YouGov Continues Rapid Rise

YouGov has announced interim results for the six months ended 31 January 2008, with acquisitions helping to treble its turnover and more than quadruple its headcount year-on-year. Organic revenue growth was 43% while profit before tax increased 30% to £3.0m.

Turnover was up 208% to £18.8m from £6.1m in the same period in 2007. Adjusted operating profit before amortisation and exceptional items grew 87% to £4.3m versus a year earlier, and Normalised Profit before tax increased 117% to £5.2m. The firm has added almost £10m in cash to the £4.3m it had on deposit at 31st January 2007.

Earnings per share increased from 2.6 pence to 3.1 pence and current assets are now valued at a total of £29.0m (from £7.6m on 31 January 2007). Consistent with earlier statements, the Directors are not recommending a dividend.

Co-Founder and CEO Nadhim Zahawi comments: 'The first half of the financial year has been a period of transformation for YouGov. While the good organic growth demonstrates the strength of our model and commitment to research excellence, the acquisitions announced in August have accelerated our international expansion considerably. As planned, the three companies have been largely integrated and the benefits are coming through as we roll out our core products.

'We are benefitting from the considerable investment we are making across the Group which, combined with the international opportunities we have identified, make us confident that 2008 will be another successful year. The second half has started well with the momentum seen in the first half continuing and trading in line with the Board's expectations.'

The Group says its headcount was 425 at 31 January 2008, having risen from 76 to 399 in 12 months in EMEA, and from 21 (Polimetrix staff) to 26 in the US. In the same period, client numbers are up from 306 to 1,215.

A refocusing of the UK business is underway, including a concentration on data services such as BrandIndex and Omnibus, and on YouGovConsulting; and the appointment of a new management team (see www.mrweb.com/drno/news7940.htm and www.mrweb.com/drno/news8049.htm ).

Both the firm's EMEA and North American panels have grown considerably to 476,337 (from 199,047 a year previously) and 1,034,437 (832,111) respectively.

The firm says it is already seeing the benefits of Group members working closely together, and cites a recent long-term contract win with the European Commission. YouGov will undertake consumer research across seven member countries to develop a standard format for the disclosure of information of financial services products - the first time the EU Commission has engaged in consumer research within the financial services sector. Key elements in the win were 'the complementary expertise and geographic coverage of Zapera and psychonomics'.

Zahawi says he is confident of another successful year, which will include the launch of BrandIndex in Scandinavia, in the first half of calendar 2008. He also hinted at possible expansion in China, India and Latin America, in an interview with Times Online (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article3650830.ece ) although he said there are 'no immediate plans' for this.

YouGov is on the web at www.yougov.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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