9 September 2020

EMIS Group plc

("EMIS Group" or "the Group")

Half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2020

EMIS Group plc (AIM: EMIS.L), the UK leader in connected healthcare software and systems, today announces its unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2020.

Financial highlights

¹   For an explanation of the alternative performance measures used in this report, please refer to the appendix.

Operational highlights

Good results in line with expectations, with continued strategic progress during a period of great uncertainty:

·    Market-leading positions in all healthcare markets maintained.

·    Delivered against requirements under the GP IT Futures framework in England and completed unscheduled project work requested by NHS Digital in response to COVID-19.

·    Resilient business model with recurring revenue up 5% to £63.5m, representing 81% of the Group's total revenue (2019 H1: 76%).

·    Continued investment in development of strategic roadmap while carefully controlling costs across the business.

·    Increased sales of products to support changes in working processes for COVID-19, including EMIS Mobile and Anywhere Consult, the Group's remote working solution.

·    Transitioned teams to homeworking ahead of lockdown in both the UK and India. No staff were furloughed and no redundancies took place during lockdown.

·    Paid 2019 final dividend in May 2020 and declared a 3% increase in the 2020 interim dividend to 16.0p per share (2019 H1: 15.6p) reflecting the Board's confidence in the Group's financial strength and outlook.

Well positioned for growth in the mid-term:

·    EMIS Group benefits from strong recurring revenues, a position on the GP IT Futures framework and is well placed to facilitate the NHS's ambition to connect up healthcare through technology.

·    Continued investment in digital capabilities to ensure the Group remains at the forefront of the NHS modernisation agenda.

·    Launch of new EMIS-X Analytics (EXA) application, ahead of schedule, providing customers with deeper, faster insight into healthcare data.

·    Developed new Patient marketplace services for the UK public through Patient Access, growing registered user base from 8.4 million to 10.0 million in the period.

·    Strengthened EMIS Enterprise in March 2020 with the acquisition of Pinnacle, enabling it to provide new services more quickly to community pharmacy customers.

Outlook

·    Upgrades to EMIS Web and new EMIS-X applications being launched in 2021 and beyond.

·    Alongside its organic growth strategy, the Group retains significant cash resources and bank funding to build both the scale and capabilities of the Group in existing and adjacent markets.

·    Overall, the Board's expectations for the full year remain unchanged.

Andy Thorburn, Chief Executive Officer of EMIS Group, said:

"The Group's financial performance in the first half of the year was excellent considering the backdrop and level of uncertainty caused by COVID-19. Our robust business model was key to this, as was our commitment to doing the right thing by our customers at all times. Our cash position and strong balance sheet mean we are very well placed to continue our strategy and invest for growth.

"It was a privilege for us to support the NHS front line during the first wave of the pandemic. Our NHS colleagues are doing an outstanding job looking after the nation and we thank them for their service and commitment. I'd also like to thank the entire EMIS Group team who did everything we could have asked of them and more during a very busy lockdown period for the Group.

"In parallel we continued to execute our strategic roadmap and are delighted to announce the launch of Explorer, the first product from our new EXA suite ahead of schedule, in quarter four of 2020. Explorer, as part of our EXA suite, is focussed on providing insights into healthcare at a scale and speed that will improve patient outcomes at both regional and national level. Initial customer feedback has been excellent.

"We remain on track to deliver results in line with Board expectations for the full year."

This announcement contains inside information.

There will be a webcast and conference call of the results today at 9.00am for analysts. Please contact Pandora Yadgaroff at MHP Communications on 020 3128 8168, or email emis@mhpc.com for details.

Enquiries:

For further information, contact:

EMIS Group plc                                                                                   Tel: 0113 380 3000

Andy Thorburn, CEO

Peter Southby, CFO

www.emisgroupplc.com

@EMISGroup

Numis Securities Limited (nominated adviser and broker)            Tel: 020 7260 1000

Oliver Hardy/Simon Willis/James Black

MHP Communications                                                                        Tel: 020 3128 8168

Reg Hoare/Giles Robinson/Florence Mayo/Pandora Yadgaroff            emis@mhpc.com 

Information for investors, including analyst consensus forecasts, can be found on the Group's website at www.emisgroupplc.com/investors.

Notes to editors

EMIS Group is the UK leader in connected healthcare software and systems. Its solutions are widely used across every major UK healthcare setting. EMIS Group's aim is to join up healthcare through innovative technology, helping to deliver better health outcomes to the UK population, supporting longer and healthier lives.

EMIS Group has two core business segments: EMIS Health and EMIS Enterprise.

EMIS Health is a supplier of innovative integrated care technology to the NHS, including primary, community, acute and social care.

EMIS Enterprise is focussed on growth in the business-to-business technology sector within the healthcare market, including management of medicines, partner businesses and patient-facing services.

