Half year summary
- Revenue up 8% to 229.6m
- Adjusted profit before tax up 9% principally as a result of full ownership of Domo
- Adjusted earnings per share up 7% to 5.6p
- Interim dividend maintained at 3.63p per share
- Free cash flow of 10.3m (HY12: 2.3m)
- Net debt 78.1m (FY12: 66.0m, HY12: 36.6m)
Refocusing the UK business
- Customer numbers down to 2.5m (HY12: 3.0m, FY12: 2.7m)
- Retention rate 78% (HY12: 82%, FY12: 80%)
- Renewed two of our larger UK water affinity partners on long-term deals
- Increased customer satisfaction with 42% fewer customer complaints
- Testing the effectiveness of new marketing and products to give greater visibility on the future size of the business
- FSA investigation is ongoing
Continued growth in our international businesses
- Strong customer and policy growth
- USA customers up 20%, policy numbers up 25%
- Spain customers up 42%, policy numbers up 36%
- Retention remains strong in our established international markets
- 87% in Domo
- 79% in the USA
- Strong financial performance in Domo, with adjusted operating profit of 5.6m
- Five new affinity partners including a policy book acquisition in the USA
- In Italy, signed long-term agreements with Enel Energia, enabling us to market to 3.5m households and Veritas with over 200,000 marketable households
- Started our test marketing activity in Germany
