Personal Group Holdings PLC (LON:PGH) said it recently started its strategy to expand into new markets as it “substantially” expanded the pipeline of employees to whom it can sell products.
Chief executive Deborah Frost said in the full-year results that looking after the health and wellbeing of all employees, from key workers to small and medium enterprise (SME) employees, is high on the agenda for many UK managers, “and we have an excellent proposition to make this a reality”.
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"There is no doubt it has been a very challenging year, with the restrictions in 2020 impacting new insurance sales in 2020 and into 2021, but looking past this one-off headwind, we believe the business has entered the new year in a very strong position,” she said.
Last year, the provider of employee engagement services and products introduced new sales channels of virtual visits and telesales in the core insurance business, because it couldn’t visit clients in person due to Coronavirus (COVID-19).
It also secured new contracts with Royal Mail and post-period end with Kingfisher, together adding an extra 180,000 potential customers able to buy insurance products.
In addition, it launched Sage Employee Benefits, targeting the SME sector, and expanded its Public Sector customer base, signing contracts with 13 clients and being accepted onto six public sector frameworks.
Users on the Hapi benefit app jumped 15% to over 470,000 with over 175 organisations active on it.
As a result, the firm announced a dividend of 5.1p per share to be paid in May.
In the year to December 31, group revenue rose to £71.5mln from £70.9mln in 2019, while adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) dipped to £10.1mln from £11mln the year before because of limitations in insurance sales. Cash at year-end was £20.2mln with no debt.
Looking ahead, Personal Group is planning to double profit by widening its footprint into new industry sectors, which is expected to happen in the mid-term.
Following the integration of Let's Connect and Innecto, it’s looking for further acquisition opportunities that would fit its recurring revenue model, bring access to new clients and markets and propositions to post-pandemic fast-growth sectors.
In the short term, limited new insurance sales during 2020 and the current lockdown will impact insurance revenues in 2021 although Sage Employee Benefits is currently delivering in excess of £1m gross annualised recurring revenues.