LEI: 213800K474ZZK76NX913

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S OVERVIEW

EMIS Group delivered good results in line with the Board's expectations in a period of great uncertainty. We maintained our market share and delivered solutions to help our NHS colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a supplier to the NHS we have been in a position to help the fight against COVID-19 at multiple levels, from supplying free access to our video consultation software to front line clinicians, to offering up-to-date public advice and guidance on Patient.info, through to supporting research projects working at pace on COVID-19 prevention and cure.

Our long-term customer relationships were a key enabler through the period. We received hundreds of requests each week to support our customer base and our teams responded exceptionally well. Our front line customer staff, together with our software product and development teams, were at the heart of our COVID-19 response, and we have consistently received excellent feedback from our customers.

We have balanced unexpected COVID-19-related projects with executing our plans for mid- to long-term growth, demonstrated by the upcoming launch of the first major EMIS-X deliverable ahead of schedule, Explorer as part of the EXA suite. We have designed the EXA suite to enable healthcare organisations to analyse macro-level data sets at speed and scale to support the research community, to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of care. It offers good potential for EMIS Group to grow this line of business over time.

In EMIS Health we delivered against our requirements under the GP IT Futures framework for our NHS customers in England and completed unscheduled project work required by NHS Digital (NHSD) in response to COVID-19. The immediate needs of the NHS market differed to those anticipated during the period because of the pandemic and we experienced growth in a different product mix than usual, largely in EMIS Health's lower-margin product range.

Growth in non-recurring revenues in the business-to-business healthcare sector of EMIS Enterprise was constrained because of COVID-19. Business slowed down during the second quarter, as patients made fewer visits to community pharmacies during lockdown, which negatively impacted both our usual community pharmacy business and the growth in uptake of Patient marketplace services. Business was also reduced for the majority of the companies in the EMIS partner programme.

However, EMIS Enterprise was strengthened in March 2020 with the acquisition of Pinnacle, which will enable us to provide new services more quickly to community pharmacy customers.

High performing teams at home

The safety and wellbeing of our employees has been paramount throughout the pandemic. We transitioned our teams to a mainly homeworking environment ahead of lockdown in both the UK and India, with no negative impact on our day-to-day activity. While the majority of staff transitioned to homeworking, a small number of staff continued to deliver essential products and services directly to healthcare sites, observing local social distancing rules and utilising full PPE to minimise risks.

This combination of homeworking and on-site working enabled us to continue to provide front-line technical support to our end users during this busy time without any interruption to service. Importantly, no staff were furloughed and no redundancies took place during lockdown.

We are a family-first business with a flexible working policy already in place and we were quick to build on these values to assist staff who had to balance family priorities during lockdown. Going forwards we will transition to a more modern working approach, based on how well home and flexible working has both been received by staff and positively impacted business performance. A recent survey showed that 96% of UK staff were happy to work from home and this has now been extended as a long-term arrangement for all. For the staff who require an office space, we have safely opened one of our offices. In the second half of 2020 we will launch our new corporate values in alignment with our new modern working approach.

Continuing to build for our future

During the period we continued to invest in the development of our strategic roadmap while carefully controlling costs across the business.

We are focussed on executing our EMIS-X plans and are delighted to announce plans to launch Explorer, the first product from our new EXA suite, ahead of schedule. Explorer will provide NHS customers with new analytics tools to access their patient data faster and more efficiently than before. This software application is a positive development for our customers, enabling deeper, faster insight into healthcare data that we believe will improve patient outcomes while accelerating progress in clinical research.

We have had a dedicated expert team working on this for some time and the initial feedback from pilot customers has been excellent. EXA is a cloud-based analytics platform designed to exacting legal, ethical, clinical, technical and security standards. We believe EMIS-X Analytics is the right software at the right time and will help healthcare professionals manage the increased complexity of patient care during and post the pandemic.

Our development focus also remains on enhancing and developing new Patient marketplace services for the UK public through Patient Access. The user base has grown from 8.4 million to 10.0 million in the period as COVID-19 highlighted the digital healthcare resources available to patients.

We continue to prioritise investment into product development, with 661 employees now working directly on product development across the Group, a significant increase over time from 417 in January 2018.

Board changes

As previously announced, Mike O'Leary retired from the Board at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 6 May 2020, having completed nine years' service. Patrick De Smedt took over as Chair following the conclusion of the AGM.

Summary and outlook

EMIS Group continues to be well positioned for growth in the mid-term.

Our investments in digital capabilities and the introduction of the EXA suite to provide deeper, faster insights into healthcare data keep us relevant in a rapidly evolving market and position us well for the future.

Our progressive transition to EMIS-X-based technology will provide new opportunities for the Group with upgrades to EMIS Web, our flagship primary care system, as well as new EMIS-X applications being launched in 2021 and beyond.

We continue to build our community pharmacy capability with new functionality and the introduction of Pinnacle into our portfolio.

EMIS Group benefits from strong recurring revenues, a position on the GP IT Futures framework and is well placed to facilitate the NHS's ambition to connect up healthcare through technology. Our strategic roadmap is central to this strategy, and with the early delivery of the first EMIS-X application, EXA, and the market's rapid shift towards digital-first approaches to healthcare, the Group is well placed to emerge from COVID-19 in a stronger position, while remaining at the forefront of the NHS modernisation agenda.

