21 January 2025
Christie Group
plc
("Christie Group" or the "Company")
Full Year Trading
Update
The Board of Christie Group plc
(CTG.L) advises that it now anticipates reporting an improved full
year operating profit for 2024, ahead of the £1.0m upper range
previously indicated in the Company's September trading
update.
As a result of a stronger than anticipated end to the year in its
Professional and Financial Services ("PFS") division, the Group now
expects to report an operating profit, before exceptional items,
for 2024 of more than £1.4m. Following on from a first-half
operating loss of £0.6m, this will equate to a H2 operating profit
before exceptional items of over £2.0m.
Operating profit before exceptional
items excludes profits realised on the disposal of Orridge Holdings
Limited, which was transacted and announced on 5th
November 2024.
Within its PFS division, the Group
saw particularly strong second-half performances from its agency
and advisory business, Christie & Co and its finance brokerage
business, Christie Finance. Christie & Co brokered the sale or
purchase of over 1,100 deals in the year across its sectors, while
Christie Finance delivered a 40% growth in revenues year-on-year
and a more than three-fold growth in profitability, as lending
activity into the Group's targeted sectors remained very robust.
Second-half operating losses from its international brokerage and
advisory operations were also significantly reduced in comparison
to H1.
Within its Stock and Inventory
Systems and Services division, the Group's hospitality stock audit
business, Venners, contributed a 14% growth in its own revenues,
and in doing so has more than doubled its previous year's operating
profit.
The Group ended the year with a
positive cash balance of £4.9m, following receipt of £4.0m proceeds
from the sale of Orridge Holdings Limited and the improved H2
trading performance.
All figures reported above remain
subject to audit.
Outlook
The Group began 2025 with its
transactional pipelines in its UK operations over 9% higher than
the same point a year earlier. The Board retains some caution
moving into 2025, given uncertainty about the impact of the
increased tax burden on our loyal customers and businesses in our
sectors, but underlying activity remains encouraging so
far.
The Group expects to issue final
audited results for 2024 in April 2025.
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 33 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 -
Venners and Vennersys.
Tracing its origins back to 1896,
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/.
