Business
Full Year Trading Update
Full Year Trading Update.
About this update from Nahl Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 6636B NAHL Group PLC 03 February 2020 \n\n \nThis announcement is deemed to constitute inside information stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014\n \n3 February 2020\nNAHL Group PLC\n(\"NAHL\" or the \"Group\")\n \nFull Year Trading Update\n \nFurther to the announcement on 23 December 2019, NAHL (AIM: NAH), the leading consumer marketing and services business focused on the UK legal services market, provides the following update to shareholders.\n \nTrading Update\n \nAs previously noted, 2019 was a challenging year. The UK property market contracted further and the Group's Residential Property division made a small loss. Despite performing marginally ahead of expectations, the Personal Injury (PI) division faced competitive pressures and continued panel volatility during the period. This resulted in a higher cost of generating new claims and impacted total volumes and placement, resulting in fewer claims being passed through to the Group's ABS structures.\n \nThe Group confirms that its guidance for 2019 underlying earnings* will be within the range previously announced and is likely to be between 7.5% and 10% lower than Board expectations.\n \n2020 Outlook\n \nThe Group's Critical Care division traded well in 2019 and the Board expects this to continue into 2020. Despite the difficult backdrop for the UK property market, the Board expects its Residential Property division to grow, albeit from a smaller base. In Personal Injury, there remains considerable uncertainty surrounding key elements of the Government's personal injury reforms, originally planned for April 2020. This continues the volatility in the Group's Panel Law Firm relationships and is expected to delay growth in case processing within the Group's wholly owned law firm, National Accident Law. \n \nThe Board is encouraged by the progress made in transforming the business. However, in order to de-risk the Group in the light of market circumstances, the Board has decided to slow the deployment of working capital in the PI business and to suspend the Company's dividend. Consequently, the Board's outlook for 2020 performance is now significantly lower than previous expectations.\n \n* Underlying earnings is based on profit attributable to shareholders of N...