Alongside our organic growth strategy, and looking with confidence beyond COVID-19, EMIS Group retains significant cash resources and bank facilities to consider further acquisitions to build both the scale and capabilities of the Group in existing and adjacent markets.

Overall, the Board's expectations for the full year remain unchanged.
 

OPERATIONAL REVIEW
 

EMIS Health

The EMIS Health segment comprises business areas where revenues are generated from NHS organisations. This includes the primary, community and acute A&E markets as well as specialist ICT infrastructure, hardware and engineering services and non-clinical software into health and social care.

Market shares

EMIS Health maintained its UK GP market leadership position with a market share of 57% (31 December 2019: 57%). In the community market, EMIS Health retained its number two market position in the first half at 20% (31 December 2019: 21%), while in acute A&E the Group maintained the market leadership position it achieved in 2019 at 22% (31 December 2019: 23%).

EMIS Health development roadmap

EMIS Health continues to develop technology to deliver the product roadmap for all its NHS markets and is making good progress on the EMIS-X platform.

Building the systems of the future has been balanced with essential developments into existing systems, including for the GP IT Futures framework. EMIS Health developed and delivered rapid COVID-19 updates into all its major software products for primary, community, acute and community pharmacy markets. This included functionality for COVID-19 test results to be automatically sent to 95% of GP systems in England and technology to enable fast and efficient patient tracing reports in urgent and emergency care using EMIS Health's A&E software system, Symphony.

EMIS Health continues to release software and system updates that prioritise clinical excellence, with the release of a new tool to help GPs more readily diagnose patients with atrial fibrillation and a digital method to report adverse drug interactions directly to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Primary care update 

EMIS Health smoothly transitioned to the GP IT Futures framework in January 2020. The framework governs the provision of the majority of EMIS Group's clinical IT system-related services to GPs in England and is capable of running until March 2023.

The business continues to collaborate with NHSD to deliver the national interoperability programme, including additional functionality for GP Connect, NHSD's programme to make GP data securely available in other healthcare settings. This includes interoperability work as part of the GP IT Futures contract such as the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) capability.

In Scotland, as an approved supplier on the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) framework, EMIS Health continues to work closely with NSS to deliver the technology to support its health and care strategy.

EMIS Health continues to compete successfully across its estate. The business is well positioned to continue to do so through framework mini-tender processes, which are anticipated to occur on a regular basis through the coming years in both Scotland and England.

In Northern Ireland, EMIS Health customers are using EMIS Web successfully following the completion of customer upgrades to EMIS Web last year. Customers are now using the system to optimise processes and realise efficiencies in areas such as medicines management and administration.

EMIS Health extended its contract with Wales, which is capable of running until 31 July 2021, and is working closely with NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) on continuity of services. NWIS is expected to announce the procurement for a new primary care framework shortly.

Strong performance in support and service

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, EMIS Health continued to deliver an average of 99% compliance against all service level agreements (SLAs) for its customer base in primary, community and acute care markets. During lockdown and subsequently, the proportion of all incident volume being managed via digital channels on EMIS Now has increased from 30% to 50%. This delivers efficiencies for both customers and support team members, as well as representing a more modern way to manage support incidents.

Strengthening customer relationships during COVID-19

In 2019 EMIS Health restructured its sales and account teams to provide a single point of contact for key customers, with a focus on working in partnership with strategic organisations. During the first half of 2020 this increased engagement and built closer working relationships with customers, especially as the industry faced the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic.

"Doing the right thing for our customers at all times" was the Group's guiding principle during the first half of 2020, and EMIS Health made a number of technology solutions available at no extra cost to support NHS front line staff. Free access to video consultation software was made available to 5,200 community pharmacies and 4,000 GP practices during lockdown. The Group's digital triage product, Online Consult, was used on average 68,000 times per week during lockdown (an increase from 2,400 uses per week in the earlier part of the year), helping practices better manage patient requests for appointments.

During the period EMIS Group saw an increase in sales of lower-margin products to support changes in working processes for COVID-19. This included both hardware and software with EMIS Mobile and the remote working solution, Anywhere Consult, as Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) invested to continue providing healthcare services during lockdown. User licences for EMIS Mobile increased by 23% between Q1 and Q2 of 2020 to almost 10,000 users.

This was offset by a slowing of sales in other areas through lockdown such as the primary care record digitisation service. Digitising paper records is still a priority for the NHS; the target to digitise all records by 2024 remains unchanged and activity is expected to increase as lockdown restrictions continue to ease.

EMIS Health ran its first digital EMIS Live event in July, a fortnight of seminars, presentations and Q&As focussed on "the new normal". With a focus on connecting with customers and end users, the events offered insights into upcoming developments, adapting to the digital future and a chance for customers to ask questions on a diverse range of subjects from day-to-day system usage to high level product strategy. Previously this kind of event has been conducted in person, but the switch to a digital format was a huge success. The event increased customer engagement across every major market that the business serves, with 2,700 attendees across the fortnight, leading to a significant increase in website visits and a tenfold increase in engagement with the Group's social channels.

