The firm is set to pay a dividend of 2.24p per share if approved at the company meeting in April. It says it has made seven acquisitions in total in this period for a total £2.3m.
Harwood has seen assets under influence increase 81% to £3.8bn up from £2.1bn the previous year. Harwood completed the acquisition of Wolverhampton-based Network Direct in August 2016 and it attributes much of the 123% rise in revenue to this acquisition. Network Direct contributed £9.8m as revenue rose to £25.9m from £11.6m the previous financial year.
The firm says its gross margin was 43% down from 61% the year before though it says this is because Network Direct is structurally a lower margin business and excluding its impact gross margin would be 65%.
The adjusted EBITDA is up 59% to £4.3m from £2.7m the previous year. The firm made a successful placing in April 2017 raising £10m after expenses to fund the ongoing acquisition strategy.
Chairman Peter Mann said: “Harwood has reported another strong year of progress, driven by both organic growth and the contributions of acquisitions, underpinning the strategy of strong financial services advice revenues, good quality investment performance and increasing assets, and completing further acquisitions.
“The group is highly cash generative and I am pleased to announce that we are recommending the payment of a final dividend of 2.24 pence per share subject to shareholder approval at the company Annual General meeting on the 18 April 2018. The final dividend will be paid on 11 May 2018 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 27 April 2018.
“Overall, the progress made since the company’s IPO in March 2016 indicates a strong outlook for the next financial year.”
