commitment to refinance our existing facilities, which, as well as repaying existing indebtedness, will give the Group a further £180m of capacity to execute on its strategic M&A activity. We expect the financing agreement to complete in August 2022.

Mike Danson, Chief Executive Officer of GlobalData Plc, commented:

"The first half of 2022 demonstrated the strength and resilience of our business. The quality of our content continues to drive increases in recurring subscription revenues. Through our One Platform and with a largely fixed cost base, this revenue growth has driven an increased margin and significant cash generation.

Businesses are increasingly turning to good quality data to make critical decisions. Our real-time industry intelligence, insights and analytics are helping clients navigate through challenging market and economic conditions in multiple sectors and geographies.

M&A provides a significant growth opportunity for the Group, and the acquisitions announced last year are already enhancing our overall client offering. With funding available to support further M&A, we will continue to execute against our strategy to combine optimised organic growth with quality assets that add further capability and depth to our platform.

The premium assets that are embedded in our platform have a history of growth and resilience during economic cycles and it is pleasing to see this continue in our H1 2022 results. This strength in our business model, high cash generation and the must-have intelligence we provide our clients gives us confidence in our growth prospects for the second half of the year and beyond."  

Note 1: Underlying growth: Defined as growth in business excluding impact of movement in exchange rates and adjusts for the proforma results of acquired business. This is reconciled to the reported change on page 8.

Note 2: Adjusted EBITDA: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, adjusted to exclude costs associated with acquisitions, restructuring of the Group, share based payments, impairment, unrealised operating exchange rate movements and the impact of foreign exchange contracts. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as: Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue. This is reconciled to the Statutory operating profit on page 7.

Note 3: Adjusted EPS: Adjusted profit after tax per share (reconciliation between statutory profit and adjusted profit shown on page 7).

Note 4: Invoiced Forward Revenue: Invoiced Forward Revenue relates to amounts that are invoiced to clients at the statement of financial position date, which relate to future revenue to be recognised. This is reconciled to deferred revenue on page 8.

Note 5: Net debt: Short and long-term borrowings (excluding lease liabilities) less cash and cash equivalents.

Note 6: Free cash flow: Cash flow generated from operations less interest paid, income taxes paid and purchase of intangible and tangible assets. This is reconciled to cash flow generated from operations on page 7.

ENQUIRIES

Notes to Editors 

GlobalData Plc  
GlobalData Plc (AIM: DATA) is a leading data, insights, and analytics platform for the world's largest industries. Our mission is to help our clients decode the future, make better decisions, and reach more customers. 

One Platform Model 

GlobalData's One Platform model is the foundation of our business and is the result of years of continuous investment, targeted acquisitions, and organic development. This model governs everything we do, from how we develop and manage our products, to our approach to sales and customer success, and supporting business operations. At its core, this approach integrates our unique data, expert analysis, and innovative solutions into an integrated suite of client solutions and digital community platforms, designed to serve a broad range of industry markets and customer needs on a global basis. The operational leverage this provides means we can respond rapidly to changing customer needs and market opportunities, and continuously manage and develop products quickly, at scale, with limited capital investment as well as providing unique integration opportunities for M&A.

Strategic Priorities  

GlobalData's four strategic priorities are: Customer Obsession, World Class Product, Sales Excellence and Operational Agility. 
 

Growth Optimisation Plan 

GlobalData's Growth Optimisation Plan is a set of initiatives designed to drive revenue growth and profitability.  The Plan's initiatives operate across all of GlobalData's operations but are organised around the strategic priorities noted above. 

Chief Executive's Review

The Group has started the year well and continues to expand its position as a leading intelligence platform through sustained organic momentum and further execution of its M&A strategy.

During the first half of 2022, the Group has accelerated revenue growth, delivering further margin progression. The growth and continued margin expansion demonstrate we are on track to deliver on our near-term financial targets of at least 10% underlying annual revenue growth and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 35-40%.