EMIS Enterprise

The EMIS Enterprise segment comprises business areas where revenues are predominantly from private sector sources, including medicines management across both community and hospital pharmacies, and the Patient business.

Market shares

EMIS Enterprise maintained its market-leading market share in community pharmacy at 37% (31 December 2019: 37%) and its number two market position in hospital pharmacy with a market share of 37% (31 December 2019: 35%).

EXA

The EXA suite capitalises on the need and market demand for actionable intelligence derived from diverse healthcare data sets. It provides a range of powerful processing tools designed to curate, aggregate and query 'big healthcare' data sets at speed and scale.

EXA is a natural evolution for EMIS Group, which has been supporting its NHS customers with access to regional and condition-level data for analysis for a number of years to enable better healthcare service efficiency, resource planning and service redesign with easy-to-use meaningful health data. EXA represents a powerful technological advancement to enable the healthcare industry to carry out ethical healthcare research more effectively through the hi-tech interface provided by the EMIS-X platform.

Medicines management

The Group continued to perform well in the community pharmacy market despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining the same level of customer service and support hours for community pharmacy customers during lockdown, achieving customer satisfaction levels of 95%.

The business modified its approach to look at supporting pharmacies with social distancing through services like Pharmacy Access. Community pharmacies continue to adapt to the changing market, moving into higher value services both in support of the NHS and in delivering private clinical services. The pandemic has accelerated the division's work with Patient in promoting the uptake of the Patient Access for Professionals product amongst community pharmacies, enabling pharmacies to book, manage and deliver consultations remotely via video and telephone.

The business is now focussed on increasing new business sales for the remainder of the year, whilst further leveraging the opportunities offered by Patient Access for Professionals and Patient Group Directions (PGDs), continuing to encourage and educate pharmacies on the move to a services-based agenda as laid out by the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework: 2019-24.

Following EMIS Group's acquisition of Pinnacle in March 2020, work began immediately on integration between Pinnacle's PharmOutcomes and EMIS Health's ProScript Connect systems. A pilot of the integration is progressing well, initially enabling users to more effectively manage medication dispensing and delivery for patients who were shielding during lockdown.

Hospital pharmacy

An interoperability pilot between EMIS Health and third party acute clinical system supplier, AllScripts, began at Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust in May 2020 following integration work that began last year. The pilot enables medication supply requests to be sent directly from the Group's Electronic Prescriptions Management Administration (ePMA) system to hospital pharmacies.

Patient

There was a sharp increase in the use of established Patient Access services during the first half of the year, as patients turned increasingly to digital solutions to access primary care services. Registered users of Patient Access increased to 10.0 million (2019: 8.4 million) and 11.7 million repeat prescriptions were ordered, two million more than in the first half of 2019. Patient Access remains the most widely used patient GP appointment booking app in the UK.

The business issued a number of COVID-19 driven enhancements during the period, including a pilot of COVID-19 antibody testing through the Patient marketplace service. Through Patient Access for Professionals, the Patient team released video consultation software for pharmacies and allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and counsellors. The early take up of these services has been encouraging, including for example more than 600 physiotherapy appointments delivered in the first month since launch.

Patient.info also saw an increase in engagement in the period. Over 10 million people accessed the site during April for up-to-date guidance on COVID-19, including help and advice from Dr Sarah Jarvis, Patient's Clinical Director, as well as a wide range of evidence-based articles. In the earlier stages of the pandemic Patient's coronavirus symptom checker was used more than 700,000 times.

The partner programme

Although day-to-day business slowed for many partners during lockdown, the partner programme continued to grow during the first half of 2020, building the collective ecosystem of interoperability that links with the Group's software. The number of accredited partner companies increased from 113 to 125 over the period. The Group's customers are benefitting from a range of innovative services from new partners such as Arc Health, which provides technology to allow GPs to undertake virtual ward rounds in care homes, helping to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.

FINANCIAL REVIEW 

The Group's revenue and adjusted operating profit were marginally lower for the half year ended 30 June 2020, while recurring revenue, cash flow and reported operating profit all increased on the comparative period and investment in the business to deliver future growth was maintained. Given the challenges faced by the business during the COVID-19 lockdown period, this was a creditable performance in difficult markets.

Group revenue decreased by 2% to £78.1m (2019 H1: £79.8m), including revenue of £0.7m from the Pinnacle acquisition, completed on 9 March 2020. Recurring revenue grew by 5% to £63.5m (2019 H1: £60.2m), representing 81% (2019 H1: 76%) of the Group's total revenue.

Adjusted operating profit for the period was £17.8m (2019 H1: £18.2m), with reduced non-recurring revenues and a lower gross margin sales mix offset in part by lower staff costs and reduced operating expenses during lockdown. In the absence of any exceptional charges, reported operating profit increased to £16.6m (2019 H1: £12.0m).

