REG - Knights Group Hldgs - Full Year Trading Update

Knights groupAnnouncement

19/05/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 9574Z  Knights Group Holdings PLC  19 May 2023

19 May 2023

Knights Group Holdings plc

("Knights", the "Company" or the "Group")

Full Year Trading Update

Knights, a fast-growing legal and professional services business in the UK,
today provides a trading update for the year ended 30 April 2023.

The Group anticipates full year revenue of c.£142m, up by 13% compared to the
prior year (2022: £125.6m), with underlying PBT(1) anticipated to be c.
£21.5m, a 19% increase on the prior year (2022: £18.1m).

Market leading lock-up(2) of 87 days at 30 April (FY 2022: 86 days), with
debtor days of 30 days (FY 2022: 31 days) reflects the Group's continued
discipline of day-to-day cash collection and working capital management.  Net
debt(3) as at 30 April 2023 is expected to be c.£29m giving significant
headroom against the Group's Revolving Credit Facility of £60m.

The Group's reputation and culture continue to be instrumental in attracting
high quality talent across the regions in which it operates, where it is
increasingly well-positioned as it continues to scale, selectively, as is the
appeal of Knights' corporate model in the current macro environment.  The
Group is also making strong progress in driving operational improvements and
productivity across the business, with the benefits of this expected to be
realised in the new financial year and beyond, aided by a strong team of
Client Services Directors working in close alignment with the operational
teams.

Acquisitions announced during the year, Coffin Mew and Meade King, are
integrating well and performing in line with expectations. The Group continues
to selectively review a pipeline of potential targets that align with its
strategy, and earlier this month agreed to acquire St James Law Limited, an
independent full service commercial law firm based in Newcastle, and Baines
Wilson LLP, primarily based in Carlisle, one of the leading independent law
firms in the North West. These acquisitions are in strategic growth markets in
the North of England, further strengthening Knights' existing presence in the
region.

David Beech, CEO of Knights, commented:

"Knights has made good progress during the year, delivering on our strategy of
selectively making acquisitions, attracting high quality talent, driving
operational improvements across the business and strengthening our team of
Client Services Directors.

We enter the new financial year well placed to deliver organic growth from our
increased network of integrated regional offices, with positive momentum
across the business from new client wins and a strong pipeline of partner
hires."

Knights will provide a further update on trading with its full year results
announcement in mid July 2023.

Enquiries

 Knights
 David Beech, CEO                                 Via MHP

 Numis (Nomad and Broker)
 Stuart Skinner, Kevin Cruickshank                020 7260 1000

 MHP (Media enquiries)
 Katie Hunt, Eleni Menikou, Rob Collett-Creedy    020 3128 8100

+44 (0)7736 464749

knights@mhpgroup.com

 

Notes to Editors

Knights is a fast-growing, legal and professional services business, ranked
within the UK's top 50 largest law firms by revenue. Knights was one of the
first law firms in the UK to move from the traditional partnership model to a
corporate structure in 2012 and has since grown rapidly. Knights has
specialists in all key areas of corporate and commercial law so that it can
offer end-to-end support to businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. It is
focussed on key UK markets outside London and currently operates from 23
offices located in Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cheltenham, Chester,
Crawley, Exeter, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln, Maidstone, Manchester, Newbury,
Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Southampton, Stoke, Teesside,
Weybridge, Wilmslow and York.

 (1  )Underlying PBT is before amortisation of acquired intangibles,
non-underlying costs relating to acquisitions, non-recurring finance costs,
restructuring costs in the reporting period, and non-underlying share based
payments. The Board believes that these underlying figures provide a more
meaningful measure of the Group's underlying performance.

(2 )  Lock up is calculated as the combined debtor and WIP days as at a
point in time.  Debtor days are calculated on a count back basis using the
gross debtors at the period end and compared with total fees raised over prior
months. WIP days are calculated based on the gross work in progress (excluding
that relating to clinical negligence claims, insolvency, and ground rents, as
these matters operate mainly on a conditional fee arrangement and a different
profile to the rest of the business) and calculating how many days billing
this relates to, based on average fees (again excluding clinical negligence
claims, insolvency, and ground rents fees) per month for the last 3 months.

Lock up days excludes the impact of acquisitions in the last quarter of the
reporting period.

(3) Net debt excludes lease liabilities.

 

 

 

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