This content is only available within our institutional offering.

14 Sep 2021
First Take: NCC Group - FY21 in line, with the odd blemish

Sign in
This content is only available to commercial clients. Sign in if you have access or contact support@research-tree.com to set up a commercial account
This content is only available to commercial clients. Sign in if you have access or contact support@research-tree.com to set up a commercial account
First Take: NCC Group - FY21 in line, with the odd blemish
NCC Group plc (NCC:LON) | 149 4.8 2.2% | Mkt Cap: 468.7m
- Published:
14 Sep 2021 -
Author:
Julian Yates | Roger Phillips -
Pages:
4 -
Headlines
Revenue £270.5m, up 2.6% (3.6% cc) with EBITA £39.2m on the new IFRS basis (amortisation adjustment) and £36.2m on a like for like basis, which is in line with the June trading update stating revenue was likely to be slightly ahead of the prior year (£263.7m) and EBITA to be at the upper end of consensus at the time (£33.7m-£36.2m). Cash flow generation of 88% and £75m net debt (post IPM acq). Q1 FY22 was up on last year; there were some unexpected disruptions in buying patterns over summer, but orders were up yoy and pipeline is robust
Divisions
Assurance was up c6% in NA and EU, with UK and APAC up c4%, with a strong H2 of 9%. Software resilience declined 2.4%, below management expectations, due to remote working impacting the model. Focus is firmly on getting the division back to growth. The Cyber market was growing 8-9% before COVID held it back, and group has seen signs of buying behaviour normalising towards end of year.
Outlook
For FY22, guidance is for higher revenue growth than that seen in FY21 partially offset by increased costs from inflation and travel resumption and office usage. The mid-term target remains double digit Assurance growth and sustainable Software Resilience growth and the FY outlook is in line with management expectations. We will tweak our forecasts, updating for the results and IFRS amortisation changes as outlined. We expect to maintain our SoTP valuation-based Hold (having moved from Buy in June post the strong share price run).