Pre-close statement
10 October 2006
Jelf Group plc, an established intermediary focused on the corporate market, will be announcing its preliminary results for the year ended 30th September 2006 in January 2007.
The board is pleased to be in a position to be able to provide the following update and to confirm that whilst the Group continues to operate in a softening insurance market, trading results are in line with expectations for the full year. This is the Group's second full year of trading as a listed company on AIM.
During the year the Group has continued to implement its strategy to build a successful corporate intermediary business across Southern England & Wales offering a range of services in the areas of general insurance, private healthcare insurance, employee benefits, financial planning and commercial finance. Today the Group operates from 18 locations (8 - 2005) and has over 12,000 corporate clients.
During the year the Group has made good progress against its stated twin objectives of delivering strong organic growth whilst making strategic acquisitions utilising existing cashflows, reserves and capital markets:
- October 2005: Recruitment of Swindon based employee benefits team
- November 2005: Acquisition of Farndale Hammond (Healthwise), South of England based Healthcare insurance broker
- March 2006: Acquisition of Goss Group Ltd, a large independent insurance and financial services broker based in Southern England, using both debt and an issue of new equity
- May 2006: Acquisition of Brian D Thomas Ltd, an insurance broker based in Swansea which will provide significant synergies with the Group's existing operations in Cardiff
- May 2006: Acquisition of Cherwell Insurance Management, an Oxfordshire based insurance broker
- June 2006: Acquisition of Auto Business Solutions Ltd, a Wiltshire based commercial finance broker focused on providing asset and vehicle finance solutions to the business community
- September 2006: Recruitment of Reading based insurance team
The acquisition and integration of Goss Group Ltd is ahead of target with the enlarged client bank providing real opportunities for cross selling. A significant number of Goss Group employees are now shareholders in the enlarged group having purchased shares since the acquisition.
In addition the Group has seen strong organic growth by its employee benefits and financial planning divisions as a result of developing solutions for clients in areas such as Flexible Benefits and Self Invested Personal Pensions. The development of the employee benefit offering, using best of class technology, has provided strong growth in revenues.
The general insurance sector, one of the three main markets for the Group, continues to represent a challenging environment with a softening of insurance rates. The Group is working to offset these conditions by capturing benefits from economies of scale, acquiring new clients from cross sales, executing targeted campaigns and recruiting new sales resources whilst also seeking internal productivity gains from the use of technology.
In October 2006 the Group acquired Hern Waters & Co, an insurance broker based in Ludlow, Shropshire. This acquisition is in line with the Group's acquisition strategy.
The board looks forward to providing a more detailed report when it announces preliminary results in January 2007 and looks forward to the coming year with confidence
Further information from:
Alex Alway Group Chief Executive Jelf Group plc
Tel: 01454 272799
Jonny Franklin-Adams/Alastair Cade
Daniel Stewart & Company
Tel: 020 7776 6550