Norman Broadbent PLC maintains positive earnings despite coronavirus

(), the professional services firm, said it has maintained positive earnings in the first half of its current year despite the disruption arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

The company reported earnings (EBITDA) of £11,000 for the six months ended June 30, a period covering the UK’s lockdown period, compared to £111,000 a year ago.

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The company also reported a slight decline of net fee income (NFI) of 5.7% due to the disruption, although it highlighted that its interim management and solutions businesses reported NFI increases in the first half of 48% and 22% respectively.

“I am pleased to report that the first six months of 2020 showed positive EBITDA, and, despite [coronavirus], we saw only a minimal decline in NFI of 5.7%. This remarkable achievement is down to the dedication of my colleagues and our strategy of building an innovative, diversified, and agile Group. These factors, coupled with our willingness to take difficult decisions quickly and early on in the pandemic, meant we were well placed to respond to market challenges and uncertainties”, chief executive Mike Brennan said in a statement.

Looking ahead, the company said the positive results through the “difficult period” evidenced its “relevance, resilience, and progression” and that it was looking forward to updating the market as early as possible in 2021.

“We have proven our strategy is working, and our leadership team has the bandwidth to build the group further. With this in mind, and despite these challenging times, we are actively seeking growth opportunities in the form of key strategic appointments to the group, M&A initiatives, and partnerships/strategic ‘tuck-ins’”, Brennan added.

Shares in Norman Broadbent were steady at 5.3p in mid-morning trading on Monday.