The Property Franchise Group this morning announced its interim results for the period ended 30 June 2022, revealing that revenue has increased 18% to £13.1m, with management service fees increasing 5% to £7.5m and profit before tax up 9% to £3.8m.

The property franchisor’s CEO, Gareth Samples, says that the company is “extremely well-placed in the current environment and have a substantial growth opportunity to capitalise on.”

Financial Highlights

 Group revenue increased 18% to £13.1m (H1 2021: £11.1m)*

• Management Service Fees (“royalties”) increased 5% to £7.5m (H1 2021: £7.1m)
• Adjusted operating margin** 41% (H1 2021: 47%)
• Adjusted EBITDA*** increased 8% to £5.7m (H1 2021: £5.3m)
• Profit before tax increased 9% to £3.8m (H1 2021: £3.5m)
• Adjusted basic earnings per share of 14.1p (H1 2021: 15.3p).  The 8% decrease reflects the 10% increase to the shares in issue as a result of the Hunters acquisition.
• Highly cash generative with net debt of £2.6m at 30 June 2022 (30 June 2021: £5.4m).
• Increased interim dividend by 11% to 4.2p (H1 2021: 3.8p)

 * Hunters acquired 19 March 2021 and Mortgage Genie acquired 6 September 2021. Full 6 months trading for both in H1 2022.

**before share-based payments charge, exceptional items and amortisation arising on consolidation

*** before share-based payments charge and exceptional items

Operational Highlights

• Sales agreed pipeline increased 15% to £33.8m (H1 2021: £29.5m)
• Managing 74,000 rental properties (H1 2021: 73,000)
• 8 acquisitions at the franchisee level (H1 2021: 5), added 1,001 managed properties (H1 2021: 647) contributing £1.0m (H1 2021 £0.5m) of managed income per annum to franchisee turnover
• EweMove sold 19 new territories (H1 2021: 37), now totalling 178 territories
• Hunters sold 5 personal agent territories (H1 2021: nil)

Samples commented: “Reflecting on the first half of the year and the challenges businesses and consumers have faced, I am particularly delighted to report robust results for the Group’s half year period. We have traded in line with the Board’s expectations, against a comparative period in which we benefitted from the buoyant sales market.

“While factors such as the cost-of-living crisis and inflation are driving a challenging macro-environment, we are secure in the quality of our business and our ability to successfully navigate a more difficult backdrop. We have an excellent team in place, a very experienced group of franchisees and a proven strategy, which we expect to continue delivering growth.

“We are extremely well-placed in the current environment and have a substantial growth opportunity to capitalise on.  Post period end activity indicates the second half will perform at least as strongly as the first and ahead of H2 2021. As a result, the Board expects the full year results to be in-line with market expectations and this confidence is reflected in the interim dividend for 2022, which I am pleased to report is up 11% on 2021.”