Segmental performance

Driven in part by higher than usual hardware sales resulting from the need for rapid deployment of mobile working solutions during lockdown, revenue increased by 7% in EMIS Health to £54.0m (2019 H1: £50.3m). These additional sales and reduced operating costs delivered an increased adjusted operating profit of £11.9m (2019 H1: £10.8m), notwithstanding the Group's continued investment in developing its strategic roadmap.

While recurring revenue increased by 4%, performance in the EMIS Enterprise division reflected a subdued market and a strong comparative period. In the absence of significant licence deals and implementations during lockdown, revenue was lower at £24.1m (2019 H1: £29.5m), and adjusted operating profit was £6.5m (2019 H1: £8.1m).

Revenue

Following the 1 January 2020 commencement of the NHS GP IT Futures framework governing over a quarter of the Group's revenues, which introduced a single software as a service payment for GP systems in England, and in order to better reflect the evolution of the business and its core revenue streams monitored internally, the Group has revised the way in which it analyses revenue. The revised analysis of revenue from continuing operations is summarised below:

·   software subscription and support, which increased revenues to £48.9m (2019 H1: £45.2m), reflecting the inclusion of the acquired Pinnacle revenues and higher revenues from the Group's existing customers;

·   interface and connectivity charges, where revenues were broadly consistent with last year at £9.7m (2019 H1: £9.6m);

·   hardware and related services, which increased revenues to £9.6m (2019 H1: £7.3m), as a result of COVID-19 driving short-term demand in the primary care market;

·   other services, where revenues were higher at £6.7m (2019 H1: £5.5m), principally due to increased digitisation revenues; and

·   perpetual licences, training, consultancy and implementation reported lower revenues of £3.2m (2019 H1: £12.2m), reflecting the unusually high level of licence deals in the comparative period and the reduced level of new implementation activity during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Full segmental revenue analysis from continuing operations is set out in note 9.

Profitability and dividend

Adjusted operating profit reduced by 2% to £17.8m (2019 H1: £18.2m) with the adjusted operating margin unchanged at 22.8% (2019 H1: 22.8%).

The Group employed 1,605 staff at 30 June 2020, with the increase from 1,527 at 31 December 2019 driven principally by expansion of the Indian development team to 406 people.

After accounting for the prior period exceptional item, the capitalisation and amortisation of development costs and the amortisation of acquired intangibles, reported operating profit was higher at £16.6m (2019 H1: £12.0m).

In line with the disposal agreement, a final contingent payment of £0.8m was received from the acquirer for the Specialist & Care business, disposed of on 2 April 2019, and was recognised as other income.

The tax charge for the period was £3.4m (2019 H1: £2.2m), representing an effective rate of tax before the deferred tax rate change, other income and share of result of joint venture and associate of 19.2% (2019 H1: 19.1%).

Adjusted basic and diluted EPS both reduced by 3% to 23.1p and 22.9p respectively (2019 H1: 23.7p and 23.5p). The reported basic and diluted EPS from continuing operations were both higher at 22.9p and 22.8p respectively (2019 H1: 15.7p and 15.6p).

The Board has carefully considered the more challenging trading environment experienced in 2020, together with the consistent underlying growth of the Group and its future prospects, and has declared a 3% increase in the interim dividend to 16.0p per share (2019 H1: 15.6p), payable on 5 November 2020 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 9 October 2020.

Cash flow, net cash and financing

Cash generated from operations was £36.6m (2019 H1: £29.8m), with the improvement driven by working capital including £7.3m of VAT payments deferred until 2021. Adjusted cash from operations, stated after adding back the cash cost of exceptional items of £1.3m (2019 H1: £1.2m) and after deducting capitalised development costs, increased to £33.8m (2019 H1: £27.5m).

Gross capital expenditure excluding capitalised development costs was tightly controlled at £0.9m (2019 H1: £3.3m) and was more than offset by proceeds from sales (principally of the former head office property) of £2.5m (2019 H1: £0.1m).

The Group completed the acquisition of the Pinnacle business during the period for initial cash consideration, net of cash acquired, of £2.9m. The Group received £0.8m of consideration in respect of the 2019 disposal of the Specialist & Care business and paid £0.8m of deferred contingent consideration further to the 2018 Dovetail acquisition.

After finance costs, lease payments, tax, dividends and Employee Benefit Trust transactions, the Group ended the period with net cash of £44.1m (31 December 2019: £31.1m; 2019 H1: £26.7m).

As at 30 June 2020, the Group had available undrawn bank facilities of £30.0m committed until June 2021, reducing to £15.0m for the twelve-month period ending 30 June 2022. An accordion arrangement is in place to increase the quantum up to £60.0m, reducing to £30.0m for the twelve-month period ending 30 June 2022.

Independent review report to EMIS Group plc 

Conclusion

We have been engaged by the Company to review the condensed set of financial statements in the half-yearly report for the six months ended 30 June 2020 which comprises the Group statement of comprehensive income, Group balance sheet, Group statement of cash flows, Group statement of changes in equity and the related explanatory notes.   

