News blog

Lighthouse Group

• BY: Andrew Hore |
• POSTED: 25/09/2013 |

IFA Lighthouse Group reported a loss for the first half of 2013 due to additional investment in the business. 

An additional £600,000 was spent on recruitment, training and technology. There were also higher personal indemnity insurance costs. Lighthouse has around 500 advisers, including those in its network. The plan is to increase the number of directly employed IFAs and the benefits of the investment should show through next year. 

Revenues fell from £27.2m to £23.4m as less productive IFAs left the business due to the Retail Distribution Review. Gross profit margin jumped from 27% to 32%.

Lighthouse has access to 5m people through its affinity relationships with the likes of union USDAW and the Civil Service Motoring Association.

Lighthouse has already said that it will close its Exeter office when the lease runs out early next year. Some of the back office work will be transferred to Brighton, where Lighthouse intends to buy its office for £1m. Efficiency gains will start to show through later next year.

Net cash was £8.3m at the end of June 2013. Since June a further £500,000 has been raised from a loan note issue.

House broker Shore believes that Lighthouse can make EBITDA of £1m in 2014. This compares with £1.51m in 2012.

At 3.75p a share, Lighthouse is valued at £4.79m. There is unlikely to be a dividend this year.

Download the latest AIM Journal from http://www.hubinvest.com/AIMPDFSeptember2013_48.pdf