RNS Number : 9657J

Diales Plc

29 October 2024

Diales Plc

("Diales" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Year End Trading Update

Diales Plc (AIM: DIAL), the leading global professional services consultancy to the construction and engineering industries, providing multi-disciplinary consultancy services including expert witness, claims and dispute resolution services, today announces a trading update for the year ended 30 September 2024.

Trading update

The Group expects to report revenue from continuing operations in FY24 of £43.0m (FY23: £42.6m). The Group expects to deliver an increased underlying* operating profit, from continuing operations, in FY24 of not less than £1.1m (FY23: £1.0m).

In June, the Company reported that it had experienced exceptional short-term staffing issues in North America which had materially affected H1 FY24 performance in the region. As part of its updated strategy, the Board has now made the decision to discontinue its existing operations in the USA and the Company is currently agreeing the timing and mode of this with the management team. Diales expects the transition of local commitments to current management to be completed by the end of H1 FY25. Diales operations in Canada and in South America managed from Spain, remain unaffected.

Financial position

The Group continues to have a robust balance sheet with a strong cash position with an improvement in the September 2024 year end cash position to £4.3m (March 2024: £3.6m).

Shareholder returns

The Board continues to return capital to shareholders by way of dividends and the Group's on-going share buyback. The £0.250m share buyback programme announced on 12 June 2024 is ongoing and, to date, the Company has purchased 660,000 shares, representing 71% of the initial funds allocated.

Mark Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer of Driver Group, commented:

'I am pleased to report that the implementation of our strategy continues at pace. The delivery of our re-brand to Diales is now complete and this has been well received by our clients. We have made good progress toward the delivery of our new hub and spoke model. We continue to review opportunities to acquire new talent, with some key hires in place and a pipeline of additional expertise identified and actively under consideration. Feedback across the business signals a positive outlook for this trading year.'

* Underlying figures are stated before the share-based payment costs and one off non-recurring costs

ENDS

Enquiries:

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE UK VERSION OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION NO 596/2014 WHICH IS PART OF ENGLISH LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS AMENDED. ON PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE, THIS INFORMATION IS CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.