Begbies Traynor pleased with first quarter trading

Business recovery, financial advisory and property services consultancy Begbies Traynor Group updated the market on its current trading on Thursday, as its investors gathered for its annual general meeting.

The AIM-traded company said that last year was “a year of further progress” in developing the group, as it continued to deliver earnings growth, which it claimed reflected the benefit of the strategic investments it had made in recent years.

Executive chairman Ric Traynor noted that during the year, the firm completed the acquisitions of Springboard Corporate Finance and CJM Asset Management, and launched BTG Advisory which brought together its restructuring, financial advisory, corporate finance, forensic and investigation teams.

“Levels of activity in the insolvency market have increased in the current calendar year,” Traynor told shareholders.

“Government insolvency statistics report a 6% increase in the underlying number of corporate insolvency appointments to 7,915 appointments for the six months to June 2018 compared to 7,462 in the same period of 2017.”

Group trading for the first quarter of the current financial year was said to be in line with the board’s expectation for the year as a whole, with revenue growth in the quarter generated from its recent acquisitions.

The benefits of the company’s ongoing organic investments in the business, which included senior fee earners across both divisions, were expected to be realised incrementally during the remainder of the year.

“Overall, we anticipate continuing our track record of earnings growth in the current financial year, as we expect to benefit from an improving market for our counter-cyclical activities whilst seeking to continue to increase our market share through our investments for growth,” Ric Traynor said.

“In addition, Springboard and CJM will make their first full year contributions to the group.

“Our strong financial position also leaves us well placed to continue to invest in further opportunities, in line with our strategy to grow both organically and through selective acquisitions.”

Begbies Traynor said it would next update on current trading with its half year results in December.