London-listed NCC Group has reported more positive than expected annual preliminary results for its international managed security services, despite the effects of the pandemic.
For the year-ended 31 May 2020, the firm expects revenue and adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and taxation) to be “comfortably ahead” of the latest FY20 analysts' consensus expectations of £243m and £22.3m, respectively. It confirmed that sales will be higher than in FY19 (£251m) and adjusted EBIT will be lower than last time, owing to “our decision to preserve the capability and capacity of our business in readiness for the economic recovery”.
To put context into the preliminary results announcement you have to consider the firm's trading update on 23 March – after the wide-scale international business lock-down. The group said it had “experienced delays, cancellations and disruption to business operations” from quarter three onwards.
It now says: “We switched quickly to remote working, which has enabled us to continue to deliver robustly for our clients throughout this period of disruption,” said NCC.
It warned however that Covid-19 will continue to have an “uncertain impact” on demand through FY21, and for this reason it wouldn't be offering guidance on future financial performance. “However”, it added, “our recurring and long-term revenues - particularly in our software resilience and managed services businesses - provide us with some protection”.
The group says it has a multi-currency revolving credit facility worth £100m to help it get through any future operational problems. The firm says it has not made any Covid-19-related redundancies or furloughed any staff.
Adam Palser, chief executive officer of NCC, said: “We are successfully weathering the Covid-19 storm. During this period of uncertainty we have continued to deliver high impact work to protect our customers from cyber threats and strengthened our balance sheet. We stand ready to take advantage of opportunities as the global pandemic subsides.”
NCC expects to post its full results for the year ended 31 May 2020 on 3 September 2020. The company has around 2,000 staff in 12 countries.
