13 June 2024
Christie Group plc
("Christie Group" or the "Company")
AGM Trading Update
The Board of Christie Group plc (CTG.L) , the leading provider of Professional & Financial Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services to the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors is pleased to provide the following trading update for the financial year to date (the five months from 1 January 2024 to 31 May 2024 or the "Period") in advance of the Group's Annual General Meeting being held at 10.00 am today.
The Group has continued to see a more positive trading environment for its transactional brokerage business compared to that experienced in the first half of 2023, and this is reflected in an improved year-on-year performance for the period.
Professional and Financial Services (PFS)
· Agency and advisory activity has recovered well across its various sectors following the disruption to M&A markets experienced during 2023. Invoicing in the period in the Group's UK transactional business, Christie & Co, is much improved on the prior year, with the potential to strengthen further as the year progresses.
· As the Group seeks to deepen and broaden its international brokerage and advisory operations beyond its previous single-sector focus on Hotels, it has continued to invest in recruiting skilled individuals to its existing Christie & Co operations in France, Germany, Austria and Spain. However, invoicing in its international operations has been weak in the early part of the year and has served to partially offset the level of profit otherwise achieved from its much-improved UK brokerage activity. The Board is encouraged by the level of new instructions being secured across its continental operations, which helps support the Group's international expansion strategy.
· Valuation activity in both Christie & Co and Pinders has been solid, with ongoing demand for both transactionally-led valuations and valuations for lending purposes.
· The Group's financial brokerage business, Christie Finance, has experienced a strong performance in the period from its diversified range of services. It retains a positive outlook for the remainder of 2024 as lending appetite into the Group's specialist sectors remains robust.
· Our FCA-regulated insurance brokerage business, Christie Insurance, has continued its recruitment of general insurance and life and protection brokers, and is now achieving stronger levels of client retentions on invited renewals and a developing pipeline of life and protection opportunities as it starts to see the benefit of cross-referrals from other Group businesses.
Stock and Inventory Systems & Services (SISS)
· The Group's hospitality stock audit, compliance and consultancy business, Venners, has continued its growth trajectory, outperforming management's expectations in the period.
· The Group's Retail stocktaking business, Orridge, has achieved an improved year-on-year performance from its UK operations. On the continent, stocktaking revenues from Germany are expected to remain seasonally concentrated in H2.
· The Group's SaaS provider to the UK visitor attraction sector, Vennersys, continues to grow its pipeline of engaged sales opportunities. Despite some frustration in converting opportunities to revenue generating contracts, total revenues for the period have grown by 30% on the prior year.
The Board maintains its expectation for the Group's improved performance in 2024, with PFS revenues once again expected to be weighted toward the second-half.
Enquiries:
Christie Group plc
Dan Prickett 07885 813101
Chief Executive
Simon Hawkins 07767 354366
Chief Financial Officer
Shore Capital
Patrick Castle 020 7408 4090
Nominated Advisor and Broker
Notes to Editors:
Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional business services group with 37 offices across the UK and Europe, catering to its specialist markets in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors.
Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions: Professional & Financial Services (PFS) and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the brand names: PFS - Christie & Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge, Venners and Vennersys.
Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long-established reputation for offering valued services to client companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy, project management, multi-functional trading systems and online ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management. The diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the Group's core agency business.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014.
For more information, please go to https://www.christiegroup.com/
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