GlobalData Plc
Half Year Results
30 June 2022
Executing the Strategy : 10% underlying 1 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).
|
£m |
HY 2022
|
HY 2021
|
Change % |
Underlying Growth 1 % |
|
Revenue |
£111.9m |
£91.1m |
+23% |
+10% |
|
Operating profit |
£24.1m |
£18.3m |
+32% |
|
|
Adj. EBITDA 2 |
£39.0m |
£30.7m |
+27% |
|
|
Adj. EBITDA margin |
35% |
34% |
+1p.p. |
|
|
Statutory PBT |
£15.0m |
£16.0m |
-6% |
|
|
EPS |
9.4p |
9.7p |
-3% |
|
|
Adj. EPS 3 |
20.7p |
16.3p |
+27% |
|
|
Invoiced Forward Revenue 4 |
£114.6m |
£83.8m |
+37% |
+13% |
|
Net debt 5 |
£190.5m |
£47.1m |
+304% |
|
Financial Highlights
- Strong H1 revenue performance, up 23% with underlying 1 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 flow 6 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.”