As reported by Future plc:
Financial highlights
- Full year revenue up 36% to £825.4m (FY 2021: £606.8m), reflecting a combination of continued organic growth (2% in the year of which 5% from Media) and contribution from acquisitions. Strong growth in the US, with organic growth rates of +7%.
- Excellent full year results with adjusted operating profit growth of 39% to £271.7m (FY 2021: £195.8m), of which 11% was organic (including 2% FX), 10% from the platform effect and 18% from acquisitions, significantly above our sustainable profit growth model target of 25% through the cycle. Statutory operating profit up 64% to £188.6m (FY 2021: £115.3m).
- Future’s platform effect continues to deliver, with an improvement in adjusted operating profit margin to 33%, an expansion of +1ppt over the prior year margin of 32% absorbing material inflationary pressures in FY 2022 (equivalent of (2)ppt) and initial dilutive impact of acquisitions (a further (2)ppt). Statutory operating margin at 23%, up +4ppt (FY 2021: 19%).
- The Group remains highly cash generative with adjusted free cash flow of £267.2m (FY 2021: £199.3m), representing 98% of adjusted operating profit (FY 2021: 102%). Cash generated from operations was £268.5m (FY 2021: £197.2m).
- Leverage of 1.48x (FY 2021: 0.8x and increasing to 1.9x following the Dennis acquisition on 1 October 2021). This reflects continued rapid de-levering, resulting in net debt at the end of the year of £423.6m (FY 2021: £176.3m). In May 2022, we extended our RCF facilities by £100m and in November 2022, we secured a new facility of £400m with a syndicate of banks and supported by a partial guarantee from UK Export Finance, with attractive terms. Total facilities at the end of FY22 were £660m and £900m as of 30 November 2022.
Operational and strategic highlights
- Growing relevant and valuable audiences
- Our leadership position within verticals (#1 consumer technology in US and UK, #6 beauty and fashion in the US, #4 in the UK; #1 in Homes in the UK) delivers premium monetisation and growth
- Group online users returned to organic growth in H2 up +2% and +8% on a reported basis
- Further progress in increasing our online reach in the US by +3ppt to 35%
- Diversifying and growing monetisation
- 36% revenue growth with 17% total audience growth, leveraging our leadership positions
- Continued progress on diversifying revenue with each of the three main monetisation routes (Advertising, Direct consumer monetisation and Affiliates) now representing approximately a third of revenue
- 55% of Affiliates revenue is from services (up from 49% in FY 2021)
- 48% of Magazine revenue is now from subscriptions providing favourable mix of recurring revenues (up from 26% in FY 2021)
- Creating value from acquisitions
- 5 acquisitions completed since October 2021, adding capability in data, video and subscribers, while helping to enable leadership positions in Women's Lifestyle and Wealth content. We have allocated over £400m of capital during the year while remaining disciplined in approach to leverage.
- ‘Our Future, Our Responsibility’ - our ESG strategy - was launched in December 2021 and is now well-progressed in the Group as we make continued headway against our ambitions.
Outlook
- Future enters FY 2023 in a strong competitive position and we expect to further strengthen our market positions within our verticals. The agility of the business model means we expect to deliver modest profit growth in FY 2023.
- The strong balance sheet and cash generation serve the business well for ongoing investment and growth and we are well-placed to add additional content and capabilities to further enhance the Future platform.
- Longer-term, we are confident that our diversified strategy will continue to deliver significant value for shareholders, with our investment in new content verticals and capabilities underpinning our growth ambitions.
Zillah Byng-Thorne, Future's Chief Executive, said: “I am pleased to report another year of record results, adding to our long-term track record, as we delivered sustained growth across all key metrics, including revenue, profitability and free cash flow. Our performance is testament to our diversified revenue streams, the strength of our content and the brilliant teams we have working across our business.
“2022 has been a busy year for us, as we allocated over £400m to complete five quality earnings-accretive acquisitions which added new capabilities to the Group and helped us to achieve leadership positions in the ‘Women’s Lifestyle’ and ‘Wealth’ content verticals, all whilst continuing to rapidly de-lever.
“Today our content reaches over 500 million people in the UK and US, and one in three people online in the UK and US. We have a clear opportunity to build on the track record we have established in the US to date by replicating our successful model in newer verticals whilst adding further diversification to the Group.
“Looking ahead, whilst we are monitoring the macroeconomic climate, we remain confident in our strategy and the growth opportunities that we are uniquely placed to capitalise on, which we expect to deliver modest profit growth and market share gains.”
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