JLF.L Regulatory News (JLF)

10 Oct 2006 07:01

Jelf Group PLC10 October 2006 Jelf Group plc ("Jelf" or "the Group") 10th October 2006 Pre-close statement Jelf Group plc, an established intermediary focused on the corporate market,will be announcing its preliminary results for the year ended 30th September2006 in January 2007. The board is pleased to be in a position to be able to provide the followingupdate and to confirm that whilst the Group continues to operate in a softeninginsurance market, trading results are in line with expectations for the fullyear. This is the Group's second full year of trading as a listed company onAIM. During the year the Group has continued to implement its strategy to build asuccessful corporate intermediary business across Southern England & Walesoffering a range of services in the areas of general insurance, privatehealthcare insurance, employee benefits, financial planning and commercialfinance. Today the Group operates from 18 locations (8 - 2005) and has over12,000 corporate clients. During the year the Group has made good progress against its stated twinobjectives of delivering strong organic growth whilst making strategicacquisitions utilising existing cashflows, reserves and capital markets: . October 2005: Recruitment of Swindon based employee benefits team • November 2005: Acquisition of Farndale Hammond (Healthwise ), South of England based Healthcare insurance broker • March 2006: Acquisition of Goss Group Ltd, a large independent insurance and financial services broker based in Southern England, using both debt and an issue of new equity • May 2006: Acquisition of Brian D Thomas Ltd, an insurance broker based in Swansea which will provide significant synergies with the Group's existing operations in Cardiff • May 2006: Acquisition of Cherwell Insurance Management, an Oxfordshire based insurance broker • June 2006: Acquisition of Auto Business Solutions Ltd, a Wiltshire based commercial finance broker focused on providing asset and vehicle finance solutions to the business community • September 2006: Recruitment of Reading based insurance team The acquisition and integration of Goss Group Ltd is ahead of target with theenlarged client bank providing real opportunities for cross selling. Asignificant number of Goss Group employees are now shareholders in the enlargedgroup having purchased shares since the acquisition. In addition the Group has seen strong organic growth by its employee benefitsand financial planning divisions as a result of developing solutions for clientsin areas such as Flexible Benefits and Self Invested Personal Pensions. Thedevelopment of the employee benefit offering, using best of class technology,has provided strong growth in revenues. The general insurance sector, one of the three main markets for the Group,continues to represent a challenging environment with a softening of insurancerates. The Group is working to offset these conditions by capturing benefitsfrom economies of scale, acquiring new clients from cross sales, executingtargeted campaigns and recruiting new sales resources whilst also seekinginternal productivity gains from the use of technology. In October 2006 the Group acquired Hern Waters & Co, an insurance broker basedin Ludlow, Shropshire. This acquisition is in line with the Group's acquisitionstrategy. The board looks forward to providing a more detailed report when it announcespreliminary results in January 2007 and looks forward to the coming year withconfidence Further information from: Alex AlwayGroup Chief ExecutiveJelf Group plcTel: 01454 272799 Jonny Franklin-Adams/Alastair CadeDaniel Stewart & CompanyTel: 020 7776 6550 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange