REG - Future PLC - 2025 Full Year Results
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RNS Number : 1632K Future PLC 04 December 2025
4 December 2025
FUTURE plc
2025 FULL YEAR RESULTS
Building the business for tomorrow whilst delivering on today
Future plc (LSE: FUTR, "Future", "the Group"), the global platform for
specialist media, today publishes its results for the year ended 30 September
2025.
Highlights
Financial results for the year ended 30 September 2025
Adjusted results¹ FY 2025 FY 2024 Reported variance Constant currency variance¹ Organic variance¹
Revenue (£m) 739.2 788.2 (6)% (4)% (3)%
Adjusted EBITDA (£m) 223.4 239.1 (7)% (5)% n/a
Adjusted operating profit (£m) 205.4 222.2 (8)% (6)% n/a
Adjusted operating profit margin (%) 28% 28% flat flat n/a
Adjusted diluted EPS (p) 123.0 123.9 (1)% n/a n/a
Adjusted free cash flow (£m) 177.0 222.3 (20)% n/a n/a
( )
Statutory results FY 2025 FY 2024 Reported variance
Revenue (£m) 739.2 788.2 (6)%
Operating profit (£m) 121.9 133.7 (9)%
Operating profit margin (%) 16% 17% (1)%
Profit before tax (£m) 91.9 103.2 (11)%
Diluted EPS (p) 62.1 66.8 (7)%
Cash generated from operations (£m) 188.3 230.0 (18)%
(1) The Glossary section of this document provides definitions of, and
reconciliations to, adjusted measures.
Key highlights
● Revenue was down (6)% year-on-year at £739.2m (FY 2024:
£788.2m), with (3)% organic decline combined with adverse foreign exchange
and previously announced business closures.
● Adjusted Operating Profit margin maintained at 28% (FY 2024: 28%)
balancing cost focus and investment.
● Adjusted diluted EPS only down (1)% supported by the execution of
share buyback programmes.
● Strong balance sheet with £276.4m net debt (FY 2024: £256.5m)
and leverage at 1.3x (FY 2024: 1.1x) reflecting £99.5m returned to
shareholders during the year.
● Further returns to shareholders with 5x increase to the dividend to
17.0p and new £30.0m share buyback programme announced today.
Kevin Li Ying, Future's Chief Executive, said:
"I am pleased to report a resilient performance in line with expectations,
delivered against a challenging macroeconomic environment. Our results are
underpinned by the strong financial characteristics our business is known
for, which enable us to announce a significant increase in our dividend by 5x
and to launch a new £30m share buyback programme.
As a data-first platform that monetises high audience engagement powered by
technology and enabled by our trusted specialist brands with authority. We are
focused on building the business of tomorrow by delivering strategic
initiatives designed to drive growth in what is a dynamic media
environment.
In the last few months we have launched a series of initiatives, with
encouraging early performance. These span areas including monetisation
through content creators, an evolution of our ecommerce proposition, and
driving even more direct engagement with
audiences.
In the age of AI, our trusted, authoritative and specialist brand content is
highly visible for audiences across Large Language Models, and we have
already started monetising our presence in this area. The opportunity is
significant.
Based on my over twenty years' experience at Future, I am more confident than
ever in the inherent value of our platform and proposition, and we are
focused on unlocking long-term value for our shareholders."
Financial & operational highlights
As reported at the HY 2025 results, the Group is now using the following
segments to review the performance of the Group: B2C, Go.Compare and B2B.
● Revenue was down (6)% year-on-year at £739.2m (FY 2024:
£788.2m), with (3)% organic decline combined with adverse foreign exchange
and previously announced business closures. Across the divisions:
○ B2C - the Group's largest division - organic revenue decline of
(2)% for the year. Revenue performance in Magazines was excellent with flat
revenue year-on-year in a declining market. This was offset by (4)% decline in
Media which continued to be impacted by macroeconomic uncertainty.
○ Go.Compare revenue declined (5)%, reflecting the anticipated
decline in car quote volumes given the heightened activity in FY 2024. We
continue to make good progress diversifying revenue sources, with non-car
revenue now representing 39% of revenue, +3ppt year-on-year.
○ B2B revenue continues to be challenging with a (9)% organic
decline. The decline was driven by tech enterprise, while other verticals such
as financial services and infrastructure verticals saw growth. The B2B team
has been focused on driving an improvement in performance and we saw an
encouraging reduction in the rate of decline in the last quarter.
● Adjusted operating profit margin was in line with last year at
28%. Our focus on costs and investments offset the reduction of revenue and
the impact of inflation. This resulted in an adjusted operating profit decline
of (8)% to £205.4m (FY 2024: £222.2m). Statutory operating profit was down
(9)% to £121.9m (FY 2024: £133.7m), reflecting adjusted operating profit
movement net of adjusting items.
● Adjusted diluted EPS was marginally lower, (1)%, than the prior
year. The positive benefit of the share buy-back programmes offsetting the
majority of the fall in adjusted operating profit.
● The Group remains highly cash generative with adjusted free cash
flow of £177.0m (FY 2024: £222.3m), representing 86% of adjusted operating
profit (FY 2024: 100%). Excluding one-off tax payments, prior year bonus
payment, conversion would have been +10ppt higher at 96%. Cash generated from
operations was £188.3m (FY 2024: £230.0m)
● Optimising our portfolio - ensuring we have the right portfolio of
assets is a continuous process.
○ We acquired RNWL in March 2025 for a £2.8m initial consideration.
RNWL will help us to build a more loyal, repeatable audience for Go.Compare
(see note 21).
○ We acquired Kwizly in May 2025 for £0.6m initial consideration
which provides audience engagement tools (see note 21).
○ During the year, we closed certain brands to focus the portfolio
for growth.
● £99.5m returned to shareholders during the period comprising
£95.8m through share buybacks (FY 2024: £67.0m) and dividends of £3.7m (FY
2024: £3.9m). On 1 October 2025, there was just under £30.0m remaining on
the £55m share buyback programme. We've announced today a new additional
share buyback programme of up to £30.0m and a 5x increase in the dividend to
17.0p.
● Leverage was slightly higher at 1.3x (FY 2024: 1.1x) with net debt
at the end of the year of £276.4m (FY 2024: £256.5m). Excluding one-off tax
payments and prior year bonus payment, leverage would have been at 1.2x. Total
available debt facilities at the end of September 2025 were £600.0m (FY 2024:
£650.0m).
Outlook
● The Group is expecting modest organic revenue growth in FY 2026, in
line with current consensus.
● The Group continues to expect to deliver a stable adjusted EBITDA
margin of around 30% supported by a more efficient operating model.
● Performance will be second half weighted as the strategic
initiatives and operating model changes will deliver in the second half of the
year.
● The Group expects an improvement in cash conversion to ~95%.
● In the medium term, we expect sustainable revenue growth of 2-4%.
Presentation
A live webcast of the analyst presentation will be available at 09.30 am (UK
time) today at:
https://stream.brrmedia.co.uk/broadcast/69047f76f5bfed00134aabf4
(https://stream.brrmedia.co.uk/broadcast/69047f76f5bfed00134aabf4)
A copy of the presentation will be available on our website at:
https://www.futureplc.com/investor-results/
(https://www.futureplc.com/investor-results/)
A recording of the webcast will also be made available.
The definitions below apply throughout the document.
1) A reconciliation of adjusted results to statutory measures is included in
the Glossary section at the end of this document.
2) Online sessions defined as the average monthly total daily sessions over
the financial period from Google Analytics.
Enquiries:
Future plc +44 (0)122 544 2244
Kevin Li Ying, Chief Executive Officer
Sharjeel Suleman, Chief Financial Officer
+44 (0)777 564 1509
Marion Le Bot, Head of Investor Relations
Media +44 (0)203 805 4822
Headland
Stephen Malthouse, Rob Walker
future@headlandconsultancy.com
About Future
We are the platform for creating and distributing trusted, specialist content,
to build engaged and valuable global communities. We operate ~175 brands in
diversified content verticals, with multiple market leading positions and
three core monetisation frameworks: advertising, eCommerce affiliate and
direct consumer monetisation (subscriptions and newstrade magazine sale). Our
content is published and distributed through a range of formats including
websites, email newsletters, videos, magazines and live events. The successful
execution of our strategy is focused on three pillars: grow engaged audience,
diversify and grow revenue per user and optimise the portfolio.
Chief Executive Officer's review
Future is a data-first platform that monetises high audience engagement
powered by technology and enabled by our trusted specialist brands with
authority.
We have over 175 brands, which we monetise by leveraging our tech stack in a
multitude of ways, and collecting data along the way which in turn is
valuable, making the platform a powerful value creation vehicle.
I want to address what is front of mind for our stakeholders, be it the impact
of AI on audiences and therefore revenue as well as a better understanding of
our strategic initiatives to drive growth and how we are leveraging our
platform. Future's financial strength regarding its ability to generate strong
margins and cash flow are well established; and what we are focused on
delivering is topline growth.
To be successful, we need to have a growth mindset to drive innovation, and
execute rigorously with agility: this is the Future DNA. These are not
buzzwords: these characteristics are the reason Future has succeeded at
reinventing itself throughout its 40-year history. They have enabled us to
lean into new opportunities and proactively get ahead of risks that the market
may present. In other words, we need to be bold, we need to take calculated
risks, and we need to be able to pivot with pace and agility to drive growth.
AI and audience
Amid all the noise about AI and its impact on the wider media sector, one
question we're asked most often is what's happening to our audience.
What we know is that having trusted brands and establishing a connection with
specialist audiences is becoming increasingly important, and this is not going
away with AI. Our audience strategy of diversification into email, direct,
social, also known as "Google-Zero", impacts all of our strategic initiatives.
Thanks to the scale and diversity of our audience, overall engagement has
remained steady. Website sessions are only 56% of our audience and of this
56%, only 27% is coming from Google Search, with other sources including
Google Discover and News, Social and Emails.
Furthermore, only 16% of our total revenue is impacted by website sessions
directly - a number I am convinced is lower than what many thought. So, with
that in mind, the AI risk is lower than most people assume.
More importantly, however, AI represents opportunities for us.
We are already starting to monetise our ability to make ourselves and our
clients visible on large language models (LLMs). Our brands have the scale and
authority to be influential in LLMs. As a new trend emerges of citations
growing increasingly concentrated and, in time, more important for businesses
on LLMs than on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), new opportunities are
opening for us. As such, we are standardising our approach, from audience to
editorial to sales playbook, and we will keep refining our go-to-market
strategy. To date, we have already secured contracts from major tech and
luxury groups.
Driving the platform effect
All great platforms have four common characteristics:
- They are connectors. We have ~175 brands with market leading
positions connecting our audience to its purpose;
- They are data-driven. This is where an exciting opportunity still
exists for us to do more. We have an immense amount of data: in fact, over 1
trillion data points in our data lake each month. We already use an extensive
amount of data to better inform our content decisions or to assess the
performance of ad campaigns. However, data in abundance is less valuable than
data with intelligence and insights. This value is disproportionate.
- They are scalable. This is about the scalability of our tech and
other back-office functions: meaning that back-office costs don't need to grow
in line with revenue and that our centres of excellence can be leveraged
across our brands and revenue streams.
- They deliver the platform effect - a network effect. The more we
drive initiatives and revenue, the more powerful and valuable the platform
becomes, creating a flywheel. It all starts with brands and content to reach
and pull in the audience. Next, we apply a growing set of innovative products
to further drive engagement, brand loyalty and clear value exchange with our
customers and clients. Finally, we monetise through diverse routes: from
newsstand, print and digital subscription down to email and display and video
advertising. Over time we are further diversifying our monetisation routes.
Alongside each moment, we capture more data, which in turn is used to perfect
our products and content and further drive monetisation.
Strategic initiatives
In September 2025, we hosted an investor webinar, where we presented our
12-month roadmap with 12 initiatives. We presented three initiatives Collab,
Signal and Future+ - these are only 10 weeks in or less but the green shoots
so far are encouraging:
Collab is about creating a network of content creators that use our platform
to publish and monetise their content using our tech stack. We can do this at
scale through a revenue share model. We have launched it across four verticals
and seven brands, partnering with over 50 content creators, driving 3x the
social traffic and incremental ecom revenue on top of digital advertising
revenue.
Signal is our ecommerce 2.0 proposition to diversify both our ecommerce
proposition in this ever-changing landscape and tap into a new customer base
by entering new distribution points like Social Platform. Signal has produced
over 160 curated collections, translating into over 0.9m unique page views.
Additionally, we have doubled our social and email traffic compared to
traditional content.
Future+, the embodiment of our Google-Zero strategy, is driving engagement
directly with our audiences through a range of tools and features. Future+ has
been launched on three brands, driving 67k new members for whom the sessions
are at least 4x longer than unknown users i.e. driving more revenue - and,
further added value comes from the additional insightful, first-party data
into our data lake.
I have showcased our Audience AI initiative and how we are driving new revenue
streams from AI visibility in LLMs through direct advertising in the AI
section above and will showcase two additional ones: Renewal, our price
comparison membership proposition and the efficiency of our operating model.
Renewal
In March 2025, we bought Renewal (previously known as RNWL), an insurance
wallet app. This has enabled us to fast-track capex to build our membership
proposition for price comparison with the aim to improve the consumer funnel
(acquisition, conversion, retention) by being the "Best place for consumers to
manage and save costs on household-related products".
We will relaunch the app in January to drive growth at Go.Compare, beyond
market growth, through attracting new consumers with an engaging, value-added
app, open to all (not restricted to Go.Compare customers). This will improve
our marketing effectiveness by encouraging Renewal users to use Go.Compare,
driving cross-selling opportunities. Additionally, Renewal will enhance our
rich first-party data lake which can be leveraged across the Group, in turn
making our data and users more valuable.
A more efficient operating model
Innovation is transforming the way we do things, and we are leaning into this
to drive productivity and efficiency gains. This Group-wide programme is about
creating efficiency and sustainability on our value chain and business model.
We are doing this by re-thinking and streamlining our processes and structures
using AI tools to drive automation. This will result in £20.0m annualised
efficiency savings by FY 2028 and we are maintaining our EBITDA margin
guidance range of 30-32%.
Portfolio review and capital allocation
Optimising our portfolio is a continuous process driving focus and
accountability to ensure execution of our strategy. We continuously assess our
assets to ensure they are strategic, poised for growth and/or cash generative.
During the year, we closed certain brands that did not meet these criteria.
The Board will continue to keenly appraise performance with its responsibility
to accelerate value creation across the Group's business units.
The Group continues to have strong financial characteristics of high margins
and strong cash generation. Adjusted free cash flow conversion of 86%
represented £188.3m cash generated from operations, impacted by one-off tax
payment and the impact of the payment of the prior year bonus. Our five pillar
capital allocation framework was applied to optimise value creation:
1. Investment for organic growth: being an asset light business, our
capex in the year was £16.9m or 2% of revenue (FY 2024: £13.9m or 2% of
revenue). Going forward, we expect this to move to ~3% of revenue to drive our
strategic initiative roadmap.
2. Bolt on M&A: in the year, we acquired RNWL, an insurance
wallet, for an initial consideration of £2.8m and a potential further
earn-out subject to performance to accelerate our focus on customers' loyalty
in Go.Compare. We will continue to execute on bolt-ons at the right price to
accelerate growth. We also acquired, in May 2025, Kwizly for £0.6m initial
consideration which provides audience engagement tools (note 21).
3. Strategic M&A: this pillar is currently not a priority but we
will continue to remain opportunistic.
4. Dividends: in FY 2025, we paid a dividend of £3.7m in February (FY
2024: £3.9m). Today, the Board is announcing a 5x increase in our annual
dividend to 17.0p per share. The announcement signals to investors our
confidence in the future growth of the Group - both in earnings and cash to be
able to sustain the dividend as well as retaining full flexibility to allocate
capital to the other capital allocation options.
5. Share buybacks: during the year, we spent £95.8m and have
announced a new share buyback for up to £30.0m to commence as soon as the
current programme is completed which is expected imminently. This is to ensure
that, as announced at our FY 2024 results, the Group will return excess free
cash to shareholders such that the Group maintains a minimum leverage of 1x.
Fostering a healthy culture
I strongly believe that people are a key differentiator in our markets: they
are driving innovation, they are focused on execution at pace, they thrive on
change, they are the ones building for tomorrow whilst delivering on today. We
are transforming Future to create a sustainable, growing business. These
characteristics are essential for us, as a team, to succeed: I am very proud
to be leading this incredible organisation. I want to personally thank our
colleagues for their hard work during a year of constant change and
adaptation.
As a responsible business everything we do is underpinned by our purpose and
values which fosters an aligned culture across the organisation and looks to
ensure we create value for all stakeholders. We are extremely fortunate that
our brands give us the platform and opportunities to influence and inspire
people across the globe to encourage positive change.
Outlook
● The Group is expecting modest organic revenue growth in FY 2026, in
line with current consensus.
● The Group continues to expect to deliver a stable adjusted EBITDA
margin of around 30% supported by a more efficient operating model.
● Performance will be second half weighted as the strategic
initiatives and operating model changes will deliver in the second half of the
year.
● The Group expects an improvement in cash conversion to ~95%.
● In the medium term, we expect sustainable revenue growth of 2-4%.
Financial summary
The financial summary is based primarily on a comparison of results for the
year ended 30 September 2025 with those for the year ended 30 September 2024.
FY 2025 FY 2024
£m £m
Revenue 739.2 788.2
Adjusted EBITDA 223.4 239.1
Adjusted operating profit 205.4 222.2
Operating profit 121.9 133.7
Profit before tax 91.9 103.2
Basic earnings per share (p) 62.7 67.2
Diluted earnings per share (p) 62.1 66.8
Adjusted basic earnings per share (p) 124.2 124.6
Adjusted diluted earnings per share (p) 123.0 123.9
( )
The Directors believe that adjusted results provide additional useful
information on the core operational performance of the Group and review the
results on an adjusted basis internally. Refer to the Glossary section at the
end of this document for a reconciliation between adjusted and statutory
results.
Revenue
Revenue movement(1)
FY 2025
vs
FY 2024
%
Organic decline (3)%
Impact of acquisitions and disposals (1)%
Year-on-year decline at constant rate (4)%
Impact of foreign exchange (2)%
Reported revenue change (6)%
(1) The Glossary section of this document provides definitions of, and
reconciliations to, adjusted measures.
Group revenue was down (6)% year-on-year at actual currency, with a (3)%
organic decline combined with the previously announced closures of brands and
adverse foreign exchange.
The Group is organised and arranged primarily by reportable segment. From 1
October 2024, the Executive Directors consider the performance of the business
from a divisional perspective of B2C, Go.Compare and B2B. Historically, the
performance of the business was considered on a geographic basis. The Group
also uses a sub-segment split of Media (websites and events) and Magazines for
further analysis.
FY 2025 FY 2024 Reported Organic
£m £m YoY var YoY var
B2C 493.4 523.1 (6)% (2)%
Go.Compare 191.8 202.7 (5)% (5)%
B2B 54.0 62.4 (13)% (9)%
TOTAL REVENUE 739.2 788.2 (6)% (3)%
B2C revenue
FY 2025 FY 2024 Reported Organic
£m £m YoY var YoY var
US digital advertising 96.8 102.8 (6)% (2)%
UK digital advertising 44.6 52.0 (14)% (8)%
Digital advertising 141.4 154.8 (9)% (4)%
eCommerce affiliates 76.7 83.9 (9)% (6)%
Other Media 28.1 28.7 (2)% +2%
MEDIA 246.2 267.4 (8)% (4)%
Subscriptions 122.2 129.0 (5)% (2)%
Other Magazines 125.0 126.7 (1)% +2%
MAGAZINES 247.2 255.7 (3)% flat
B2C REVENUE 493.4 523.1 (6)% (2)%
Reported revenue for B2C was down (6)%, impacted by foreign exchange and
closures. Organic revenue was down (2)% during the year reflecting mixed
performance.
Media
Media organic revenue was down (4)% in the year with a challenging
macroeconomic backdrop, impacting affiliates and total digital advertising
despite direct advertising being in growth in H2 in both the US and the UK.
Sessions(2) of 317m (FY 2024: 353m) declined (10)%, with growth in women's and
wealth not being able to offset decline in other verticals. However, the
correlation between sessions and revenue is decreasing, driven by our
strategic focus on driving direct advertising which is less dependent on
audience. During the year, we saw +3ppt of ads revenue move into direct from
programmatic. As a result, our yields grew +8% year on year.
UK Digital advertising market remained challenging, down (8)% on an organic
basis, a significant improvement on the first half and returning to growth in
Q4 (+5%).
In the US, digital advertising organic revenues were down (2)% with an
improvement in H2 to +1% growth. This includes +6% growth in direct
advertising during the year, a key strategic objective of the Group, despite
ongoing volatility.
Affiliates' good H1 performance reversed in H2 with overall revenue (6)% down
for the full year, despite continued growth in vouchers. The performance was
mainly driven by the audience decline.
Magazines recorded an excellent performance. Magazines represent 50% of the
B2C division and, as an industry, is in secular decline. During the year,
organic Magazines revenue performance was flat. This is the strongest
performance from Magazines since COVID, and is a result of an improvement in
our subscription business combined with growth in premium print titles and the
Rolex book.
Subscription organic revenue was only down (2)% in the period, testament of
the work and investment to drive stabilisation in this revenue stream with
growth in key titles such as The Week Junior.
Other magazines (print advertising and newstrade) organic revenue grew +2% in
the period driven by a premium book for Rolex combined with better underlying
performance for both weekly and premium titles.
Go.Compare revenue
FY 2025 FY 2024 Reported Organic
£m £m YoY var YoY var
Car insurance 117.6 130.1 (10)% (10)%
Non-car insurance 74.2 72.6 +2% +3%
GO.COMPARE REVENUE 191.8 202.7 (5)% (5)%
Revenue for our price comparison business Go.Compare declined (5)%, both
reported and organically, reflecting the strength of the prior-year. Looking
at the performance over a two-year period, revenue grew by +10% CAGR.
Car insurance revenue declined by (10)% in the year against strong
comparators. The car performance was impacted by lower quote volumes driven by
the market partially offset by improved conversion driven by continued focus
on improving consumer journey.
Non-car insurance revenue grew by +3% in the year, reflecting the strategic
focus to grow non-car categories which now represent 39% of Go.Compare
revenue, up +3ppt year-on-year.
B2B revenue
FY 2025 FY 2024 Reported Organic
£m £m YoY var YoY var
Digital advertising (Newsletters) 32.0 36.3 (12)% (9)%
Affiliates (Lead gen & webinars) & Other Media (Events) & 22.0 26.1 (16)% (10)%
Magazines
B2B REVENUE 54.0 62.4 (13)% (9)%
B2B performance remained challenging with (13)% reported revenue decline and
(9)% organic. The performance was impacted by challenging end-market dynamics.
Digital advertising organic revenue was down (9)% in the year with mixed
performance across verticals with growth in education and financial services
offset by decline in healthcare, food and travel.
The (10)% organic decline in other revenue is largely driven by the continued
challenging backdrop in enterprise tech. The team is executing on plans to
turnaround the performance in B2B.
Operating costs
Cost of sales including distribution costs were down 11% year-on-year. The
decline was driven by revenue combined with a change in revenue mix with the
reduction in Go.Compare revenue, combined with better rates in Magazines cost
of sales. See note 3 for further details.
Other costs are down 3% during the year reflecting the annualisation of the
investment in certain areas combined with annual pay rise which increased
salary and wages costs, the impact of which abated in H2, as planned. These
cost increases have been offset by lower TV marketing spend combined with the
benefit of an incremental year of R&D tax credits.
Operating profit
Adjusted operating profit decreased £16.8m to £205.4m (FY 2024: 222.2m)
driven by the impact of revenue decline whilst adjusted operating profit
margin has remained stable at 28% (FY 2024: 28%), despite annualisation of
some investment combined with inflationary pressures within wages, the largest
cost. This is a testament to the strength of the Group to focus on investment
that drives returns as well as continuous review to remove inefficient spend.
The diversified revenue and strong financial characteristics of the Group,
even in a challenging macroeconomic environment, have provided clear benefits.
Statutory operating profit decreased by £11.8m to £121.9m (FY 2024:
£133.7m), primarily driven by adjusted operating profit performance.
Statutory operating margin declined marginally to 16% (FY 2024: 17%),
reflecting adjusted operating profit movement net of adjusting items.
Earnings per share
FY 2025 FY 2024
Basic earnings per share (p) 62.7 67.2
Adjusted basic earnings per share (p) 124.2 124.6
Diluted earnings per share (p) 62.1 66.8
Adjusted diluted basic earnings per share (p) 123.0 123.9
Basic earnings per share is calculated using the weighted average number of
ordinary shares in issue during the period of 105.8m (FY 2024: 114.4m), the
decrease reflecting the share buyback programmes.
The Glossary section at the end of this document provides the definition of
adjusted earnings per share and a reconciliation to reported earnings per
share.
Transaction and integration related costs
Transaction and integration related costs of £7.2m incurred in the year
reflect £1.6m of post-integration IT system costs and associated fees, and
£0.9m of transaction related legal fees. £2.4m relates to professional fees
to support portfolio optimisation across the Group's divisions, of which
£0.7m relates to rationalisation of previously acquired subsidiaries. A
charge of £2.3m has been provided for historic sales taxes arising from a
post integration tax compliance review.
Exceptional items
The Group performed a strategic optimisation review and identified Mozo Pty
Ltd, an Australian price comparison subsidiary acquired in 2021, having been
impacted by macroeconomic challenges, and being sub-scale in its market, was
no longer contributing to the overall strategy of the Group. An impairment
charge related to goodwill and acquired intangible assets of £15.2m is
recognised in exceptional costs. Mozo formed part of the B2C cash generating
unit.
Exceptional items also include £2.7m relating to redundancy costs in line
with our ongoing group wide programme to create an efficient and sustainable
operating model targeting £20.0m savings per annum by FY 2028 and a £0.4m
credit relating to properties which became onerous and were treated as
exceptional in prior years.
Other adjusting items
Other adjusting items include amortisation of acquired intangibles of £53.3m
(FY 2024: £66.7m), the decrease is due to £11.0m accelerated amortisation in
the prior period for brand and customer list intangible assets relating to
Look After My Bills ('LAMB'), arising with the Go.Compare acquisition,
following the cessation of active management of the LAMB business in FY 2024.
Share-based payment expenses relating to equity-settled share awards with
vesting periods longer than twelve months, together with associated social
security costs, decreased by £3.4m to £5.5m (FY 2024: £8.9m), partly due to
the lapsing of former CEO's awards. Share based payment expenses are excluded
from the adjusted results of the Group as the Directors believe they are
significant and result in a level of charge that would distort the user's view
of the core trading performance of the Group, and include the historical
one-off all-employee Value Creation Plan scheme where a charge is booked
irrespective of the likelihood of achieving the vesting targets.
Net finance costs and refinancing
At 30 September 2025, 48.3% (£290.0m of £600.0m) of the Group's facilities
remained undrawn (30 September 2024: 53.8% (£350.0m of £650.0m) undrawn).
Net finance costs decreased to £28.8m (FY 2024: £29.8m) which includes net
external interest payable of £24.7m (FY 2024: £25.9m) reflecting the
reduction in the Group's debt and £4.1m (FY 2024: £3.9m) in respect of the
amortisation of arrangement fees relating to the Group's bank facilities. A
further £1.5m (FY 2024: £1.7m) of net interest was recognised in relation to
lease liabilities and £0.3m (FY 2024: £0.2m) in respect of the unwinding of
deferred/contingent consideration.
The Group refinanced its entire capital structure during the year. The
previous RCF of £350.0m, maturing July 2026, was refinanced with a £300.0m
RCF, maturing May 2029, with two, 1-year extension options subject to lender
consent.
The Group's £300.0m Export Development Guarantee Facility, maturing November
2027, was refinanced with a £300.0m 5-year non-call 2 ("5NC2") senior
unsecured bond. The instrument carries a fixed coupon of 6.75% per annum,
payable semi-annually in arrears, and matures in July 2030. The bond is
callable at the issuer's option after the second anniversary of issuance
,according to the following schedule:
Year 3: Redeemable at par plus 50 % of the annual coupon,
Year 4: Redeemable at par plus 25 % of the annual coupon, and
Year 5: Redeemable at par.
This stepped call structure provides flexibility for the Group to optimise its
capital structure. The new facilities significantly extend the maturity of
the Groups debt.
Following the issuance of the Group's 5NC2 senior unsecured bond, as at 30
September 2025, 98% (FY 2024: 100%) of the Group's drawn debt was fixed at an
average rate of 6.73% (FY 2024: 6.39%).
Taxation
The tax charge for the year amounted to £25.6m (FY 2024: £26.4m), comprising
a current tax charge of £32.5m (FY 2024: £37.9m) and a deferred tax credit
of £6.9m (FY 2024: £11.5m).
The current tax charge arises in the UK where the standard rate of corporation
tax in FY 2025 is 25% and in the US where the Group pays a blended Federal and
State tax rate of 28%.
The Group's FY 2025 adjusted effective tax rate was 25.3% (FY 2024: 25.7%).
The Glossary section at the end of this document provides a reconciliation
between the Group's adjusted effective tax charge and statutory effective tax
charge.
The Group's effective tax rate, inclusive of adjustments in respect of
previous years, has increased to 27.8% (FY 2024: 25.6%). The Group tax charge
includes the impact of the impairment of goodwill and intangibles and other
non-deductible items offset by movements in uncertain tax liabilities and
prior year adjustments.
The Group has assessed the impact of the enacted or substantively enacted
Pillar Two legislation in the jurisdictions in which the Group operates. Based
on this assessment, there is no impact of the Pillar Two legislation on the
Group.
Balance sheet
Property, plant and equipment decreased by £3.3m to £29.5m in the period
(30 September 2024: £32.8m) primarily reflecting depreciation of £6.9m,
offset by capital expenditure of £3.6m.
Intangible assets decreased by £60.0m to £1,453.7m (FY 2024: £1,513.7m)
driven by amortisation charge £64.4m and an impairment of goodwill and
acquired intangibles of £15.2m offset by the capitalisation of website
development costs £12.9m and £9.3m intangible assets acquired through the
acquisition of RNWL and Kwizly.
At 30 September 2025, the Group had net current liabilities of £6.6m (FY
2024: £70.3m).
Total current assets decreased by £9.2m to £149.5m (FY 2024: £158.7m), led
by trade and other receivables reducing by £10.2m to £105.1m (FY 2024:
£115.3m) due to lower revenue.
Total current liabilities decreased by £72.9m to £156.1m (FY 2024: £229.0m)
of which: trade and other payables reduced £29.3m primarily due to a £11.5m
one-off VAT liability which was settled during the year and £4.2m reduction
in bonus accrual. Deferred income reduced by £3.8m relating to recurring
subscriptions. Financial liabilities movement included a reduction in interest
bearing loans and borrowings by £20.0m as the bond refinancing secured in
July 2025 provided a break in short term debt repayments. Other financial
liabilities reduced by £12.2m due to the change in terms of the share buyback
programme resulting in a liability of nil at 30 September 2025 (FY 2024:
£12.2m). Finally a reduction in corporation tax payable and lease liabilities
primarily explains the remaining £7.6m reduction.
Total non-current liabilities increased by £20.9m to £438.2m (FY 2024:
£417.3m) principally from the debt refinancing secured in June 2025.
Cash flow and net debt excluding lease liability
The Group remains highly cash generative, a consistent feature of the Group,
with cash inflow from operations of £188.3m (FY 2024: £230.0m) reflecting
continued strong cash generation. Adjusted operating cash was £193.2m (FY
2024: £236.2m). A reconciliation of cash generated from operations to
adjusted free cash flow is included in the Glossary section at the end of this
document.
The Group delivered adjusted free cash flow conversion of 86% and is
forecast to generate sufficient cash flows to meet its liabilities as they
fall due. Excluding one-off items (a one-off VAT payment and the payment of
the prior year bonus), the underlying adjusted free cash flow conversion would
have been 96%.
After expenditure on property, plant and equipment and website development
costs and returning £99.5m (FY 2024: £67.0m) to shareholders in the period
through share buyback programmes and annual dividend, leverage is stable at
1.3x (FY 2024: 1.1x) and net debt excluding lease liability has increased to
£276.4m (FY 2024: £256.5m).
Other significant movements in cash flows include purchase of shares into
Trust of £7.0m (FY 2024: nil), lease payments of £6.2m (FY 2024: £6.9m),
and net inflow of refinancing which occurred during the year of £10.0m (FY
2024: net outflow due to repayment of debt of £93.0m) offset by bank
arrangement fees of £6.3m. Foreign exchange and other movements accounted for
the balance of cash flows.
Going concern
The going concern of the Group has been assessed, taking into account the
Group's strong financial position, including external funding in place over
the assessment period, of over 12 months from the date of this report, and
after modelling the impact of certain scenarios arising from the principal
risks in line with forecast, which have the greatest potential impact on going
concern in that period. The Group was in a net current liabilities position as
detailed in the balance sheet section above, but has significant adequate cash
flow to meet its obligations.
Whilst each of the principal risks has a potential impact and has been
considered as part of the assessment, only those that represent severe but
plausible scenarios were selected for modelling. The scenarios have been
modelled using the Group's existing £300.0m RCF, which was refinanced during
the 2025 financial year and does not expire until after the viability period,
and the £300.0m Sterling bond (2030 end date).
The scenarios are hypothetical and purposefully severe with the aim of
creating outcomes that have the ability to threaten the going concern of the
Group. The Group has multiple control measures in place to prevent and
mitigate the scenarios from taking place.
Although the downside scenarios result in increased leverage, the Group
maintains headroom over the existing bank facilities and covenants at all
testing points. The results of the above stress testing showed that the Group
would be able to withstand the impact of these scenarios occurring over the
assessment period.
The exercise undertaken indicates that the Group is extremely diversified and
very resilient to a number of extreme but plausible downside scenarios.
The scenario modelling does not account for various mitigating actions the
Board could undertake to offset the impacts of such a reduction in cashflow,
such as reducing operational and capital expenditure, a disposal of part of
the portfolio, reduction or removal of dividend payments or the postponement
of share buyback schemes.
Based on the severe but plausible scenarios, the Directors have a reasonable
expectation that the Company will continue in operation and meet its
liabilities as they fall due over the period considered. For this reason, the
Directors continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the
consolidated financial statements for the FY 2025 results.
Consolidated income statement
for the year ended 30 September 2025
Note 2024
2025 £m
£m
Revenue 1, 2 739.2 788.2
Net operating expenses 3 (617.3) (654.5)
Operating profit 121.9 133.7
Finance income 6 0.7 1.3
Finance costs 6 (30.7) (31.8)
Net finance costs (30.0) (30.5)
Profit before tax 91.9 103.2
Tax charge 7 (25.6) (26.4)
Profit for the year attributable to owners of the parent 66.3 76.8
Earnings per Ordinary share
Note 2024
2025 pence
pence
Basic earnings per share 9 62.7 67.2
Diluted earnings per share 9 62.1 66.8
Consolidated statement of comprehensive income
for the year ended 30 September 2025
Note 2024
2025 £m
£m
Profit for the year attributable to owners of the parent 66.3 76.8
Items that may be reclassified to the consolidated income statement:
Currency translation differences (0.9) (52.7)
Loss) on cash flow hedge (net of tax) - (4.4)
Other comprehensive expense for the year (0.9) (57.1)
Total comprehensive income for the year attributable to owners of the parent 65.4 19.7
Consolidated statement of changes in equity
for the year ended 30 September 2025
Note Issued share capital Share premium Capital redemption reserve Merger reserve Treasury reserve Cash flow hedge reserve Accumulated exchange differences Retained earnings Total equity
£m £m £m £m £m £m £m £m £m
Balance at 30 September 2023 17.8 197.0 0.3 581.9 (15.3) 4.4 27.8 300.8 1,114.7
Profit for the year - - - - - - - 76.8 76.8
Currency translation differences - - - - - - (52.7) - (52.7)
Loss on cash flow hedge - - - - - (5.9) - - (5.9)
Deferred tax on loss on cash flow hedge - - - - - 1.5 - - 1.5
Other comprehensive expense for the year - - - - - (4.4) (52.7) - (57.1)
Total comprehensive income/(expense) for the year - - - - - (4.4) (52.7) 76.8 19.7
Acquisition of own shares 16 (1.0) - 1.0 - - - - (76.7) (76.7)
Merger reserve reduction 17 - - - (472.9) - - - 472.9 -
Share premium reduction 17 - (197.0) - - - - - 197.0 -
Share schemes:
- Issue of treasury shares to employees - - - - 4.4 - - (4.4) -
- Share-based payments - - - - - - - 8.3 8.3
- Current tax on options - - - - - - - (0.5) (0.5)
- Deferred tax on options - - - - - - - 0.1 0.1
Dividends paid to shareholders 8 - - - - - - - (3.9) (3.9)
Balance at 30 September 2024 16.8 - 1.3 109.0 (10.9) - (24.9) 970.4 1,061.7
Profit for the year - - - - - - - 66.3 66.3
Currency translation differences - - - - - - (0.9) - (0.9)
Other comprehensive expense for the year - - - - - - (0.9) - (0.9)
Total comprehensive income/(expense) for the year - - - - - - (0.9) 66.3 65.4
Acquisition of own shares 16 (1.8) - 1.8 - (7.0) - - (83.5) (90.5)
Share schemes:
- Issue of treasury shares to employees - - - - 7.4 - - (7.4) -
- Share-based payments - - - - - - - 5.5 5.5
- Current tax on share options - - - - - - - (0.1) (0.1)
- Deferred tax on share options - - - - - - - 0.5 0.5
Dividends paid to shareholders 8 - - - - - - - (3.7) (3.7)
Balance at 30 September 2025 15.0 - 3.1 109.0 (10.5) - (25.8) 948.0 1,038.8
Consolidated balance sheet
As at 30 September 2025
Note 2025 2024
£m £m
Assets
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment 29.5 32.8
Intangible assets - goodwill 10 1,000.4 1,011.7
Intangible assets - other 10 453.3 502.0
Financial asset - derivative - 1.4
Deferred tax 0.4 1.4
Total non-current assets 1,483.6 1,549.3
Current assets
Inventories 1.3 0.4
Corporation tax recoverable 11.9 1.3
Trade and other receivables 105.1 115.3
Cash and cash equivalents 11 27.6 39.7
Finance lease receivables 3.6 2.0
Total current assets 149.5 158.7
Total assets 1,633.1 1,708.0
Equity and liabilities
Equity
Issued share capital 16 15.0 16.8
Capital redemption reserve 17 3.1 1.3
Merger reserve 17 109.0 109.0
Treasury reserve 17 (10.5) (10.9)
Accumulated exchange differences 17 (25.8) (24.9)
Retained earnings 948.0 970.4
Total equity 1,038.8 1,061.7
Non-current liabilities
Financial liabilities - interest-bearing loans and borrowings 304.0 276.2
Lease liability due in more than one year 27.7 29.8
Corporation tax payable 0.1 -
Deferred tax 88.4 94.9
Provisions 14 3.3 4.7
Contract liabilities 10.1 10.3
Contingent consideration 18 4.6 -
Financial liability - derivative - 1.4
Total non-current liabilities 438.2 417.3
Current liabilities
Financial liabilities - interest-bearing loans and borrowings - 20.0
Trade and other payables 92.4 121.7
Deferred income 56.4 60.2
Provisions 14 1.7 -
Corporation tax payable - 6.5
Lease liability due within one year 5.6 8.4
Other financial liability - 12.2
Total current liabilities 156.1 229.0
Total liabilities 594.3 646.3
Total equity and liabilities 1,633.1 1,708.0
Consolidated cash flow statement
for the year ended 30 September 2025
2025 2024
£m £m
Cash flows from operating activities
Cash generated from operations 188.3 230.0
Interest paid on bank facilities (27.2) (26.0)
Interest received 0.6 1.2
Interest paid on lease liabilities (1.5) (1.7)
Tax paid (42.9) (33.7)
Net cash generated from operating activities 117.3 169.8
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (3.3) (2.8)
Additions to computer software and website development (12.9) (11.1)
Purchase of subsidiary undertakings, net of cash acquired (3.4) (7.9)
Net cash used in investing activities (19.6) (21.8)
Cash flows from financing activities
Acquisition of own shares (102.8) (63.1)
Drawdown of bank loans 345.0 140.0
Repayment of bank loans (335.0) (233.0)
Bank arrangement fees (6.3) -
Repayment of principal element of lease liabilities (6.2) (6.9)
Dividends paid (3.7) (3.9)
Net cash used in financing activities (109.0) (166.9)
Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (11.3) (18.9)
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 39.7 60.3
Effects of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (0.8) (1.7)
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year 27.6 39.7
Notes to the consolidated cash flow statement
for the year ended 30 September 2025
A. Cash generated from operations
The reconciliation of profit for the year to cash generated from operations is
set out below:
2025 2024
£m £m
Profit for the year 66.3 76.8
Adjustments for:
Depreciation 6.9 6.5
Impairment charge on tangible and intangible assets 15.2 4.7
Amortisation of intangible assets 64.4 77.1
Share-based payments 5.5 8.3
Net finance costs 30.0 30.5
Tax charge 25.6 26.4
Cash generated from operations before changes in working capital and 213.9 230.3
provisions
Increase/(decrease) in provisions 0.3 (2.8)
(Increase)/decrease in inventories (0.9) 0.9
Decrease in trade and other receivables 5.7 6.2
Decrease in trade and other payables (30.7) (4.6)
Cash generated from operations 188.3 230.0
Material accounting policy information
Compliance statement and basis of preparation
Future plc (the Company) is incorporated and registered in England and Wales
and is a public company limited by shares. The financial statements
consolidate those of Future plc and its subsidiaries (the Group).
The Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with
international accounting standards in conformity with the requirements of the
Companies Act 2006 and UK adopted International Financial Reporting Standards
('IFRS'). The principal accounting policies have been applied consistently to
all years presented, unless otherwise stated below. These financial statements
have been prepared under the historical cost convention, except for contingent
and deferred consideration and financial instruments, which are measured at
fair value.
The going concern basis has been adopted in preparing these financial
statements.
Status of this preliminary announcement
The financial information contained in this audited preliminary announcement
does not constitute the Company's statutory accounts for the years ended 30
September 2025 or 2024. Statutory accounts for 2024, which were prepared in
conformity with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and UK adopted
IFRS, have been delivered to the registrar of companies, and those for 2025
will be delivered in due course. Full financial statements for the year ended
30 September 2025 will shortly be posted to shareholders.
New or revised accounting standards and interpretations adopted in the year
The following amendments to existing standards became effective in the year:
− IAS 1 Amendments regarding the classification of liabilities,
and Amendment regarding the classification of debt with covenants;
− IAS 7 Amendments regarding presentation of the Statement of Cash
Flows;
− IFRS 7 Amendments regarding supplier financial arrangements; and
− IFRS 16 Amendments to clarify how a seller-lessee subsequently
measures sale and leaseback transactions;
There has been no material impact from the adoption of new standards,
amendments to standards or interpretations which are relevant to the Group.
New accounting standards, amendments and interpretations that are issued but
not yet applied by the Group
The Directors have considered the impact on the Group of new and revised
accounting standards, interpretations or amendments that are effective on or
after 1 October 2025 and which the Group has chosen not to adopt early. The
following standards are relevant to the Group:
− IAS 21 Amendments regarding Lack of Exchangability
The Group does not expect amendments to IAS 21 to have a material impact on
results or net assets.
− IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements
This new accounting standard is effective for the year ending 30 September
2028 and will involve a change to the structure of the primary financial
statements. This requires entities to classify income and expenses into five
categories - operating, investing, financing, income tax and discontinued
operations. In addition, certain "non-GAAP" measures, as disclosed in the
Glossary, will now form part of the audited financial statements, and require
mandatory definitions and reconciliation to GAAP measures.
The Group is presently reviewing the impact of this standard which is expected
to structurally change the presentation of the income statement.
Notes
1. Segmental reporting
The Group is organised and arranged primarily by reportable segments. From 1
October 2024, the Executive Directors consider the performance of the business
from a divisional perspective of B2C, Go.Compare and B2B. Historically, the
performance of the business
was considered on a geographic basis. The comparative figures have been
restated to reflect the new divisional segments. The Group also uses a
sub-segment split of Media (websites and events) and Magazines for further
analysis. The Group considers that the assets within each division are exposed
to the same risks.
(i) Segment revenue
Sub-segment 2025 Sub-segment Restated
2024
Segment Media Magazines Total Media Magazines Total
£m £m £m £m £m £m
B2C 246.2 247.2 493.4 267.4 255.7 523.1
Go.Compare 191.8 - 191.8 202.7 - 202.7
B2B 50.3 3.7 54.0 58.4 4.0 62.4
Total 488.3 250.9 739.2 528.5 259.7 788.2
Transactions between segments are carried out at arm's length.
No end-customer, or other single customer or group of customers under common
control contributed 10% or more to the Group's revenue in either the current
or prior year.
(ii) Segment adjusted EBITDA:
Adjusted EBITDA is used by Executive Directors to assess the performance of
each segment.
Segment 2025 Restated
£m 2024
£m
B2C 128.5 138.4
Go.Compare 80.4 84.0
B2B 14.5 16.7
Total 223.4 239.1
(iii) Segment adjusted operating profit:
Adjusted operating profit is used by the Executive Directors to assess the
performance of each segment. Operating profit for the Media and Magazines
sub-segments is not reported internally, as overheads are not fully allocated
on this basis. The table below shows the adjusted operating profit for the
segments:
Segment 2025 Restated
£m 2024
£m
B2C 113.3 123.8
Go.Compare 77.6 81.6
B2B 14.5 16.8
Total 205.4 222.2
2. Revenue
The table below disaggregates revenue according to the timing of satisfaction
of performance obligations:
2025 2024
£m £m
Over Point in Total Over Point in Total
time time revenue time time revenue
Total revenue 8.1 731.1 739.2 15.1 773.1 788.2
The table below disaggregates revenue according to segment with a breakdown of
revenue by type within each segment. Comparative figures have been restated to
reflect the new divisional split.
2025 Restated
£m 2024
£m
B2C
Digital advertising 141.4 154.8
eCommerce affiliates 76.7 83.9
Other Media 28.1 28.7
Media 246.2 267.4
Subscriptions 122.2 129.0
Other Magazines 125.0 126.7
Magazines 247.2 255.7
Total B2C 493.4 523.1
Go.Compare
Car insurance 117.6 130.1
Non-car insurance 74.2 72.6
Total Go.Compare 191.8 202.7
B2B
Digital advertising (Newsletters) 32.0 36.3
Affiliates & Other Media, Magazines 22.0 26.1
Total B2B 54.0 62.4
Total Revenue 739.2 788.2
3. Net operating expenses
Operating profit is stated after charging:
Note 2025
£m 2024
£m
Cost of sales (410.2) (433.8)
Distribution expenses (36.2) (37.8)
Share-based payments (including social security costs) (5.5) (8.9)
Exceptional items 4 (17.5) (7.0)
Depreciation (6.9) (6.5)
Amortisation 10 (64.4) (77.1)
Other administration expenses (80.7) (83.4)
RDEC income 4.1 -
Operating expenses (617.3) (654.5)
Other administration expenses include transaction and integration related
costs of £7.2m (2024: £5.9m). Details of these costs are provided in the
Glossary section.
The Group has recognised a credit under the Research and Development
Expenditure Credit (RDEC) scheme for qualifying R&D expenditure in the
year presented in other income of £4.1m
Foreign exchange gain recognised through the income statement of £0.4m (2024:
£0.5m) was recognised through other administration expenses.
4. Exceptional items
2025
£m 2024
£m
Impairment 15.2 4.5
Onerous properties (0.4) 1.7
Restructuring 2.7 0.8
Total charge 17.5 7.0
The Group performed a strategic optimisation review and identified Mozo Pty
Ltd, an Australian price comparison subsidiary acquired in 2021, having been
impacted by macroeconomic challenges, and being sub-scale in its market, was
no longer contributing to the overall strategy of the Group. An impairment
charge related to goodwill and acquired intangible assets of £15.2m is
recognised in exceptional costs. Mozo formed part of the B2C cash generating
unit.
Exceptional items also include £2.7m relating to redundancy costs in line
with our ongoing group wide programme to create an efficient and sustainable
operating model and a £0.4m credit relating to properties which became
onerous and were treated as exceptional in prior years.
For the tax and cash flow impact of exceptional items see the Glossary
section.
5. Employee costs
2025 2024
£m £m
Wages and salaries 177.6 179.2
Social security costs 19.1 16.8
Other pension costs 5.7 5.4
Share schemes:
Value of employees' services¹ 5.5 8.3
Employer's social security costs on share options - 0.9
Total employee costs 207.9 210.6
1 In the current year, £5.5m relates to equity-settled share-based payments
(2024: £8.3m).
6. Finance income and costs
2025 2024
£m £m
Interest payable on interest-bearing loans and borrowings (24.7) (25.9)
Amortisation of bank loan arrangement fees (4.1) (3.9)
Interest payable on lease liabilities (1.6) (1.8)
Unwind of discount on contingent consideration (0.3) (0.2)
Total finance costs (30.7) (31.8)
Interest receivable from cash held on deposit 0.6 1.2
Interest receivable on finance lease receivables 0.1 0.1
Total finance income 0.7 1.3
Net finance costs (30.0) (30.5)
For further information in respect of the Group's debt facilities and changes
during the year see note 13.
