DSW Capital reports strong growth in IPO year

Challenger professional services firm DSW Capital said in an update on Tuesday that it had traded “strongly” since its December initial public offering, with revenue and adjusted pre-tax profit for the year just ended ahead of market expectations.

The AIM-traded firm, which owns the Dow Schofield Watts brand, said it expected network revenue of £18.3m for the 12 months ended 31 March, “significantly ahead” of market expectations and up 19.6% year-on-year.

It said the ‘DSW Network’, which consists of 20 licensee businesses, benefited from high levels of demand in the professional services sector throughout the period.

Average revenue per fee earner increased 15.8% to £0.23m.

As expected, the heightened profile of DSW after the company’s IPO augmented recruitment across the licensee businesses, with fee earners at year-end on 31 March totalling 88 - a 14.3% increase on the prior year.

As it previously announced, DSW Capital successfully executed its strategy to expand its service lines following the IPO, with the addition of DSW Asset Based Lending Risk Management LLP in January.

That brought the total number of licensees to 20 across 11 service lines.

Since the end of the financial year, the firm said it had welcomed two new partners in Scotland, expanding both the service offering and presence to include Edinburgh and Glasgow.

“I am delighted to announce a strong performance for the 2022 financial year, with the group expected to report results ahead of expectations both in terms of revenue and adjusted profits,” said chief executive officer James Dow.

“These results are underpinned by the significant market demand for DSW's expert service lines and our performance illustrates the considerable benefits of our platform model, which empowers ambitious professionals to seize the opportunities in the market.

“The autonomy and flexibility which the DSW model gives to fee earners is a true differentiator in our market and we believe that it will continue to attract high quality professionals seeking greater flexibility in a post-Covid world.”

DSW Capital said it would release its final results for the year ended 31 March on 14 July.

At 1301 BST, shares in DSW Capital were up 16.67% at 124.25p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.