22nd Mar 2023 11:09
(Alliance News) - XPS Pensions Group PLC shares jumped on Wednesday, after it said it expects revenue to be ahead of market expectations, boosted by its Advisory and Risk Transfer arms.
Shares in the company were up 6.2% to 159.25 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
The company said it now expects revenue for the financial year ending March 31 to be ahead of current market expectations. The pension consultancy said consensus sees revenue between GBP163 million and GBP165 million. This would represent growth of 17% to 19% against the year prior.
"The resilience and predictability of our business model has driven a strong performance for the year. As previously highlighted, the inflation-linkage of our contracts across our services has supported growth, albeit for many contracts this only took effect mid-year and so will not be fully reflected in FY23," XPS Pensions explained.
The company said that its Advisory business has seen high levels of client activity. It noted that this has been driven by continued regulatory changes and demand for advice in response to the increased volatility in financial markets, following the "mini-budget" in September 2022.
XPS also said that it has seen "significant growth" in Risk Transfer services as funding positions have improved and clients have looked to de-risk.
It added that its Pensions Administration, SIP and NPT businesses have all performed in line with expectations.
XPS plans to hold a capital markets day event for investors in London in May. The company expects to release its next trading update on the same day.
Co-Chief Executive Officer Paul Cuff said: "We are pleased to be on course for a strong financial performance for the year. It was a year of extraordinary change in financial markets, with rising interest rates and inflation posing significant challenges for our clients."
In June 2022, the company reported a pretax profit of GBP16.9 million in the year that ended March 31, 2022. Revenue came in at GBP138.6 million.
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News reporter
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