In an ASX listing on Tuesday, Link Group confirmed total revenue of $1,175.1 million for the full year ended 30 June, up 1.3 per cent on the prior year on the back of fund merger activity and project work.
Operating EBIT added 8.8 per cent on FY 2021 rising to $153.9 million.
The statutory loss, an improvement on last year’s result when it stood at $162.7 million, largely reflected the first half, non-cash impairment charge related to the Banking and Credit Management (BCM) business and to the group’s premises footprint.
“Link Group has delivered on its upgraded FY 2022 guidance announced on 11 July 2022,” said CEO and managing director, Vivek Bhatia.
“The last two years have seen a high level of corporate activity for Link Group in addition to the global pandemic and market volatility associated with higher inflation and higher interest rates. Despite these challenging and potentially distracting factors, it has been pleasing to see the resilience of our people and performance of our core businesses which are reflected in today’s results,” Mr Bhatia added.
Link’s Retirement & Superannuation Solutions (RSS) sector experienced strong member growth with Australian member numbers up 9.1 per cent on the year, while revenue increased by 1 per cent to $511.7 million, representing 43 per cent of the group revenue.
On 26 August 2022, RSS signed an agreement to acquire HS Pensions in the UK, with plans to grow its reach from the current 976,000 member base to 1.4 million. The transaction is expected to complete in the second half of calendar 2022.
Link’s Corporate Markets (CM) business generated $366.0 million of revenue in FY 2022, representing 31 per cent of group revenue. CM revenues were up 0.3 per cent with recurring revenues flat on FY 2021.
In Australia, CM won seven of the 10 largest IPOs over the last 12 months, and had a market share of ~58 per cent for new money raised in the FY 2022.
The company’s Fund Solutions (FS) business generated $181.4 million of revenue in FY 2022 representing 15 per cent of group revenue, while BCM saw its revenue slide by 6.7 per cent to $131.6 million.
Looking forward, Mr Bhatia said that despite the ongoing challenges with cost pressures from higher inflation, higher interest rates, challenging employment conditions and increased market volatility, “we are confident that our businesses provide the diversity and resilience required to navigate these conditions”.
“We reaffirm our expectations for FY 2023, of low, single digit revenue growth, and Operating EBITDA is expected to be up 8 per cent to 10 per cent on FY 2022”.
In July 2022, Link Group signed a revised scheme implementation deed with Dye & Durham Corporation.
“Link Group shareholders have overwhelmingly supported the transaction as evidenced by the vote at the shareholder meeting held last week,” Mr Bhatia said.
The scheme remains subject to certain conditions precedent, including the receipt of outstanding regulatory approvals and the approval of the Supreme Court of NSW. At this stage, the second court date is scheduled for 9 September 2022 and the scheme implementation is scheduled for 27 September 2022.
