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16 Sep 2024
Wilmington PLC : Doing the right business, in the right way - Buy

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Wilmington PLC : Doing the right business, in the right way - Buy
Wilmington plc (WIL:LON) | 342 -17.1 (-1.4%) | Mkt Cap: 305.8m
- Published:
16 Sep 2024 -
Author:
Alastair Reid -
Pages:
6 -
Robust FY results: On an ongoing basis, Wilmington reported revenue of £89.7m, up 9% on an organic basis – all business lines were in growth, and the company saw 16% growth in recurring revenues, which now represent 36% of the group. The adjusted ongoing PBT base was £24.1m, albeit total adjusted PBT of £27.6m was modestly ahead of our estimate. The dividend grew 13% to 11.3p, again ahead of our forecast. Operationally, management highlight FY24 as another year of delivering on their strategy, and the strong revenue, profit, margin and cash generation growth as a result. At a more granular level, they also note the ongoing investment in consolidating the whole, more-focused, business onto a single technology platform.
Future looks bright: In FY25, management state the business has seen a good start to the year, with revenues and profits in line with expectations. Supporting the robust organic growth trajectory, Wilmington also had net cash of £67.8m at year end post recent disposals – management now state that they expect their available capital (from existing net cash, cash generation and borrowing capability) to be used for acquisitions in the next two years. Assuming leverage of 2x, based on our estimates, this could imply potential headroom of up to £150m - if deployed at multiples not meaningfully different to that of Wilmington today, it could be mid-teens accretive, as well as strategically boosting scale and growth.
Fundamentally mis-priced: On forecasts, we make no meaningful changes to our underlying assumptions, with headline changes reflecting portfolio changes. Wilmington currently trades at c.10x CY25E EBITDA - we think this meaningfully undervalues the resilient profit growth it can deliver, and it is well below recent transaction benchmarks.