Our mission, to help our c.5,000 clients decode the future, is as important as ever, at a time of geo-political and economic uncertainty. Our quality content helps clients navigate through uncertainty and provides essential tools and workflows to make better decisions and reach more customers. Through our Customer Obsession initiatives, we are having more conversations with our clients and understanding the challenges that they are facing in these unstable times, and it is pleasing to be in a position whereby our continued innovation and product development, alongside our premium data assets are providing real value to clients in this environment. 

Our subscription renewal rates have continued to be strong in H1 2022 and are consistent with 2021, a continuation of performance over the past two years. Our heritage, premium assets, embedded within our brand and platform have a long-standing history of growth and resilience during economic cycles. These core strengths of our business model are demonstrated in the H1 2022 results.

§  Organic growth: During the first half, our underlying revenue growth was 10%.

A significant strength of our business model is that we are not reliant on a single area for growth. We have a global product relevant across all geographies and focused on each of the world's largest industries. The Group has multiple levers for organic growth, a number of which are within our existing client base:

§  Volume renewal - our volume renewal rates remain strong and are consistent with 2021. We are seeing more and more clients signing multi-year deals, reflecting both the strength of the product and how embedded the product is to our clients. From our focus on Customer Obsession initiatives, we are confident of growing the number of customers renewing each year, which will have an immediate impact on our revenue with only a nominal cost.

§  Pricing - pricing has been a significant focus for us in the first half to ensure we capture the significant value of our product in our client pricing. During the first half we attained price increases across c.65% of our subscription renewal opportunities at an average price adjustment of c.8%. We believe there is significantly more opportunity to reflect greater value in our pricing over the next 2 years.

§  Selling more licenses and product to our existing clients - we have active campaigns to grow the number of licenses we sell to our existing customers, through different user groups and use cases as well as selling additional product. We currently have c.5,000 customers and therefore growing our footprint within those customers and also increasing the number of products is a significant revenue opportunity.

Despite having the scale of opportunity within our existing customer base, the Group still has relatively low penetration in a number of sectors. Therefore, the revenue opportunity beyond our existing customers is significant and we are seeing continued success in the acquisition of new customers.

The number of levers the Group has, means that incrementally executing against all of them adds up to a material growth opportunity and is why the key word in our Growth Optimisation plan is, Optimisation.

§  M&A: Our scalable platform is ideally positioned to integrate new datasets and content into our existing vertical offering or expand our breadth into new vertical markets. As a management team we have extensive experience of acquiring and integrating assets and we currently have an active pipeline of businesses that we are assessing, as well as the firepower available to execute.

Following the completion of the Life Sciences business on 1 November 2021, we have completed a further two acquisitions. The acquisition of LMC was completed in December 2021 and we have recently acquired MBI in June 2022. MBI brings new and unique gold standard data sets across the film, TV and media markets to GlobalData, which combined with our existing Technology content provides the Group, a new vertical, with deep media sector intelligence and related services. Further details of the acquisition are given in note 14.

We have a further agreement to purchase TS Lombard, an economic research firm. The company provides economic and political research, with a particular strength in emerging markets and the acquisition will give GlobalData further access to the asset management sales channel, to sell its full product suite to. The transaction has received regulatory approval and is expected to complete during Q3 2022, and the HY 2022 results do not include any transactions in relation to this proposed acquisition.

Growth Optimisation Plan

Our Growth Optimisation Plan focuses on sustainable growth through optimisation. We are not reliant on a single area of growth to be successful, but are focused on optimising multiple levers for growth both within the organic business and through M&A, delivered via our four key pillars: Customer Obsession, World Class Product, Sales Excellence and Operational Agility.

