Manchester-based global cyber security company NCC Group plc announced that its first-half revenue rose almost 11% to £150.1 million for the six months to November 30, 2021, but profit before tax fell 13.4% to £8.4 million.
In its outlook, NCC said second-half 2022 trading to date is currently in line with expectations following sales order momentum in December and January, with its Software Resilience business returning to revenue growth against H2 of 2021.
“The balance of H2 2022 requires further revenue acceleration, which we expect to occur as our global markets recover from pandemic disruption and for which we have recruited the global delivery capacity,” said the Manchester firm.
“Consequently, we anticipate a strong H2 2022 leading to our full-year outturn to be in line with management expectations.”
The firm declared an unchanged interim dividend of 1.50p, with its dividend policy remaining under review.
NCC also announced board changes, with Jonathan Brooks, independent non-executive director, retiring and Jennifer Duvalier taking on the role of chair of the Remuneration Committee and Julie Chakraverty taking on on the role of designated non-executive director to lead the board’s colleague engagement programme.
NCC Group CEO Adam Palser said: “The strength of NCC Group stems from the quality of our people.
“I am delighted that, in these times of unprecedented demand for cyber and IT talent, we have significantly increased our technical headcount, produced more impactful research than ever before and delivered more value for our customers.
“As a result, the strong underlying growth from our Assurance business, coupled with the successful integration and positive trading of the IPM business acquired in June 2021, led to an excellent financial performance with double-digit revenue growth in the first half.
“We are particularly encouraged by the strong Assurance gross margin performance in the half, as it demonstrates our ability to use utilisation, pricing and global resourcing as levers to manage our way through the higher costs we expect to incur as we compete for talent.
“Accelerated digitisation, the rapid growth and sophistication of ransomware attacks and the implications of the largescale adoption of hybrid and remote working globally continue to provide fertile growth opportunities for our comprehensive cyber resilience services.
“With more software being deployed than ever before by a growing ecosystem of dynamic software companies, we continue to see great promise for our Software Resilience portfolio.
“We enter the second half of our financial year with a pipeline of opportunities and talent that leads us to expect further growth in the impact we have to our customers, the experiences we provide our people and, of course, our financial metrics.”