Shareholders of Acumentis Group Pty Ltd (ASX: ACU) heard of the company’s growth in revenue and profit and positive outlook at the Annual General Meeting held today 28 October 2021.
Delivering a 16% increase in revenue and turning a FY20 $4.2M loss into a FY21 $2.5M profit (before tax and non-cash impairments) demonstrates Acumentis is confidently progressing a strategic growth strategy that is driving results.
Acumentis Group Chairman, Keith Perrett addressed shareholders with achievements towards the key strategic goals of growth through geographical expansion and service diversification.
Geographical Expansion
In April 2021 Acumentis acquired long standing Tasmanian independent property valuation and consultancy company Saunders & Pitt, extending the Company’s geographical footprint throughout Tasmania with offices in Hobart and Launceston.
Further expansion was achieved with offices opening in Shepparton and Gippsland. Servicing regional Victoria has been well received by clients with volumes growing through financial institutions.
In July 2021 Acumentis announced the acquisition of the remaining 57.8% of its Western Australian associate Acumentis (WA) Holdings Pty Ltd, progressing Australia-wide coverage via a single entity.
Keith Perrett, Acumentis Chairman said, “Our geographical expansion and acquisitions are an exciting step in our strategic plan to deliver a single, national business, servicing clients across the whole of Australia. With a single-entity operation, we can enhance our delivery of consistent and seamless services nationwide, with the immediate beneficiaries being our loyal clients.”
“We continue to look for opportunities to establish our regional presence and expand the team by actively recruiting high quality and motivated professionals.” Mr Perrett said.
Culture
The focus Acumentis places on its people and dedication to a culture first approach has been recognised by industry bodies and leading associations with Acumentis achieving finalist status in the Australian Property Institute (API) Awards for Culture & Diversity and the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) Awards for Organisational Development.
Timothy Rabbitt, Acumentis CEO and Managing Director said “Becoming an Employer of Choice has been a positive, assisting in talent attraction across a highly competitive market. Over FY21 Acumentis has seen an increase in staff of 31% with 91 new recruits joining the Acumentis team, which now exceeds 340 professionals working from 45 locations across the nation.”
Timothy Rabbitt noted that a large number of staff were also shareholders of Acumentis and, along with the wider Acumentis team, have contributed to the company’s recovery and return to growth.
Growth & Service Diversification
Throughout the year Acumentis has experienced strong demand for property valuation and advisory services with some variation across states due to COVID-19 impacts.
Mr Rabbitt said, “Growing business confidence is evident in strong September results and it is anticipated that this will continue into calendar 2022.”
Financing for residential properties is at record high levels driving strong demand for Acumentis property valuation services from financial institutions.
This demand coupled with an intensive and successful strategy to diversify revenues and drive growth in non-mortgage services is increasing revenue. The diversification success is evidenced by strong growth in corporate and private work which is set to continue into FY22.
Continued Investment in Information Security and Risk Management
With information security and risk management at the core of our business, we have continued to undertake investment in IT security and system enhancements. We maintain certification with ISO27001 – Information Security Standard demonstrating via third-party audit that our systems are best-practice and providing our clients with confidence.
“These ongoing enhancements drive improvements in quality and efficiency benefiting our loyal clients.” Said Mr Rabbitt.
Positive Outlook
Mr Rabbitt concluded with a positive outlook for shareholders, “We are on track to deliver on our previous guidance. In particular, assuming present market conditions continue, we expect FY22 Acumentis revenues to exceed $50M and EBITDA to exceed $3M. Beyond FY22 we continue to target $60K+ revenues and longer-tern EBITDA in the range 10-15% of revenue.”
To view the Chairman and CEO addresses, AGM presentation and annual report, see our ASX announcements.