CountPlus Limited (ASX: CUP) today issued its Half-Year (1H22) financial update for the six months ending December 31, 2021. The Company has reported net profit attributable to shareholders for the period of $3.44M and earnings (EBITA) of $5.90M.
“Despite the ongoing challenges posed by the impact of Covid-19 and uncertainty within the financial advice segment, CountPlus remains well-placed due to our disciplined financial controls and continued strategic growth focus,” CountPlus Interim CEO Laurent Toussaint said.
The business announced a 1.50 cent per share fully franked dividend payable for the half year ended 31 December 2021, a 20% increase on the previous half year 31 December 2020. After investing $12.96M in new business partnerships, the business retained a net cash position of $11.48M.
“Our strong cash and debt position provides capacity to fund further strategic growth,” Mr Toussaint added.
Core-Related Segment
In November 2021, CountPlus announced the acquisition of Accurium, Australia’s leading supplier of actuarial certificates and education services to the SMSF sector. Accurium made a $0.710M contribution to EBITA in 1H2022.
Wealth Axis, a boutique provider of paraplanning, technology and administration support services to financial planning firms, contributed EBITA of $0.070M in this period. Wealth Axis has seen an 85% increase in monthly recurring revenue since 30th June 2021.
Continued growth for Count Financial
The Count Financial advice network reported EBITA of $0.69M as the business transitions to a new model without grandfathered revenue.
“Our strong financial position enables us to invest in technology that makes it easier for our members to deliver more advice. In the past year, we have seen a 48% increase in advice documents produced thanks to the simplified templates and digital tools we have introduced,” Mr Toussaint said.
Count Financial has appointed 27 new advisers to its network so far in 2022, with another 20 currently going through the onboarding process. The business now has 263 advisers in its national community and expects grow its financial adviser cohort to 288 by 31 March 2022.
“Since the corresponding period last year, our average Gross Business Earnings (GBE) per adviser has increased by 24%, with $39.44M in total GBE across our network being generated for the 6-month period to 31 December 2021. We have also seen a 14% increase in the total number of clients being serviced by a Count Financial adviser compared with 1H2021,” Mr Toussaint added.