Customer Obsession

During the first half we have continued our customer obsession initiatives that we rolled out in late 2021:

§  Focused on our top-tier clients: We have strengthened the management processes and use of data and technology to support this initiative. Through collaboration across the business, our aim is to pivot the team to a solution-based sales process which fully utilises our talented analyst and consulting teams, building longer and deeper relationships with our clients. As part of this initiative, we are enhancing the product usability with the aim of increasing client adoption and usage across our assets. We are therefore looking at increasing client usage of alerts, content sharing and further enhancement of workflow tools in sales and competitive intelligence.

§  Use of client-focused technology: Continue to develop and adopt proprietary technology which both enhances our understanding of our clients and their requirements, but also allow us to put insightful and timely content in front of our clients to increase adoption and usage.

As part of this suite of technology, we are implementing technology that allow us to proactively monitor and manage customer service, onboarding and relationship tasks across our Group. This will ensure that all clients enjoy a consistent and rewarding relationship with GlobalData. This will allow us to better scale our client service and relationship management processes.

World Class Product

We have developed a world class product, but we also believe that for it to maintain its status as world class, it requires continuous investment and development: that is what we have continued to do in the first half.

As noted in our Customer Obsession initiatives, we are focusing on the usability of the product and targeting stronger usage and adoption across our client base. Our One Platform allows us to integrate new assets efficiently and recognise immediate synergies for the Group and our clients.

The Life Sciences business was fully integrated onto our One Platform in H1, with the LMC integration expected to be completed early in the second half. Our recent acquisition of MBI and the planned acquisition of TS Lombard will also be integrated in the second half.

Sales Excellence

The sales teams focus remains on the growth levers of pricing, volume renewal rates, more licenses and more product. Performance has been good in the first half; delivering 10% underlying growth as well as 13% underlying growth in Invoiced Forward Revenue.

We are focused on how to drive more leads through automated sources, such as search engines, our B2B media sites and other initiatives aimed at brand and product amplification. Whilst this area of initiative did not have a material impact on our first half results, we are confident in the longer-term opportunity for the Group, in particular the opportunity to scale further.

Operational Agility

During the first half we launched our GlobalData Impact report internally to colleagues which sets out our strategy for key initiatives for the Environment, our Social agenda and Governance arrangements. We have started to make good progress along our roadmap, including the set up and roll out of Employee Resource Groups, which are company sponsored employee driven groups focusing on Gender Balance, Race and Ethnicity, LGBTQIA+, Philanthropy and Social and Leisure. We will give a full update on these activities in our Annual Report for the year ending 31 December 2022.

We actively manage the impact of cost and wage inflation, and we have a strong track record as an executive team of managing costs in a high inflation environment with a significant portion of cost base in India. To offset any inflationary cost increases we are continually looking at efficiencies, automation and technology to manage our overall cost base and as a result we remain confident in our ability to maintain a largely fixed cost base. In addition, as noted within the Sales Excellence section, we have had success in passing on price increases to the majority of renewals made during H1 2022.

We have also continued to execute on our M&A strategy in terms of sourcing and completing the MBI deal, agreeing to acquire TS Lombard, as well as integrating the Life Sciences and LMC businesses which completed at the end of 2021. In addition, we have progressed towards securing new financing to fund future M&A. On 26 July 2022, we received indicative bank commitment to refinance our existing facilities which will give the Group a further £180m of capacity to execute on its strategic M&A activity. We expect the financing agreement to complete in August 2022.

Our Colleagues

I want to congratulate and thank all our colleagues on a strong set of results for the first half. Our strategy is underpinned by colleague collaboration and customer obsession, as well as their input and direction through our newly formed Employee Resource Groups. I am sure that by continuing to focus on the Growth Optimisation Plan and executing against our growth levers and initiatives we will share further success through the remainder of 2022 and beyond.

Whilst the financial target for the colleague share option scheme (scheme 1) was met with the 2021 results, the Remuneration Committee have not yet approved the vesting of the scheme because of the volatility of public markets, however we intend to conclude this in the second half. We have appointed both FTI Consulting as our Investor Relations Agency and Numis Securities as joint broker, to work alongside J.P. Morgan and Panmure Gordon to enhance our profile in the investment community and assist on the matter.

