Trading Update & Change of Accounting Ref Date

WH Ireland Group Plc

(“WH Ireland” or the “Company”)

Trading update & change of Accounting Reference Date

Trading update

The Board of WH Ireland today releases the following trading update for the six month period ended 31 May 2017 and notification of a change of its accounting reference period.

The first six months of the financial year has seen further significant progression across the Company, with both divisions reporting strong momentum both in absolute terms and also relative to the comparative period a year ago, and the first half figures  will show a significant improvement on those for  the previous year.

The Corporate and Institutional Broking division has witnessed a significant increase in transactional revenue, accelerating the client driven activity that we witnessed in the second half of last year. Our pipeline of new business is at the highest that it has been for several years reflecting not just an increased appetite for new issuance by existing clients, but also the result of new growth initiatives within the division beginning to contribute to revenue. 

The Private Wealth Management division has continued to develop its client proposition around advice and fee related business. Our Wealth Planning business has had a particularly strong first half. At the interim period end our assets under management and administration had increased to in excess of £3billion, of which the fastest growing service proposition has remained our discretionary fund management service.

The Board remains cautiously optimistic in relation to the rest of the period despite the obvious headwinds around both UK politics and the economy.

Change of Accounting Reference Date

The Company confirms today that it has agreed to change its accounting reference date, with immediate effect, from 30 November to 31 March. 

Accordingly the Company will release its unaudited interim results for the six month period ending 31 May 2017 on or around 24 July 2017; a second set of unaudited interim results for the six months ending 30 November 2017 by the end of January 2018; and the Company’s final results for the 16 month period ending 31 March 2018 by the end of June 2018.

Post this transitional 16 month period, the Company will look to report as follows:

·     six month unaudited interim results to 30 September 2018 to be announced on or before 30 November 2018 (and similarly in subsequent periods); and

·     audited final results for the year ending 31 March 2019 to be announced on or before 30 June 2019 (with the same timetable in subsequent periods).

Further updates will be provided as required.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

For further information please contact:

WH Ireland Group plc                                                                                            www.whirelandplc.com

Richard Killingbeck, Chief Executive Officer                                                          +44(0) 20 7220 1666