REG - Telecom Plus PLC - Year End Trading Update and Notice of Results

Telecom PlusAnnouncement

Tue 07:00

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RNS Number : 4946G  Telecom Plus PLC  29 April 2025

29 April 2025

Telecom Plus PLC

Year End Trading Update and Notice of Results

Record customers, profits and dividend; Full Year guidance reiterated

Telecom Plus PLC (trading as Utility Warehouse or UW), a leading platform for
subscription-style essential household services in the UK, today issues a
trading update for its financial year ending 31 March 2025 (FY25).

Highlights

●     Net customer growth of 15% (including around 25,000
fixed-line/broadband customers acquired from a subsidiary of the Talk Talk
Group ("TalkTalk") as part of a cross-sell trial partnership); continued
strong organic customer growth of over 12.5%

●     Awarded "Which? recommended" status for both Energy and Broadband;
the first company to hold both awards simultaneously

●     FY25 guidance for adjusted PBT within a range of £124m-£128m
reiterated

●     Total FY25 dividend is expected to increase by just over 13% to
94p for the full year (FY24: 83p)

Financial

Full year adjusted pre-tax profits for FY25 are expected to be between
£124m-£128m, in line with previous guidance((1)).

We anticipate the FY25 year-end leverage ratio will be around 1.0x net
debt/adjusted EBITDA, demonstrating our robust balance sheet and continuing
strong underlying cash generation, notwithstanding continued double digit
percentage organic customer growth.

Consistent with our restated capital allocation policy, the full year dividend
is expected to rise by just over 13% to 94p.

Trading

Customer numbers continued their double-digit growth trajectory, increasing
during the year by 15% to 1,163,608 (FY24: 1,011,489), including around 25,000
fixed-line/broadband customers acquired from TalkTalk as part of a cross-sell
trial partnership.  Excluding the impact of the 25,000 customers transferred
from TalkTalk, customer numbers increased by over 12.5% to 1,138,621. The
number of services we provided increased by c.8.5% to 3,392,593((2)) (FY24:
3,127,097); we expect service number growth to accelerate in future following
the relaunch of our insurance products, and as we start to upsell additional
services to the newly acquired customers from TalkTalk.

We were pleased to be awarded Which? Recommended Provider status for both
Energy and Broadband, the first company to ever hold both awards
simultaneously.  This endorsement reflects both the importance we attach to
delivering a differentiated and superior level of customer service, and our
unique position as the UK's only truly multiservice platform.

Alongside our multiservice customer offering, our unique word-of-mouth route
to market remains a key competitive advantage, enabling us to acquire high
quality customers with attractive, highly profitable and market-leading
lifetime values. Both macro-economic pressures and long-term structural trends
(such as the work transition and the pensions crisis) provide a favourable
backdrop for new Partner recruitment and engagement, with Partner numbers
increasing to over 70,000 for the first time.

TalkTalk Partnership

We were pleased to agree terms with TalkTalk for a cross-sell trial
partnership, under which a total of c.95,000 TalkTalk fixed-line/broadband
customers will be transferred to UW for an undisclosed sum, with a view to us
upselling additional utility services to them through our Partner network. The
first 25,000 of these customers were transferred during Q4 of FY25.

If this trial is successful, it can be expected to open up additional exciting
growth opportunities (both inorganic and partnership) in future.

Outlook

We have now delivered compound double-digit percentage customer growth in all
types of market conditions over a period of more than 3.5 years, and remain
firmly on track to increase our customer base to two million households and
beyond over the medium term. The structural advantages we enjoy through our
multiservice platform enable us to maintain market-leading pricing alongside
award-winning service, whilst our word-of-mouth route to market continues to
deliver high quality multiservice customers in significant volumes, generating
a long-term source of consistently growing recurring subscription-style
revenues.

As we continue on our double-digit growth trajectory, the business remains
well positioned to generate considerable further shareholder value over the
years ahead.

We look forward to providing a more detailed update with our full year results
for the financial year ended 31 March 2025, which we expect to announce on 24
June 2025.

Stuart Burnett, CEO said:

"Our innovative multiservice platform, together with our unique word of mouth
route to market, has put us firmly on track to deliver another set of record
results. Now into our fourth consecutive year of delivering double digit
percentage customer growth, we are making rapid progress towards our medium
term target of supplying subscription-style essential household services to 2
million customers and beyond.

During what seems likely to be a challenging period for the global economy, we
are fortunate that our business model makes us largely immune to any changes
in trade tariffs, interest rates, economic growth, or business confidence.
Indeed, such environments have historically been positive for us, with
increasing numbers of people seeking additional income sources and ways to
reduce their household bills.

By helping households to stop wasting time and money on their essential bills,
whilst supporting tens of thousands of Partners to earn an additional income,
we expect to continue delivering record customer numbers, profits and returns
to shareholders over the years ahead."

1.         Consensus adjusted Profit Before Tax for the year ending 31
March 2025 is £126.1 million, with a range of £125.0 million to £128.0
million.

2.         Including broadband services supplied to the customers
transferred from Origin

For more information, please contact:

 Telecom Plus
 Stuart Burnett, CEO         0208 955 5000
 Nick Schoenfeld, CFO

 For Investor Relations
 Matthew Walker              matthew.walker@uw.co.uk

 For Media Relations
 Lansons Communications LLP  utilitywarehouse@lansons.com
 Tom Baldock / Ed Hooper     07860 101715 / 07783 387713

 

LEI code: 549300QGHDX5UKE58G86

About Telecom Plus PLC ("Telecom Plus"):

Telecom Plus, which owns and operates Utility Warehouse (UW), is
the UK's leading multiservice utility platform, offering a wide range of
subscription-style essential household services - energy, broadband, mobile
and insurance; all these services share similar characteristics where the
revenues and profitability are highly predictable, and where customers can be
expected to remain with us for an extended period once all their chosen
services have been successfully migrated.

Customers benefit from the convenience of a single monthly bill, consistently
good value across all their utilities and exceptional service levels.

Customers sign up through a national network of local UW Partners, who
recommend UW's services to friends, family and people they know.

Telecom Plus is listed on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: TEP LN). For
further information please visit telecomplus.co.uk

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

This Announcement may contain "forward-looking statements" with respect to
certain of the Company's plans and its current goals and expectations relating
to its future financial condition, performance, strategic initiatives,
objectives and results. Forward-looking statements sometimes use words such as
"aim", "anticipate", "target", "expect", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "goal",
"believe", "seek", "may", "could", "outlook" or other words of similar
meaning. By their nature, all forward-looking statements involve risk and
uncertainty because they are based on numerous assumptions regarding the
Company's present and future business strategies, relate to future events and
depend on circumstances which are or may be beyond the control of the Company
which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially from those
made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements in this Announcement,
including, but not limited to, domestic and global economic business
conditions; market-related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates; the
policies and actions of governmental and regulatory authorities; the effect of
competition, inflation and deflation; the effect of legislative, fiscal, tax
and regulatory developments in the jurisdictions in which the Company and its
respective affiliates operate; the effect of volatility in the equity, capital
and credit markets on profitability and ability to access capital and credit;
a decline in credit ratings of the Company; the effect of operational risks;
an unexpected decline in sales for the Company; any limitations of internal
financial reporting controls; and the loss of key personnel. Any
forward-looking statements made in this Announcement by or on behalf of the
Company speak only as of the date they are made. Save as required by the
Market Abuse Regulation, the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, the
Listing Rules or by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these
forward looking statements and will not publicly release any revisions it may
make to these forward-looking statements that may occur due to any change in
its expectations or to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this
Announcement.

 

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