Record business wins help JTC beat growth targets for 2023

Fund, corporate and private client services group JTC has raised its growth guidance for the next three years after smashing its targets in 2023, helped by a record amount of new business wins.

JTC said it is targeting organic growth of at least 10% per annum over its so-called Cosmos era, which runs from 2024 to 2027. The upgrade comes after the company delivered 19.9% organic growth in 2023, well ahead of its 8-10% medium-term guidance, helped by a number of recent acquisitions in the US.

"We now enter the Cosmos era during which we aim to double the size of the group for the third time in a decade and achieve £0.5bn+ of revenue, with a higher proportion of group revenues coming from the high growth US market," said chief execuive Nigel Le Quesne.

Revenues totally £257.4m last year, up 28.7% on a reported basis, with new business wins rising 25.2% to £30.8m. Results were bolstered by a reduction in client attrition to 5.1% from 6.4% in 2022, which JTC said reflected the longevity of client relationships associated with recent acquisitions.

Reported pre-tax profit dropped 32.3% to £24.3m as a result of higher depreciation and amortisation charges, along with an exchange rate loss. Adjusting for non-underlying items, pre-tax profit was up 18.9% at £40.5m.

JTC's board declared a final dividend of 7.67p, taking the full-year payout to 11.17p, up 11.9% on the previous year.

Net debt increased 14.7% to £135.1m, but net debt-to-underlying EBITDA leverage reduced to just 1.43x, down from 1.59x in 2022 and below company guidance of 1.5-2.0x.