Dividend

The Group's policy is to pay a dividend that reflects the growth and cash generation of the business. The Board is pleased to announce an interim dividend of 7.7 pence per share (H1 2021: 6.1 pence) which represents an increase of 26%, broadly in line with growth of Adjusted EBITDA. The interim dividend will be paid on 7 October 2022 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 9 September 2022.

Current Trading and Outlook

The quality assets that are embedded in our platform have a history of growth and resilience during economic cycles and this has been demonstrated through our strong H1 2022 results. As we look ahead, we are well positioned with strong growth and scale of our Invoiced Forward Revenue of £114.6m. The strength in our business model, the must-have intelligence we provide our clients, deep customer relationships and diverse market coverage gives us confidence in our growth prospects for the second half of the year and beyond.

Mike Danson

Chief Executive Officer

1 August 2022

Financial Review

¹ Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as: Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue. Note 2 discloses the rationale for the adjusting items in detail.

² This is a non-cash charge relating to fair value adjustments on external borrowings in line with the provisions of IFRS9 arising on the completion of a one-year extension to the external facilities agreement (detailed in note 11) and changes in future anticipated cash flows.

³ Adjusted income tax expense represents the statutory income tax expense adjusted for the tax effect on adjusting items. In addition, the adjusted income tax expense includes the effect of any tax rate changes.

⁴ Operating cash flow conversion is defined as: Cash flow generated from operations divided by Adjusted EBITDA.

⁵ Free cash flow conversion is defined as: Free cash flow generated from operations; being cash flow generated from operations less interest paid, income taxes paid and purchase of intangible and tangible assets; divided by Adjusted Profit before tax.

The financial position and performance of the business are reflective of the core financial elements of our business model: visible and recurring revenues, high incremental margins, scalable opportunity, and strong cash flows.

The Directors believe that Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Profit After Tax and Adjusted earnings per share (as detailed on page 7) provide additional useful information on the core operational performance of the Group to shareholders, and we review the results of the Group using these measures internally. Within note 2, we disclose the rationale for the adjusting items in detail. The Directors also look at underlying performance of the Group, which excludes any gain or loss through currency and adjusts for the proforma impact of the acquired businesses (i.e. the results of the acquired businesses for the same period in the previous year).

Revenue

Group revenue grew from £91.1m to £111.9m in H1 2022 (23%).

In HY 2022, underlying growth accelerated from the full year revenue growth rate from 2021 of 8% to 10%. This reflects continued strength in our renewals, including some progress on price as well as consistent performance in winning new clients. In addition to the underlying growth performance, the acquisitions of Life Sciences, LMC and MBI increased our overall reported revenue growth to 23%. The net effect of foreign exchange movements in the first half added a further £1.0m.  

Strong performance of our renewals and new business subscription business resulted in our Invoiced Forward Revenue ("IFR") balance as at 30 June 2022 showing 13% underlying growth. The sales order growth driving our IFR growth reflects focused attention on our growth levers of pricing, more seats, more product to existing clients, as well as consistent new business wins. We are starting to see the results of this area of our Growth Optimisation Plan, however we will continue to make further progress against each lever in H2 and beyond. The impact of acquisitions, timing of events billings and the foreign exchange impact meant that the overall IFR growth was 37% versus the balance as at 30 June 2021.

Operating Profit

Operating profit increased to £24.1m (30 June 2021: £18.3m), improving margin by 2 percentage points to 22% (30 June 2021: 20%) driven by the £20.8m revenue growth discussed above, offset by £15.0m additional costs.

The additional costs largely reflected the impact of acqusitions (reported within Adjusted EBITDA) and material variances in adjusting items as follows:

·      Restructuring & M&A costs increased from £1.1m in HY 2021 to £2.4m, reflecting increased M&A and integration activity in HY 2022.