7. Tax on profit
The tax charged in the consolidated income statement is analysed below:
2025 2024
£m £m
Corporation tax
Current tax on the profit for the year 34.4 45.8
Adjustments in respect of previous years (1.9) (7.9)
Current tax charge 32.5 37.9
Deferred tax origination and reversal of temporary differences
Current year gain (8.5) (20.9)
Adjustments in respect of previous years 1.6 9.4
Deferred tax credit (6.9) (11.5)
Total tax charge 25.6 26.4
The tax assessed in each year differs from the standard rate of corporation
tax in the UK for the relevant year. The differences are explained below:
2025 2024
£m £m
Profit before tax 91.9 103.2
Profit before tax at the standard UK tax rate of 25% 23.1 25.8
Expenses not deductible for tax purposes 0.9 0.1
Provision for uncertain tax positions (0.5) (3.9)
Other permanent differences (1.1) -
Non-deductible amortisation 3.1 1.7
Share-based payments 0.4 0.1
Effect of different rates of subsidiaries operating in other jurisdictions 0.2 1.1
Adjustments in respect of previous years (0.5) 1.5
Total tax charge 25.6 26.4
A reconciliation between the statutory and adjusted tax charge is provided in
the Glossary.
The Directors have assessed the Group's uncertain tax positions and have
recorded a provision of £0.9m (2024: £1.4m). The provision for uncertain tax
positions has been recognised under IAS 12, taking into account the guidance
published in IFRIC 23. The adjusted tax charge takes into account amortisation
of acquired intangible assets.
The IASB amends the scope of IAS 12 to clarify that the standard applies to
income taxes arising from tax law enacted or substantively enacted to
implement the Pillar Two model rules published by the OECD, including tax law
that implements qualified domestic minimum top-up taxes described in those
rules.
The amendments introduce a temporary exception to the accounting requirements
for deferred taxes in IAS 12, so that an entity would neither recognise nor
disclose information about deferred tax assets and liabilities related to
Pillar Two income taxes.
The Group has considered the expected impact of the global minimum tax rules
on the FY 2025 tax position using FY 2023 and FY 2024 financial information
and concludes that the income inclusion rule is expected to apply. The
application of the transitional safe harbour is anticipated in all operational
jurisdictions.
8. Dividends
Equity dividends 2025 2024
£m £m
Number of shares in issue at end of period (million) 100.0 112.1
Dividends paid in year (pence per share) 3.4 3.4
Dividends paid in year (£m) 3.7 3.9
Final dividends are recognised in the period in which they are approved.
On 3 December 2025 the Board proposed a dividend of 17.0p per share, totalling
an estimated £16.2m, in respect of the year ended 30 September 2025, which
subject to shareholder consent at the AGM, will be paid on 11 February 2026 to
shareholders on the register at close of business on 15 January 2026.
A dividend of 3.4p per share totalling £3.7m in respect of the year ended 30
September 2024 was paid on 11 February 2025.
9. Earnings per share
Earnings per ordinary share 2025 2024
Profit attributable to owners of the parent (£m) 66.3 76.8
Weighted average number of shares in issue during the year 105,792,764 114,355,263
Dilution (number of shares) 953,085 696,450
Diluted weighted average number of shares in issue during the year 106,745,849 115,051,713
Basic earnings per share (p) 62.7 67.2
Diluted earnings per share (p) 62.1 66.8
Basic earnings per share are calculated using the weighted average number of
ordinary shares in issue during the year. Diluted earnings per share have been
calculated by taking into account the dilutive effect of shares that would be
issued on conversion into ordinary shares of awards held under employee share
schemes.
A reconciliation between earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share is
shown in the Glossary at the end of this document.
10. Intangible assets
Goodwill Publishing rights Brands Customer relationships Subscribers Advertiser relationships Other Non-acquired intangibles Total
£m £m £m £m £m £m acquired £m £m
intangibles
£m
Cost
At 30 September 2023 1,320.3 90.6 497.2 63.5 81.6 21.1 44.0 67.2 2,185.5
Other additions - - - - - - - 11.1 11.1
Exchange adjustments (45.7) (0.2) (13.0) (1.5) (4.2) (1.6) (1.2) (1.1) (68.5)
At 30 September 2024 1,274.6 90.4 484.2 62.0 77.4 19.5 42.8 77.2 2,128.1
Additions through business combinations 2.8 - - - - - 6.5 - 9.3
Other additions - - - - - - - 12.9 12.9
Disposals - (0.1) - - - - - - (0.1)
Exchange adjustments (1.8) (0.7) (0.3) (0.3) (0.1) (0.2) (0.3) (3.7)
At 30 September 2025 1,275.6 90.3 483.5 61.7 77.1 19.4 49.1 89.8 2,146.5
Accumulated amortisation and impairment
At 30 September 2023 (266.7) (36.1) (88.8) (30.6) (25.6) (4.5) (36.2) (57.6) (546.1)
Charge for the year - (5.9) (32.3) (13.4) (9.3) (1.6) (4.2) (10.4) (77.1)
Impairment - (0.5) (4.0) - - - - - (4.5)
Exchange adjustments 3.8 0.3 3.9 1.0 1.8 0.3 1.0 1.2 13.3
At 30 September 2024 (262.9) (42.2) (121.2) (43.0) (33.1) (5.8) (39.4) (66.8) (614.4)
Charge for the year - (5.8) (26.2) (4.8) (9.3) (1.5) (5.7) (11.1) (64.4)
Impairment (12.4) - (1.6) - - - (1.2) - (15.2)
Disposals - 0.1 - - - - - - 0.1
Exchange adjustments 0.1 - 0.4 - 0.2 - 0.2 0.2 1.1
At 30 September 2025 (275.2) (47.9) (148.6) (47.8) (42.2) (7.3) (46.1) (77.7) (692.8)
Net book value at 30 September 2025 1,000.4 42.4 334.9 13.9 34.9 12.1 3.0 12.1 1,453.7
Net book value at 30 September 2024 1,011.7 48.2 363.0 19.0 44.3 13.7 3.4 10.4 1,513.7
Net book value at 30 September 2023 1,053.6 54.5 408.4 32.9 56.0 16.6 7.8 9.6 1,639.4
Useful economic lives 5-15 3-20 8-10 7-11 9-15 3-10 2
years years years years years years years
Acquired intangibles are amortised over their estimated economic lives,
typically ranging between three and twenty years. The other acquired
intangibles category in the table above includes assets relating to customer
lists, content and websites.
Any residual amount arising as a result of the purchase consideration being in
excess of the value of acquired assets is recorded as goodwill.
Non-acquired intangibles relate to capitalised software costs and website
development costs which are internally generated.
Additions through business combinations totalling £9.3m in the current year
related to the acquisition of RNWL Ltd (£8.7m), an insurance digital wallet
that allows users to consolidate their insurance policies in one place, and
Kwizly, (£0.6m) an audience engagement tool provider. Refer to note 21 for
further details on acquisitions.
Subsequently to 31 July 2025, the Group performed a strategic optimisation
review and identified Mozo Pty Ltd, an Australian price comparison subsidiary
acquired in 2021, having been impacted by macroeconomic challenges, and being
sub-scale in its market, was not contributing to the overall strategy of the
Group. As a result, the Group determined that there was evidence of possible
impairment and an additional impairment test was performed. An impairment
charge of £15.2m, comprised of £12.4m goodwill and £2.8m intangibles, was
recognised. Mozo formed part of the B2C cash generating unit.
Amortisation is included within administration expenses in the consolidated
income statement.
11. Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents include the following for the purposes of the cash
flow statements:
2025 2024
£m £m
Cash at bank 27.6 39.7
The decrease in cash is principally due to the share buyback programme which
was £95.8 and the purchase of £7.0m of shares into the Employee Benefit
Trust in the year.
The Group has a number of authorised counterparties with whom cash balances
are held in the countries in which the Group operates. Credit risk is
minimised by considering the credit standing of all potential counterparties
before selecting them by the use of external credit ratings. Over 99.9% of the
Group's cash and cash equivalent balance was held with counterparties with a
minimum S&P credit rating of A-. The Group monitors the exposure, credit
rating and outlook of all financial counterparties on a regular basis.
The Group holds no cash equivalents at 30 September 2025 (2024: nil).
12. Other financial liability
2024
2025 £m
£m
Other financial liability - 12.2
The other financial liability relates to an obligation at 30 September 2024
for the Group to purchase its own shares under the terms of its buyback
agreement. The share buyback concluded on 21 October 2024. On 1 August 2025 a
new share buyback programme commenced. The share buyback agreement includes no
obligation to purchase own shares under the terms of the buyback agreement.
Therefore, no financial liability is recognised for purchase of future
shares in the terms of the buyback agreement.
13. Financial liabilities - interest-bearing loans and borrowings
Amounts drawn down on the Group's borrowing facilities, net of unamortised
issue costs are as follows. All borrowings are floating rate with the
applicable rates at 30 September shown below. This excludes the impact of
any interest rate swaps.
Non-current liabilities
Variable rate Interest rate at 30 September 2025 Interest rate at 30 September 2024 2025 2024
benchmark £m £m
Export development guarantee term facility SONIA - 6.39% - 276.2
Senior unsecured bond N/A 6.75% - 296.6 -
Revolving credit facility SONIA 5.97% - 7.4 -
Total 304.0 276.2
Current liabilities
2025 2024
Interest rate at Interest rate at £m £m
30 September 2025 30 September 2024
Export development guarantee term facility - 6.39% - 20.0
The interest-bearing liabilities are repayable as follows:
2025 2024
£m £m
Within one year - 20.0
Between one and two years - 130.0
Between two and five years 304.0 146.2
Total 304.0 296.2
The Group interest bearing loans are shown net of unamortised issue costs
which amounted to £6.0m (2024: £3.9m). The Group refinanced its entire
capital structure during the year. The previous RCF of £350.0m, maturing
July 2026, was refinanced with a £300m RCF, maturing May 2029, with two,
1-year extension options subject to lender consent. The Group's £300.0m
Export Development Guarantee Facility, maturing November 2027, was refinanced
with a £300.0m 5-year non-call 2 ("5NC2") senior unsecured bond. The
instrument carries a fixed coupon of 6.75% per annum, payable semi-annually in
arrears, and matures in July 2030. The bond is callable at the issuer's option
after the second anniversary of issuance according to the following
schedule:
Year 3: Redeemable at par plus 50 % of the annual coupon,
Year 4: Redeemable at par plus 25 % of the annual coupon, and
Year 5: Redeemable at par.