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 report for the six months ended 30 June 2020 is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting as adopted by the EU and the AIM Rules. 

Scope of review 

We conducted our review in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements (UK and Ireland) 2410 Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity issued by the Auditing Practices Board for use in the UK. A review of interim financial information consists of making enquiries, primarily of persons responsible for financial and accounting matters, and applying analytical and other review procedures. We read the other information contained in the half-yearly report and consider whether it contains any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the information in the condensed set of financial statements. 

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. 

Directors' responsibilities 

The half-yearly report is the responsibility of, and has been approved by, the Directors.  The Directors are responsible for preparing the half-yearly report in accordance with the AIM Rules. 

As disclosed in note 2, the annual financial statements of the Group are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU. The Directors are responsible for preparing the condensed set of financial statements included in the half-yearly financial report in accordance with IAS 34 as adopted by the EU. 

Our responsibility 

Our responsibility is to express to the Company a conclusion on the condensed set of financial statements in the half-yearly report based on our review.

The purpose of our review work and to whom we owe our responsibilities

This report is made solely to the Company in accordance with the terms of our engagement.  Our review has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company those matters we are required to state to it in this 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 reached. 

Hugh Harvie

for and on behalf of KPMG LLP 

Chartered Accountants 

1 Sovereign Square

Sovereign Street

Leeds

LS1 4DA

8 September 2020
 

Group statement of comprehensive income

for the six months ended 30 June 2020

1     Including exceptional reorganisation costs of £nil (2019 H1: £2,111,000; 2019 FY: £4,160,000).

2     Including exceptional reorganisation costs of £nil (2019 H1: £40,000; 2019 FY: £1,200,000).

3     Excluding amortisation of computer software used internally of £481,000 (2019 H1: £434,000; 2019 FY: £884,000).

4     The reorganisation costs relate to redundancy and restructuring costs, including property exit costs.

5     During the period the Group received £782,000 of previously unrecognised additional consideration in relation to the prior year disposal of the Specialist & Care business.

Group balance sheet

as at 30 June 2020

Group statement of cash flows

for the six months ended 30 June 2020

Group statement of changes in equity

for the six months ended 30 June 2020

Notes to the half year financial statements

1. General information

The financial statements for the six months ended 30 June 2020 and the six months ended 30 June 2019 do not constitute statutory accounts within the meaning of Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006. Statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019 were approved by the Board of Directors on 17 March 2020 and delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditor's report on those accounts was unqualified, did not contain an emphasis of matter paragraph and did not contain any statement under Section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

These condensed half year financial statements were approved for issue by the Board of Directors on 8 September 2020.

2. Basis of preparation

These condensed half year financial statements for the half year ended 30 June 2020 have been prepared in accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies, comply with IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting as adopted by the European Union and should be read in conjunction with the annual financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2019, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the European Union.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, trading for the half year ended 30 June 2020 was in line with the Board's expectations and although there continues to be some uncertainty regarding the timing of new sales delivery, the Board's expectations for the full year remain unchanged. Further details are given in the CEO's overview, the operational review and the financial review. The Directors have reviewed forecasts modelling the potential impact of further negative impacts of COVID-19 on the Group's performance in assessing whether the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate.

The Group is profitable and it is anticipated that this will continue. There is a high and continuing level of recurring revenue and high cash conversion is anticipated for the foreseeable future. The Group's existing significant cash resources and banking facilities provide additional comfort that it will continue to be able to meet its cash flow obligations.

Accordingly, after careful enquiry and review of available financial information, the Directors have formed the conclusion that the Group has adequate resources to continue to operate for the foreseeable future and that it is therefore appropriate to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of these consolidated half year financial statements.

In addition, as the significant impact of COVID-19 on the economic environment in which the Group operates is deemed to be an external indicator of potential impairment, under IAS 36 a requirement for impairment testing arises. Therefore each of the Group's CGUs have been tested on a consistent basis as described in the Group's annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019, by comparing the pre-tax cash flows from internal forecasts to June 2021, extrapolated for a further four years using average annual growth rates of 3.5%, followed by growth of 1% into perpetuity. This exercise has confirmed that there has been no impairment in any CGU.

The financial information is presented in sterling, which is the functional currency of EMIS Group. All financial information presented has been rounded to the nearest thousand.

3. Accounting policies

The accounting policies applied in these interim financial statements are the same as those applied in the Group's annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019.

In these financial statements, the Group has revised the way in which it presents its revenue analysis (see note 9). However, this has not changed its revenue recognition policies, which are consistent with those applied in the Group's annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019.

Current taxes on income in the half year period are accrued using the tax rates that would be applicable to expected total annual profits. Deferred taxes on income are calculated based on the standard rates that are enacted as at the balance sheet date.

4. Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

In preparing the 2020 half year financial statements no significant judgements have been made in the process of applying the Group's accounting policies, other than those involving estimations, that could have a material effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements. The key source of estimation uncertainty that carries a significant risk of material change to the carrying value of assets and liabilities within the next year is unchanged from the 2019 Group annual report and accounts and is with regard to the valuation of the put option liability relating to the acquisition of Dovetail Digital Limited. Further details are disclosed in note 14.