·      Refinancing costs of £0.2m in the first half (HY 2021: £nil) are in relation to professional fees incurred in the extension of existing facilites by one year. These costs do not include any costs in relation to the contemplated new financing facilities, which are expected to complete in August.

·      Share-based payment charge has reduced from £4.7m to £1.4m, as the charge for Scheme 1 ended on 31 December 2021. The charge reflects the non-cash charge for schemes 2 and 4. Further detail is given in note 12.

·      Revaluation of derivatives and unrealised operating foreign exchange loss/gain increased to £3.0m loss (HY 2021: £0.2m gain) reflecting foreign exchange movements in the half, with the greatest impact coming from USD/ GBP re-translation. Further detail is given below.

·      Amortisation of acquired intangibles increased by £1.4m versus HY 2021, driven by the acquisition of intangible assets in the Life Sciences, LMC and MBI transactions which have all completed since 30 June 2021.

Adjusted EBITDA

The Directors believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides additional useful information on the core operational performance of the Group to shareholders, and we review the results of the Group using this measure internally. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 27% to £39.0m (HY 2021: £30.7m), which is reflective of revenue growth and maintaining a relatively stable organic cost base at Adjusted EBITDA level. The acquired businesses performed in line with Group margin. Our Adjusted EBITDA margin was 35% (HY 2021: 34%), now within our previously stated ambition of Adjusted EBITDA margin range of 35-40%.

Adjusted EBITDA benefited from the impact of IFRS 16 (lease accounting) by £2.9m (HY 2021: £3.0m).

Impact of Foreign Exchange

The main currency movement in the period has been the weakening of Pounds Sterling, relative to the US Dollar. Our revenues are ~50% US Dollar denominated and therefore the movement in the average rate of $1.31/£, compared with $1.38/£ in 2021 (a 5% weakening of Pounds Sterling) has had an impact on our results.

The year-on-year movement on the US Dollar exchange rate increased revenue by £1.3m, marginally offset by £0.2m in Euro and £0.1m in other currencies. However, the accelerated weaking at the end of the half had a more pronounced impact on our deferred revenue balance than in our reported revenues. The foreign exchange impact increased deferred revenue by a net £4.4m as at 30 June 2022.

From a cost perspective, it had a more immediate effect (as revenues are 83% subscription and any gain/loss is phased into revenue as recognised). The net additional cost as a result of foreign exchange was £1.7m compared to HY 2021.

Profit Before Tax

Improved performance at both Operating Profit and Adjusted EBITDA levels, was offset by an increase in finance costs of £6.8m to £9.1m (HY 2021: £2.3m) reflecting an increase in net debt over the previous 12 months, and a non-cash charge of £4.0m relating to fair value adjustments on external borrowings, which reduced Profit Before Tax to £15.0m (HY 2021: £16.0m).

Tax

The interim period income tax expense has been calculated using the forecast effective tax rate that would be applicable to expected total annual earnings, i.e. the estimated average annual effective income tax rate applied to the pre-tax income of the interim period.  To the extent practicable, where different income tax rates apply to different categories of income, a separate rate has been used for each individual category of interim period pre-tax income. 

Using this approach, the overall annual effective income tax rate is currently forecast to be 22% (HY 2021: 25%).  This broadly represents the standard corporation tax rate in the UK of 19% adjusted for the higher rates of overseas tax in the jurisdictions where the Group operates (2%) and expenses which are not deductible for tax purposes (1%).

Cash Generation

Cash from operations increased by 38% compared to HY 2021, to £56.1m (HY 2021: £40.8m). The main driver for this increase is an increase in cash collections, in line with sales order growth which resulted in cash from operations conversion of 144% of Adjusted EBITDA (HY 2021: 133%). HY 2021 was adversely impacted by the timing of Events payments, following the COVID-19 disruption, adjusting for this, HY 2021 cash conversion (as a percentage of Adjusted EBITDA) would have been 142%.

