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17 Feb 2025
Wilmington PLC : Building an impressive track record - Buy

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Wilmington PLC : Building an impressive track record - Buy
Wilmington plc (WIL:LON) | 342 -17.1 (-1.4%) | Mkt Cap: 305.8m
- Published:
17 Feb 2025 -
Author:
Alastair Reid -
Pages:
6 -
Robust interim results: Wilmington has today reported robust interim results – ongoing revenues of £44.9m were up 3% organically, with PBT of £11.4m up 39%, leaving EPS at 9.59p. Recurring revenues are now 38% of the group, and saw 6% organic growth, with ‘repeat’ revenues now reaching 72% of the group. Seven of the nine businesses were in growth – with the largest division ‘Financial Services – Other’ up 9% organically – and if the recently acquired Health & Safety business had been included, we estimate pro forma growth would have been closer to 5%. Legal declines solely reflected the tough comp from a major one-off contract win last year, and US healthcare insurance events should benefit from the new administration.
Reasons to get excited: On the outlook, management note that trading continues to be in-line with expectations this year. Even aside from the strong underlying trends of the markets served by the upgraded portfolio, we see a number of other sources of upside in the medium-term – net cash of c.£31m should reach nearly £50m by year end, contributing to c.£100m of headroom for accretive acquisitions, and the single technology platform is being rolled out across the group providing scope for incremental volume growth in ‘Reg Tech’ solutions, and potential eventual cost savings.
Fundamentally too cheap: We leave forecasts essentially unchanged at this point, with modest changes to the mix of divisional growth rates. The shares have been volatile in recent times, but proven resilient overall – we believe this represents a highly attractive entry point with the stock trading at <10x CY25E EBITDA, well below the level of industry transaction multiples and what their structural growth prospects fundamentally warrant.