Record business wins help JTC beat growth targets for 2023

(Sharecast News) - 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.