Record performance driven by double-digit organic revenue growth across all four business segments.

Confident outlook and strong current trading; full year performance to be at least in line with management expectations.

Today, Next 15 announced its interim results for the six months ended 31 July 2022.

The Group’s strong trading in our first half has continued into the third quarter of our financial year. Whilst we are mindful of the current macro-economic and political backdrop, we remain confident about our outlook.

53% of the Group’s revenues are from the US market, with a further 7% of revenues coming from clients that bill in US dollars. The relative strength of our US businesses provides the Board with a high level of confidence in the trading performance for the rest of the year and beyond and we are confident of delivering adjusted profit before tax for the year at least in line with management expectations as revised upwards following our AGM statement in June.

The significant Mach49 contract win in early 2022 and recently announced new client wins, such as Morrisons for Shopper Media Group (“SMG”), gives us confidence for further growth in the next financial year.

The Group’s strong balance sheet provides scope for further investments both in the businesses and in M&A to accelerate our longer-term growth.

Financial and Operational Highlights:

• Group net revenue growth of 65% to £274.0m (2021: £165.9m)
• Organic net revenue growth of 31%
• Adjusted profit before tax up 73% to £60.7m (2021: £35.0m)
• Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased by 68% to 44.1p (2021: 26.3p)
• Interim dividend up 25% to 4.5p per share (H1 2021: 3.6p) Significant new client assignments including Morrisons, VMware and Verizon 2
• Acquisition of Engine Acquisition Limited (“Engine”) in March 2022, which has been successfully integrated into the Group
• In May 2022 we launched a recommended offer for M&C Saatchi plc (“M&C Saatchi”), which valued the
• business at approximately £306m

Commenting on the results, Chair of Next 15, Penny Ladkin-Brand said:

“Our first half results have seen exceptionally strong trading with adjusted operating profit up 75% year on year and organic revenue growth of 31%. The acquisition of Engine and the significant contract win at Mach49 have been key to delivering this outstanding performance. We look with confidence to the rest of the financial year as the increasing mix of digital services continues to provide operating leverage and opportunities to reinvest in talent and product development to continue to drive longer term growth.”

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next 15, said:

“This has been a fantastic first half performance with all four pillars of our business having shown double digit organic revenue growth. Our US operations have shown exceptional growth with the region now representing 53% of our total net revenues. We have also benefitted from the positive contribution from recent acquisitions including Engine which has been successfully integrated into our Group.

Acquisitions have always been a core component of our growth strategy. In May we announced our offer for M&C Saatchi where we saw a very strong rationale for combining two highly complementary businesses and creating significant value for both sets of shareholders. This opportunity is just as compelling today as it was in May, with our positive engagement across the wider M&C Saatchi leadership team only increasing our confidence in the prospects for the combined group.

Looking ahead, our strong performance has continued into the third quarter with high levels of activity across all parts of the business. We expect our results for the full year to be at least in line with management expectations as revised following our AGM statement.”

Read more about our results here.