Daily Research News Online no. 7412 - Good Times Continue for YouGov

Good Times Continue for YouGov

October 8 2007

YouGov has announced results for the financial year ended 31 July, with group turnover up 51% to £14.3m, profit before tax and goodwill up 39% to £5.7m and both global acquisitions and launches in new sectors promising another buoyant year to come.

Earnings per share increased 36% from 4.5p to 6.1p, and the balance sheet shows £4m cash. The core UK business grew turnover 63% to £7.8m while Middle East revenues, including the now fully integrated Siraj, rose 39% to £6.4m. During the year a new office has opened in Jeddah while a new London HQ quadruples its UK capacity.

Adding to these two, recent acquisitions in Germany, Scandinavia and the USA have given the firm a presence in 'five of our target hubs around the world' according to co-founder and CEO Nadhim Zahawi, who adds that syndicated research like BrandIndex is to be rolled out to the USA and other geographies. 'Ultimately we aim to provide a constant stream of primary data from strategic business hubs around the world with a global panel and a global set of syndicated products: 'The YouGov Screen'. These acquisitions are a significant step towards achieving that goal.' Globally, YouGov's headcount has grown from 59 a year ago to 301.

Chairman Roger Parry comments: 'Our focus now is on the integration of these businesses into our group, and the development of group wide systems and products.' However, the company will 'continue to look at complementary acquisitions that meet our strict criteria'.

Panos Manolopoulos has taken on the role of MD International Development, while Zahawi adds Manolopoulos's former role, UK MD, to his existing responsibilities.

The year has also seen several sector- and specialism-based launches. March's new 50:50 joint venture YouGovCentaur creates a new UK-based b2b research agency focused on 'lucrative' groups from lawyers to engineers and marketeers; in April YouGovStone was formed as a joint venture with London's 'Queen of Networking' Carole Stone, to establish specialist opinion leader panels; and YouGovAlpha will service clients in the investment industry, following the mutually agreed disbanding of YouGovExecution. In the year covered, YouGovStone contributed £68,000 to Group revenues and YouGovExecution £270,000. The group has also added Organisational
Consulting and Health teams.

The company is not proposing the payment of a dividend, consistent with previously stated plans to reinvest cashflow into growth.

No doubt helped by being 'the most quoted market research agency' in the UK and Middle Eastern territories, YouGov says it has 'seen no margin pressure in our business overall as clients have continuously valued the quality and depth of our research to meet their business needs.' Group margin was 39% compared with 43% last year, reflecting investment.

Group net assets have increased by 56% from £6.8m to £10.6m and the share price has risen from £0.98 (adjusted for the 5:1 share split on 10 April 2007) at 31 July 2006 to £1.49 at 31 July 2007, an increase of 52%.

Meanwhile UK newspaper The Guardian this week suggested that YouGov's recent polls, showing an apparent Conservative Party resurgence, may have played a major role in Gordon Brown's decision not to call an early election. Co-founder and Chief Innovations Officer Stephan Shakespeare told the paper: 'We've had a terrific profile in the last few weeks', explaining: 'What happened was all the speculation about an early election really changed the dynamic of the conferences and certainly changed the tone of the Tory conference.' Political polling accounts for just 2.5% of YouGov's UK revenues but grabs it many of its headlines. The Guardian also suggests that the firm is 'understood to be close to a deal with a major US news network to provide polling data for next year's presidential election.'

Web site: www.yougov.com.