5. Principal risks and uncertainties

The 2019 Group annual report and accounts describes the principal risks and uncertainties that could impact the Group's performance. In addition to the emerging risk of COVID-19, considered elsewhere in this report, these risks relate to healthcare structure and procurement changes, software (product) development, people and culture, information governance and cyber security, and clinical safety. These remain unchanged since the annual report was published and are not expected to change for the remaining six months of the financial year. The Group operates a structured risk management process, which identifies and evaluates risks and uncertainties and reviews mitigation activity.

The Board continues to believe that Brexit will have minimal direct effect on the Group as it is not a significant exporter or importer of goods or services. There are potential indirect effects including exchange rate volatility affecting the value of sterling and increased pressure on NHS budgets that could have a negative impact on the Group's prospects, but the scale and timing of these remains uncertain.

6. Financial risk management

The Group's activities expose it to financial risks including credit risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk and price risk.

These condensed consolidated half year financial statements do not include all financial risk management information and disclosures required in the annual financial statements and therefore should be read in conjunction with the 2019 Group annual report and accounts.

7. Forward-looking statements

Certain statements in this half year report are forward looking. Although the Group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. Because these statements involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

8. Segmental reporting

IFRS 8 Operating Segments provides for segmental information disclosure on the basis of information reported internally to the chief operating decision-maker for decision-making purposes. The Group considers that this role is performed by the main Board.

The Group has two operating and reportable segments, both involved with the supply and support of connected healthcare software and systems:

•  EMIS Health; and

•  EMIS Enterprise.

Each operating segment is assessed by the Board based on an adjusted measure of operating profit, as defined in the appendix. Group operating expenses, finance income and costs, cash and cash equivalents, and current and deferred taxes are not allocated to segments, as income tax, Group and financing activities are not segment specific.

The previously reported Specialist & Care operating segment has been classified as a discontinued operation following its sale on 2 April 2019 and therefore the information presented below relates to continuing operations only.

Revenue excludes intra-group transactions on normal commercial terms from the EMIS Health segment to the EMIS Enterprise segment totalling £1,399,000 (2019 H1: £2,537,000) and from the EMIS Enterprise segment to the EMIS Health segment totalling £nil (2019 H1: £12,000).

Revenue of £55,826,000 (2019 H1: £49,692,000) is derived from the NHS and related bodies. Revenue of £1,861,000 (2019 H1: £1,939,000) is derived from customers outside the United Kingdom.

9. Revenue analysis

Following the 1 January 2020 commencement of the NHS GP IT Futures framework governing over a quarter of the Group's revenues, which introduced a single software as a service payment for GP Systems in England, and in order to better reflect the evolution of the business and its core revenue streams monitored internally, the Group has revised the way in which it analyses revenue. The revised analysis of revenue from continuing operations, including comparative information restated on the same basis, is presented below.

10. Income tax expense

The tax expense recognised reflects management estimates of the tax charge for the period and has been calculated using the estimated average tax rate of UK corporation tax for the financial year of 19.0% (2019: 19.0%). The decision of the UK Government not to reduce the UK corporation tax rate from 19% to 17% from 1 April 2020 resulted in a one-off deferred tax charge of £214,000 in the period, with a corresponding increase in the Group's net deferred tax liability.

11. Earnings per share (EPS)

The calculation of basic and diluted EPS is based on the following earnings and numbers of shares:

12. Dividends

In relation to the 2019 financial year, an interim dividend of 15.6p was paid on 1 November 2019 amounting to £9,795,000 followed by a final dividend of 15.6p on 11 May 2020 amounting to £9,798,000.

For the 2020 financial year, the Directors are proposing an interim dividend of 16.0p, which will be payable on 5 November 2020 to shareholders on the register at 9 October 2020. This interim dividend, which will amount to approximately £10,063,000, has not been recognised as a liability in these half year financial statements.

13. Other intangible assets

14. Other financial liabilities

The current and non-current contingent acquisition consideration liabilities in respect of Pinnacle are both cash-settled liabilities arising from the acquisition of Pinnacle (see note 16), payable upon the achievement of profit targets. The possible minimum and maximum undiscounted total amounts of contingent consideration payable in cash are £nil and £4,000,000 respectively. Estimated fair value has been measured based on the future amounts payable, as the impact of discounting is not significant.

The current and non-current contingent acquisition consideration liabilities in respect of Dovetail are both cash-settled liabilities arising from the 2018 acquisition of Dovetail Lab, payable upon the achievement of revenue targets. During the period a payment of £480,000 was made in relation to achievement of specified revenue targets, and £480,000 was reclassified from non-current to current liabilities. The possible minimum and maximum undiscounted amounts of total contingent consideration payable in cash are £nil and £1,020,000 respectively. Estimated fair value has been measured based on the future amounts payable, as the impact of discounting is not significant.