This stepped call structure provides flexibility for the Group to optimise its
capital structure. The new facilities significantly extend the maturity of
the Group's debt.
At 30 September 2025, 48.3% (£290.0m of £600.0m) of the Group's facilities
remained undrawn (30 September 2024: 53.8% (£350.0m of £650.0m) undrawn).
All material companies in the Group are guarantors to the facilities and the
availability of the facilities is subject to certain covenants. The RCF has a
variable interest margin payable that is linked to a ratchet mechanism,
subject to a minimum margin, as the Group's leverage covenant changes. This
margin ranges between between 1.75% and 3.00%.
14. Provisions
Property Restructuring Other Total
£m £m £m £m
At 30 September 2024 4.5 - 0.2 4.7
Charged/(released) in the year (0.4) 2.7 (0.1) 2.2
Utilised in the year (0.9) (1.0) - (1.9)
At 30 September 2025 3.2 1.7 0.1 5.0
The provision for property relates to dilapidations and obligations under
short leasehold agreements on vacant property. The majority of the vacant
property provision is expected to be utilised over the next three years.
During the year the Group has undertaken a significant rationalisation
programme, which has resulted in the redundancy of a number of employees in
the Group. Restructuring costs currently provided are expected to be fully
utilised over the next 12 months.
15. Financial instruments
The Group applies IFRS 9 Financial Instruments. For the Group's financial
assets and liabilities, the following table shows the measurement categories
under IFRS 9:
Financial assets/liabilities IFRS 9 classification
Cash and cash equivalents Amortised cost
Trade and other receivables Amortised cost
Interest bearing loans and borrowings Amortised cost
Lease liabilities Amortised cost
Contingent consideration Fair value through profit or loss
Derivative - interest rate swap Fair value through profit or loss
There has not been a significant impact on the carrying amounts of assets
held.
Contingent consideration
At 30 September 2025 there was contingent consideration payable of £4.6m
relating to the acquisition of RNWL Ltd (see note 21).
The Group's financial assets and financial liabilities are set out below:
2025 2024
Financial assets/(liabilities) Level 3 Level 2 Level 3
Level 2 Fair value Fair value Fair value
Fair value £m £m £m
£m
Asset
Financial asset - derivatives - - 1.4 -
Liabilities
Financial liability - derivatives - - (1.4) -
Contingent consideration - (4.6) - -
16. Issued share capital
No. of shares 2025 No. of shares 2024
£m £m
Allotted, authorised, issued and fully paid ordinary shares of 15p each
At 1 October 2024 112,088,026 16.8 119,077,135 17.8
Share buyback (12,045,863) (1.8) (6,992,733) (1.0)
Share incentive plan matching shares - - 3,624 -
At 30 September 2025 100,042,163 15.0 112,088,026 16.8
During the year ended 30 September 2025, 12.0m shares were bought back for
consideration of £95.6m (2024: 7.0m shares for consideration of £63.1m).
17. Reserves
Share premium account
Share premium represents the excess of proceeds received over the nominal
value of new shares issued.
In order to create additional distributable reserves to provide flexibility
for shareholder returns, during the prior year the total share premium reserve
of Future plc of £197.0m was cancelled and credited to reserves, increasing
distributable reserves by the same amount. The balance at 30 September 2025 is
£nil.
Merger reserve
In order to create additional distributable reserves to provide flexibility
for shareholder returns, in FY 2024 the total value of the Future plc merger
reserve of £472.9m was capitalised, with B ordinary shares issued at a total
nominal value equal to £472.9m, then cancelled and extinguished, with
£472.9m credited to retained earnings, increasing distributable reserves by
the same amount.
An amount of £109.0m in the merger reserve arose following the 1999 Group
reorganisation and is non-distributable.
Treasury reserve
During the year, 623,388 (2024: 286,795) of the shares held by the EBT were
used to satisfy the vesting of share options and 997,375 shares were purchased
to fund the future vesting of share options (2024: nil). The issuance of
treasury shares to employees relates to the settlement of PSP awards exercised
in the year.
Capital redemption reserve
The capital redemption reserve increased by £1.8m (2024: £1.0m) during the
year to £3.1m, being the nominal value of shares purchased and cancelled as
part of the share buyback programme (see note 16 for further details).
Accumulated exchange differences
The reserve for accumulated exchange differences comprises the revaluation of
the Group's foreign currency, principally on the US and Australian entities,
on consolidation.
18. Contingent liabilities
There are no material contingent liabilities at 30 September 2025 (2024: nil).
19. Related party transactions
The Group had no material transactions with related parties in 2025 or 2024
which might reasonably be expected to influence decisions made by users of
these financial statements.
20. Events after the reporting period
On 1 December 2025 the Board approved a share buyback of up to £30.0m which
is expected to commence in 2026.
On 12 November 2025, the Board made the decision to close the operations of
Mozo Pty Ltd.
21. Acquisitions
On 4 March 2025, the Group acquired 100% of the shares in RNWL Ltd, an
insurance digital wallet, for initial cash consideration of £2.8m. On
acquisition, a further variable deferred consideration up to a total value of
£60m could be paid subject to meeting certain financial targets based on the
following 5 year period ending 30 September 2030. The table below includes
£4.3m as contingent consideration, which represents its fair value at the
date of acquisition. At the reporting date, the fair value of the contingent
consideration has increased to £4.6m due to discounting.
The impact of the acquisition on the consolidated balance sheet was:
Fair value
£m
Intangible assets 6.5
Cash and cash equivalents 0.1
Trade and other payables (0.1)
Deferred tax (1.6)
Net assets acquired 4.9
Goodwill 2.2
7.1
Consideration:
Cash 2.8
Contingent 4.3
Total consideration 7.1
RNWL is an FCA-regulated digital wallet that organises customers' details
across insurance policies and provides reminders of road tax, MOT and
breakdown support. RNWL supports the acceleration of Future's focus on
customers' loyalty in Go.Compare, by increased focus on customer retention
through the acquired developed technology. RNWL forms part of the Go.Compare
cash generating unit.
Goodwill is attributed to the strategic value associated with potential
further development and exploitation of RNWL's technology which had not
commenced or could not be separately recognised at acquisition. The
intangibles recognised, including the goodwill, are expected to be deductible
for tax purposes.
Acquisition related costs of £0.7m were recognised as an expense within
operating expenses in the consolidated statement of profit or loss. RNWL was
not revenue generating prior to acquisition, and has now been fully integrated
post acquisition. As such no revenue/profit has been recognised in the above
table.
Acquisition of Kwizly
On 15 May 2025, the Group acquired 100% of the issued share capital and voting
rights of Kwizly, which provides audience engagement tools including quizzes,
games and polls embedded into websites, for initial consideration of £0.6m.
Further consideration is payable contingent on the acquired team remaining in
the business for 2 and 4 years, both for £0.4m. As this is contingent on
employment, this will be treated as post-combination remuneration costs.
Goodwill of £0.6m has been recognised for the acquisition of Kwizly and is
attributed to the expertise of the acquired team in providing audience
engagement tools and the value they could bring to Future's online content.
Kwizly forms part of the B2C cash generating unit.
GLOSSARY
The Directors believe that adjusted results and adjusted earnings per share
provide additional useful information on the core operational performance of
the Group to shareholders, and review the results of the Group on an adjusted
basis internally. The term 'adjusted' is not a defined term under IFRS and may
not therefore be comparable with similarly titled profit measurements reported
by other companies. It is not intended to be a substitute for, or superior to,
IFRS measurements of profit.
Adjustments are made in respect of:
Adjusting item Explanation
Share-based payments Share-based payment expenses (relating to equity-settled share awards with
vesting periods longer than 12 months), together with associated social
security costs, are excluded from the adjusted results of the Group as the
Directors believe they result in a level of charge that would distort the
user's view of the core trading performance of the Group.
Transaction and integration related costs Although transactions are a key part of the Group's strategy, the Group
adjusts for costs relating to the completion and subsequent integration of
acquisitions and other corporate transactions, initiated within 12 months of
the completion date, as these costs are not related to the core trading of the
Group and not doing so would distort the Group's results, so as to assist the
user of the financial statements to understand the results of the core
underlying operations of the Group. Details of transaction and integration
related costs are shown in the Glossary section at the end of this document.
Exceptional items The Group considers items of income and expense as exceptional and excludes
them from the adjusted results where the nature of the item, or its size, is
significant and/or is not related to the core trading of the Group so as to
assist the user of the financial statements to understand the results of the
core underlying operations of the Group. Details of exceptional items are
shown in note 4.
Amortisation of acquired intangible assets The amortisation charge for those intangible assets recognised on business
combinations is excluded from the adjusted results of the Group since they are
non-cash charges arising from non-trading investment activities. As such, they
are not considered to be reflective of the core trading performance of the
Group. This is consistent with industry peers and how certain external
stakeholders monitor the performance of the business.
Amortisation of non acquired intangible assets, depreciation and interest Adjusted EBITDA excludes the amortisation charge for computer software and
website development, as well as amortisation of acquired intangible assets,
depreciation and interest.
Unwinding of discount on contingent consideration The Group excludes the unwinding of the discount on contingent consideration
from the Group's adjusted results on the basis that it is non-cash and the
balance is driven by the Group's assessment of the relevant discount rate to
apply. Excluding this item ensures comparability with prior periods.
Change in the fair value of contingent consideration The Group excludes the remeasurement of these acquisition-related liabilities
from its adjusted results as the impact of remeasurement can vary
significantly.
The tax related to adjusting items is the tax effect of the items above and
adjustments in respect of the prior year, calculated using the standard rate
of corporation tax in the relevant jurisdiction.
Reference to 'core or underlying' reflects the trading results of the Group
without the impact of amortisation of acquired intangible assets, transaction
and integration related costs, exceptional items, share-based payment expenses
(relating to equity-settled share awards with vesting periods longer than 12
months), together with associated social security costs, unwinding of discount
on contingent consideration and any tax related effects that would otherwise
distort the users understanding of the Group's performance
A summary table of all measures is included below:
Closest equivalent statutory measure Definition
APM (adjusted performance measure)
Adjusted EBITDA Operating profit Adjusted EBITDA represents operating profit before share-based payments
(relating to equity-settled awards with vesting periods longer than 12 months)
and related social security costs, amortisation, depreciation, transaction and
integration related costs and exceptional items.