Free Cash Flow increased to £45.7m, an increase of 32% (HY 2021: £34.7m). This growth is reflective of the cash from operations performance, offset by increased net debt and interest costs. As a low capital-intensive business, our capital expenditure is typically around 1-1.5% of revenue. Free Cash Flow as a percentage of Adjusted Profit before Tax was 152%, versus 141% in HY 2021.

Net Debt¹

Since the last reporting period, December 2021, net debt has increased from £177.6m to £190.5m. The increase is reflective of significant cash from operations conversion being offset by £20.1m paid in relation to acquisitions, £17.7m being used to purchase own shares, £14.8m of dividend payments, taxes of £4.8m, capital expenditure of £1.2m, leasing costs of £2.9m and interest of £4.4m.

¹ We define net debt as short- and long-term borrowings (excluding lease liabilities) less cash and cash equivalents.

Independent review report to GlobalData Plc

Conclusion

We have been engaged by the Company to review the condensed set of financial statements in the half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 June 2022 which comprises the consolidated income statement, consolidated statement of comprehensive income, consolidated statement of financial position, the consolidated statement of changes in equity, the consolidated statement of cash flows and related notes 1 to 15.

Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the condensed set of financial statements in the half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 June 2022 is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with United Kingdom adopted International Accounting Standard 34 and the AIM Rules of the London Stock Exchange.

Basis for Conclusion 

We conducted our review in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements (UK) 2410 "Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity" issued by the Financial Reporting Council for use in the United Kingdom. A review of interim financial information consists of making inquiries, primarily of persons responsible for financial and accounting matters, and applying analytical and other review procedures. A review is substantially less in scope than an audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) and consequently does not enable us to obtain assurance that we would become aware of all significant matters that might be identified in an audit. Accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion.

As disclosed in note 1, the annual financial statements of the group will be prepared in accordance with United Kingdom adopted international accounting standards. The condensed set of financial statements included in this half-yearly financial report has been prepared in accordance with United Kingdom adopted International Accounting Standard 34, "Interim Financial Reporting".

Conclusion Relating to Going Concern

Based on our review procedures, which are less extensive than those performed in an audit as described in the Basis for Conclusion section of this report, nothing has come to our attention to suggest that the directors have inappropriately adopted the going concern basis of accounting or that the directors have identified material uncertainties relating to going concern that are not appropriately disclosed.

This conclusion is based on the review procedures performed in accordance with this ISRE (UK), however future events or conditions may cause the entity to cease to continue as a going concern.

Responsibilities of the directors

The directors are responsible for preparing the half-yearly financial report in accordance with the AIM rules of the London Stock Exchange.

In preparing the half-yearly financial report, the directors are responsible for assessing the group's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor's Responsibilities for the review of the financial information

In reviewing the half-yearly financial report, we are responsible for expressing to the group a conclusion on the condensed set of financial statement in the half-yearly financial report. Our conclusion, including our Conclusions Relating to Going Concern, are based on procedures that are less extensive than audit procedures, as described in the Basis for Conclusion paragraph of this report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the company in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements (UK) 2410 "Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity" issued by the Financial Reporting Council. Our work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company those matters we are required to state to it in an independent review report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company, for our review work, for this report, or for the conclusions we have formed.

Deloitte LLP

Statutory Auditor

London, England

1 August 2022

Consolidated Income Statement

The accompanying notes form an integral part of this financial report.

¹ We define Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA adjusted to exclude costs associated with acquisitions, restructuring of the Group, share-based payments, impairment, unrealised operating exchange rate movements and the impact of foreign exchange contracts. We present Adjusted EBITDA as additional information because it is used internally as a key indicator to assess financial performance. However, other companies may present Adjusted EBITDA differently. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measures of financial performance under IFRS and should not be considered as an alternative to operating profit or as a measure of liquidity or an alternative to net income as indicators of our operating performance or any other measure of performance derived in accordance with IFRS. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as: Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

The accompanying notes form an integral part of this financial report.

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

The accompanying notes form an integral part of this financial report.