A non-current financial liability of £2,728,000 has been recognised in relation to a put option in place over the 10% share capital not currently owned by EMIS Group plc. The put option has been measured at estimated fair value and is exercisable in 2026 (provided the Group has not exercised the related call option between 2023 and 2025), on an exercise price based on a multiple of operating profit for the preceding year. The expected future payment has been discounted to present value using a risk-adjusted discount rate that reflects the expected maturity profile of the consideration being discounted. The significant unobservable inputs are future operating profit and the risk-adjusted discount rate. The estimated fair value would increase/(decrease) if expected future operating profits were higher/(lower), or if the risk-adjusted discount rate were lower/(higher).

15. Leases

Set out below are the carrying amounts of the Group's right-of-use assets and lease liabilities and the movements during the period:

16. Business combination

On 9 March 2020 the Group acquired 100% of the share capital of Pinnacle Health Partnership LLP and Pinnacle Systems Management Limited, owners and operators of the widely used PharmOutcomes platform, a secure, web-based service management solution used by more than 11,000 community pharmacies to record and manage nationally and locally commissioned patient services such as flu vaccinations, the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service and hospital discharge referral management. It allows local and national level analysis and reporting on the effectiveness of commissioned services, helping to improve the evidence base for community pharmacy services.

The provisional fair values of the net assets acquired, consideration paid and goodwill arising on the transaction are shown in the table below:

Goodwill relates principally to the experienced staff within the business.

Provisional fair values of assets and liabilities represent the best estimate of the fair values at the date of acquisition. As permitted by IFRS 3 (Revised) 'Business Combinations', these provisional amounts can be amended for a period of up to twelve months following acquisition if subsequent information becomes available which changes the estimates of fair values at the date of acquisition.

The post-acquisition contribution of the acquired business to Group revenue and adjusted operating profit was £709,000 and £204,000 respectively. Had the acquisition occurred on 1 January 2020, the Group's revenue and adjusted operating profit for the period would have been £78,610,000 and £17,895,000 respectively.

In relation to the acquisition, costs of £184,000 have been expensed in the statement of comprehensive income.

Appendix: Alternative performance measures (APMs)

This report contains certain financial measures (APMs) that are not defined or recognised under IFRS but are presented to provide readers with additional financial information that is evaluated by management and investors in assessing the performance of the Group.

This additional information presented is not uniformly defined by all companies and may not be comparable with similarly titled measures and disclosures by other companies. These measures are unaudited and should not be viewed in isolation or as an alternative to those measures that are derived in accordance with IFRS.

Recurring revenue

Recurring revenue is the revenue that annually repeats either under contractual arrangement or by predictable customer habit. It highlights how much of the Group's total revenue is secured and anticipated to repeat in future periods, providing a measure of the financial strength of the business. It is a measure that is well understood by the Group's investor and analyst community and is used for internal performance reporting.

Adjusted operating profit, adjusted operating margin, and adjusted earnings per share

Adjusted operating profit is operating profit from continuing operations excluding exceptional items, goodwill impairment, the effect of capitalisation and amortisation of development costs, and the amortisation of acquired intangible assets. The same adjustments are also made in determining the adjusted operating margin of the Group and its segments and in determining adjusted earnings per share (EPS). The EPS calculation further adjusts for the profit impacts of discontinued operations and the related tax and non-controlling interest impacts of the operating profit adjustments.

The Board considers this adjusted measure of operating profit to provide the best metric of assessing underlying performance, as:

•  it excludes exceptional items (items are only classified as exceptional due to their nature or size);

•  it excludes any one-off goodwill impairment;

•  by expensing capitalised development costs (and also not amortising these costs) it reflects the underlying in-year cash cost of development of software for external sale, as development is considered to be a core ongoing operating function of the business; and

•  it excludes the amortisation of acquired intangibles arising from business combinations which varies year on year dependent on the timing and size of any acquisitions. This is consistent with the presentation of the amortisation of the Group's own software intangibles.

These metrics are used internally for reporting business unit performance and in determining management and executive remuneration. They are commonly used by other software companies and are also well understood by the Group's investor and analyst community.

The exceptional item in 2019 relates to redundancy and restructuring costs, including property exit costs.

A reconciliation of adjusted earnings used in the adjusted EPS calculations is shown below:

Adjusted cash generated from operations

The Group's adjusted cash generated from operations adjusts for capitalised development cost expenditure and the cash costs of exceptional items, consistent with the adjusted operating profit metric used by the Group. This provides a meaningful metric for the underlying cash the Group generates having accounted for the cash cost of all development expenditure and adding back the cash cost of non-recurring exceptional items.

Net cash/(debt)

The Group uses net cash/(debt), defined as cash and cash equivalents less total borrowings (excluding IFRS 16 lease liabilities), as a supplementary measure in evaluating its liquidity, as it indicates the level of cash available to the Group and provides an indicator of the overall balance sheet strength. It is used in the calculation of the leverage ratio under its bank facility arrangements. For the six months ended 30 June 2020 the Group was in a net cash position, with no borrowings.