- Total revenue growth up 12% to £273.1 million
- Underlying revenue growth of 7%
- Private equity firm Inflexion snaps up healthcare stake
Shares in GlobalData (DATA:AIM) were marginally higher at 180p in morning trading as the London-based data analytics and consulting company said statutory pre-tax profit was up 8% or £3 million to £41.5 million for the year ending 31 December 2023.
Over the past six months shares have rallied 16%.
Total revenue was up 12% to £273.1 million compared to £243.2 million for the same year ago period.
CEO Mike Danson was upbeat about the firm’s annual performance. He told Shares: ‘Our new transformation and growth plan (for 2024 to 2026) will focus on three divisions – healthcare, consumer, and technology, increasing the number of salespeople, investing in AI (artificial intelligence) capability, mergers and acquisitions. Going forward we are interested in buying companies in the £10 million range.’
M&A BENEFITS
GlobalData has benefited from minority investment from private equity firm Inflexion which has bought a 40% stake in the firm’s healthcare division for £434 million. This ‘transformational transaction’ is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2024 – valuing the healthcare division at £1.15 billion.
Healthcare represents 38% of the group’s full year 2023 revenues.
There was also good news for shareholders after the company announced 28% growth in total dividends to 4.6p per share compared to 3.6p in 2022.
EXPERT VIEW
Analysts at Megabuyte commented: ‘GlobalData has certainly set itself some ambitious medium-term targets, none more so than achieving £500 million of revenues by the end of 2026.
‘This implies a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in revenue of 22% between 2023 to 2026 and, with a mid-to-high single-digit organic growth outlook, this leaves a lot of ground for M&A to make up.
‘It, therefore, might have to look beyond its typical high-single to low-double-digit £m revenue acquisition size, to avoid a high volume of smaller deals.
'We expect this could move GlobalData into additional vertical markets, especially those that lean into sizeable US market opportunities,’ added Megabuyte.