Adjusted EBITDA margin is adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.
Adjusting items are shown in the table below and defined in the commentary
above.
Adjusted operating profit Operating profit Adjusted operating profit represents operating profit before share-based
payments (relating to equity-settled awards with vesting periods longer than
12 months) and related social security costs, amortisation of acquired
intangible assets, transaction and integration related costs and exceptional
items.
This is a key management incentive metric, used within the Group's Deferred
Annual Bonus Plan.
Adjusted operating profit margin is adjusted operating profit as a
percentage of revenue.
Adjusting items are shown in the table below and defined in the commentary
above.
Adjusted profit before tax Profit before tax Adjusted profit before tax represents profit before tax before share-based
payments (relating to equity-settled awards with vesting periods longer than
12 months) and related social security costs, net finance costs, amortisation
of acquired intangible assets, transaction and integration related costs,
exceptional items, unwinding of discount on contingent consideration and
change in fair value of contingent consideration.
Adjusting items are shown in the table below and defined in the commentary
above.
Adjusted profit after tax Profit after tax Adjusted profit before tax represents profit before tax before share-based
payments (relating to equity-settled awards with vesting periods longer than
12 months) and related social security costs, net finance costs, amortisation
of acquired intangible assets, transaction and integration related costs,
exceptional items, unwinding of discount on contingent consideration, change
in fair value of contingent consideration and tax on adjusting items.
Adjusting items are shown in the table below and defined in the commentary
above.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share Diluted earnings per share Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) represents adjusted profit after tax
divided by the weighted average dilutive number of shares at the year end
date.
This is a key management incentive metric, used within the Group's Performance
Share Plan.
A reconciliation is provided in the Glossary section at the end of this
document.
Adjusted effective tax rate Effective tax rate Adjusted effective tax rate is defined as the effective tax rate adjusted for
the tax impact of adjusting items and any other one-off impacts, including
adjustments in respect of previous years. The tax impact of adjusting items is
provided in the Glossary section at the end of this document.
Adjusted operating cash flow Operating cash flow Adjusted operating cash flow represents cash generated from operations
adjusted to exclude cash flows relating to transaction and integration related
costs, exceptional items and payment of accrual for employer's taxes on
share-based payments relating to equity settled share awards with vesting
periods longer than 12 months, and to include lease repayments following
accounting standard IFRS 16 Leases.
Adjusted free cash flow Operating cash flow Adjusted free cash flow is defined as adjusted operating cash flow less
capital expenditure. Capital expenditure is defined as cash flows relating to
the purchase of property, plant and equipment and purchase of computer
software and website development.
Net debt excluding lease liability The aggregation of cash and debt Net debt excluding lease liability is defined as the aggregate of the Group's
cash and cash equivalents and its external bank borrowings net of capitalised
bank arrangement fees. It does not include lease liabilities recognised
following accounting standard IFRS 16 Leases.
Organic growth Organic growth is defined as the like for like portfolio, including the impact
of closures and new launches, but excluding acquisitions and disposals made
during FY 2025 and FY 2024 at constant foreign exchange rates. Constant
foreign exchange rates is defined as the average rate for FY 2025.
Constant currency Constant currency translates the financial statements at fixed exchange rates
to eliminate the effect of foreign exchange on
the financial performance. Constant foreign exchange rates is defined as the
average rate for FY 2025.
Reconciliation between revenue and organic revenue at constant currency:
YoY Var
2025 Restated
£m 2024
£m
Revenue 739.2 788.2 (6.2%)
Revenue from acquisitions and disposals which have not been wholly owned for a (4.6) (18.2)
full financial year
Organic revenue at actual currency 734.6 770.0 (4.6%)
Impact of FX at constant rates 0.1 (9.4)
Organic revenue 734.7 760.6 (3.4%)
A reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating profit to profit
before tax is shown below:
2025 2024
£m £m
Adjusted EBITDA 223.4 239.1
Depreciation (6.9) (6.5)
Amortisation of non-acquired intangibles (note 10) (11.1) (10.4)
Adjusted operating profit 205.4 222.2
Share-based payments (including social security costs) (note 3) (5.5) (8.9)
Transaction and integration related costs (7.2) (5.9)
Exceptional items (note 4) (17.5) (7.0)
Amortisation of acquired intangibles (note 10) (53.3) (66.7)
Operating profit 121.9 133.7
Net finance costs (30.0) (30.5)
Profit before tax 91.9 103.2
Transaction and integration related costs are shown in the table below:
2025 2024
£m £m
Transaction and integration related costs 7.2 5.9
Transaction and integration related costs of £7.2m incurred in the year
reflect £1.6m of post-integration IT system costs and associated fees, and
£0.9m of transaction related legal fees. £2.4m relates to professional fees
to support portfolio optimisation across the Group's divisions, of which
£0.7m relates to rationalisation of previously acquired subsidiaries. A
charge of £2.3m has been provided for historic sales taxes arising from a
post integration tax compliance review.
Included below is a reconciliation between the statutory and adjusted tax
charge:
2025 2024
£m £m
Total statutory tax charge 25.6 26.4
Tax effect of adjusting items:
Exceptional items 1.6 1.0
Transaction and integration related costs 0.9 1.5
Share based payments 1.0 2.3
Amortisation of acquired intangibles 14.2 15.6
Adjustments in respect of previous years 1.0 2.5
Total adjusted tax charge 44.3 49.3
A reconciliation of cash generated from operations to adjusted free cash flow
is shown below:
2025 2024
£m £m
Cash generated from operations 188.3 230.0
Cash flows related to transaction and integration related costs 5.7 7.5
Cash flows related to exceptional items 4.8 5.3
Settlement of social security costs on share based payments¹ 0.6 0.3
Lease payments (6.2) (6.9)
Adjusted operating cash inflow 193.2 236.2
Cash flows related to capital expenditure (16.2) (13.9)
Adjusted free cash flow 177.0 222.3
¹ Relating to equity-settled share awards with vesting periods longer than 12
months.
A reconciliation between earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share is
shown in the table below:
Total Group 2025 2024
The adjustments to profit after tax have the following effect:
Profit after tax (£m) 66.3 76.8
Share-based payments (including social security costs) (£m) 5.5 8.9
Transaction and integration related costs (£m) 7.2 5.9
Exceptional items (£m) 17.5 7.0
Amortisation of intangible assets arising on acquisitions (£m) 53.3 66.7
Decrease in fair value of contingent consideration (£m) - (0.1)
Unwinding of discount on contingent consideration (£m) 0.3 -
Unwinding of discount on deferred consideration (£m) - 0.2
Tax effect of the above adjustments and the impact of tax items relating to (18.7) (22.9)
prior years (£m)
Adjusted profit after tax (£m) 131.4 142.5
Weighted average number of shares in issue during the year:
- Basic 105,792,764 114,355,263
- Dilutive effect of share options 953,085 696,450
- Diluted 106,745,849 115,051,713
Basic earnings per share (in pence) 62.7 67.2
Adjusted basic earnings per share (in pence) 124.2 124.6
Diluted earnings per share (in pence) 62.1 66.8
Adjusted diluted earnings per share (in pence) 123.0 123.9
The adjustments to profit after tax have the following effect:
Basic earnings per share (pence) 62.7 67.2
Share-based payments (including social security costs) (pence) 5.2 7.8
Transaction and integration related costs (pence) 6.8 5.2
Exceptional items (pence) 16.5 6.1
Amortisation of intangible assets arising on acquisitions (pence) 50.4 58.3
Decrease in fair value of contingent consideration (pence) - (0.1)
Unwinding of discount on contingent consideration (pence) 0.3 -
Unwinding of discount on deferred consideration (pence) - 0.2
Tax effect of the above adjustments and the impact of tax items relating to (17.7) (20.1)
prior years (pence)
Adjusted basic earnings per share (pence) 124.2 124.6
Diluted earnings per share (pence) 62.1 66.8
Share-based payments (including social security costs) (pence) 5.2 7.7
Transaction and integration related costs (pence) 6.7 5.1
Exceptional items (pence) 16.4 6.1
Amortisation of intangible assets arising on acquisitions (pence) 49.9 58.0
Decrease in fair value of contingent consideration (pence) - (0.1)
Unwinding of discount on contingent consideration (pence) 0.2 -
Unwinding of discount on deferred consideration (pence) - 0.2
Tax effect of the above adjustments and the impact of tax items relating to (17.5) (19.9)
prior years (pence)
Adjusted diluted earnings per share (pence) 123.0 123.9
Analysis of net debt excluding lease liability
30 September Net cash flows Recognised on acquisition Other non-cash changes Exchange 30 September
2024 £m £m £m movements 2025
£m £m £m
Cash and cash equivalents 39.7 (11.4) 0.1 - (0.8) 27.6
Debt due within one year (20.0) 20.0 - - - -
Debt due after more than one year (276.2) (23.7) - (4.1) - (304.0)
Net debt excluding lease liability (256.5) (15.1) 0.1 (4.1) (0.8) (276.4)
30 September Net cash flows Other non-cash changes Exchange 30 September
2023 £m £m movements 2024
£m £m £m
Cash and cash equivalents 60.3 (18.9) - (1.7) 39.7
Debt due within one year - - (20.0) - (20.0)
Debt due after more than one year (387.5) 93.0 16.1 2.2 (276.2)
Net debt excluding lease liability (327.2) 74.1 (3.9) 0.5 (256.5)
The above table shows net debt excluding lease liability exclusive of
unamortised costs held on the balance sheet which amounted to £6.0m at 30
September 2025 (2024: £3.9m).
2025 2024
£m £m
Net debt excluding lease liability at start of year (256.5) (327.2)
Decrease in cash and cash equivalents (11.3) (18.9)
Net movement in borrowings (3.7) 93.0
Amortisation of loan issue costs (4.1) (3.9)
Exchange movements (0.8) 0.5
Net debt excluding lease liability at end of year (276.4) (256.5)
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