Jaywing plc Interim Results September 2022

Jaywing plc (AIM: JWNG), the integrated agency powered by data science, today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2022 (“H1”).

Financial Highlights 

Reconciliation of Operating Profit with Adjusted EBITDA

* Adjusted EBITDA represents EBITDA before restructuring charges arising from actions taken in Q4 of the year ended 31 March 2022, and acquisition & related costs

** Including accrued interest

Operational Highlights

• Adjusted EBITDA up by 32.6% at £1,360k against prior period, on 3.8% lower revenues

• UK profitability improved with adjusted EBITDA up 150.8% at £1,219k, due to cost and efficiency improvements

• Australian adjusted EBITDA down 73.9% at £141k as a result of Australian wage inflation and impact of integration activity at the start of FY23

• New business pipeline remains strong

• Decision IP acquisition successfully completed & encouraging new business growth opportunities for Decision software being developed.

View the full pdf report.

Commenting on the results, Andrew Fryatt, CEO of Jaywing plc, said:

I am pleased to report that we delivered an improvement in underlying profitability in the first half year with adjusted EBITDA up £334k to £1,360k against prior period. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 3.4ppt to 12.2%, driven by our strong proposition in the market together with a firm control on costs. This has been delivered against a challenging backdrop.

The economic uncertainty in both the UK and Australia impacted first half revenues, with some existing clients delaying spend and onboarding of new clients taking longer to navigate clients’ internal approvals. UK revenues were 5.9% lower, but our actions to reduce the cost base at the end of the prior year resulted in UK adjusted EBITDA being 150.8% higher, at £1,219k. In Australia, revenues were up 3.2%, although the momentum from the previous financial year, which achieved a revenue growth of 24.5%, was interrupted by the integration of the two Australian businesses. Coupled with local wage inflation as a result of the previous border closure, Australia’s EBITDA fell back in the period, to £141k.The group returned to pre-tax profit, recording a profit before tax of £208k.

In the UK, we added a number of new clients in the first half, including Verdant Leisure, Fair4All Finance, OpenMoney, University of East Anglia and Truworths. The opportunity pipeline remains strong, and we continue to win at least half the opportunities we pitch for.

However, the impact of economic uncertainty and the war in Ukraine can be seen in existing spend levels, with some clients deferring expenditures into the second half or until they have more certainty of their own revenues. We are managing the UK cost base accordingly to help us to continue to increase profitability year-on-year despite softer revenues, and UK revenue per head was up 2.9% in the first half.

The UK’s top ten clients accounted for 35.0% of UK revenue, or £3.0m, and their aggregate spend was up 17.3% on the previous year. Key clients included Castrol, HSBC and ADT, who have all increased their spend this year. Our Retail client revenues were up 19.0% in the first half, but this was offset by more cautious expenditure by our Financial and FMCG clients.

In Australia, the integration of the two original businesses (Massive Group Pty and Frank Digital Pty) into “Jaywing Australia”, during last year’s Q4, resulted in a reduced pipeline of new business at the start of the current financial year. However, the restructuring of our Australian business will now support increased scale, and we are now able to present a strong integrated proposition. This is already resulting in an increased opportunity pipeline which includes a number of potential blue-chip clients.

The key issue over the last year or so has been wage inflation in Australia, following the two-year closure of the borders during the pandemic. On a comparable basis, average cost per employee is up 26.2% on the prior year. With the opening of the borders, this wage inflation has abated, and the second half of the year is expected to produce a stronger revenue and profit performance.

During the first half we were also able to resolve a number of legacy issues, including the long-running litigation in relation to the Bloom acquisition in 2016 with the claimants’ case being dismissed in April 2022 and completion of the final payments for the Frank Digital Put Option in Australia. 

Towards the end of the first half we completed the acquisition of Midisi Ltd, who own the IP for the Decision automation software Jaywing has used since 2016. This has immediately increased profitability through removal of the licence fee and allowed us to increase our commercial focus on Decision and its benefits in increasing the effectiveness of marketing spend. This is resonating well with clients, and we have already added four new Decision clients with several additional opportunities in the pipeline.

Partly in anticipation of the purchase of Midisi Ltd, and to provide further working capital, the Group has increased the headroom in its existing short-term finance facility by £1.0m, through a variation of the existing debt agreement with its lenders, DSC Investment Holdings Ltd and 1798 Volantis Fund Ltd. This was the largest driver for the increase in net debt to £10.1m.

There have been a number of one off cash items that have resulted in cash generated from operations dropping by £0.8m to £(0.1m). This is primarily legal costs for the Bloom litigation, payment of acquisition related costs, timing of media spend and costs relating to the new Leeds office (with a reduced cost going forward).

Working capital continues to be closely managed with debtors days for the group dropping from 64 days for the prior interim period, to 49 days.

Just after the end of the period we moved our Leeds employees into our new office at Globe Point – whilst our employees are working in a hybrid model resulting in a reduced footprint and lower costs, we are beginning to see a move towards a greater in-office component.

Given the continuing uncertainty in both our domestic markets and the global economy, we remain cautious about the outlook. Nonetheless, the actions taken to optimise our cost base, coupled with a strong new business pipeline in the UK and Australia and an expected strong recovery in Australia, are expected to underpin stronger profitability in the second half.

Enquiries:  

Jaywing plc 

Christopher Hughes (Finance Director / Company Secretary) Tel: 0333 370 6500

Cenkos Securities plc 

Nicholas Wells / Callum Davidson (Nominated Adviser) Tel: 0207 397 8920