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/