Gateley (GTLY) H1 2026 earnings summary

Executive summary

• Revenue increased by 9.3% year-over-year to £94.3m in H1, with 8.6% organic growth, marking the strongest organic performance in three years.

• Growth was driven by management initiatives, pricing, WIP-to-fees conversion, and returns from prior investments, despite some client transactional inertia due to macro uncertainty.

• Investments in people, systems, and platform services supported growth but weighed on margins.

• Interim dividend maintained at 3.3p per share, continuing regular shareholder returns.

• Management remains confident in meeting full-year consensus expectations.

Financial highlights

• H1 26 revenue reached £94.3m, up from £86.3m in H1 25.

• Underlying operating profit margin declined to 9.2% from 10.5% due to payroll, NIC increases, overhead inflation, and investment costs.

• Underlying profit before tax was £9.5m (down 10.8%), and underlying diluted EPS was 5.65p.

• Net debt increased to £19.6m from £6.6m at FY25, reflecting M&A, CapEx, and working capital investments.

• H1 revenue achieved 49.8% of the full-year consensus target, up from 48.1% last year.

Outlook and guidance

• H2 expected to benefit from lifted client inertia, maturing investments, and cost savings realized in H1.

• Full-year results anticipated to be in line with market consensus: FY26 revenue of £189.4m and underlying profit before tax of £23.8m.

• Near-term priority is to achieve at least a 13.5% underlying operating profit margin.

• Continued optimism for long-term growth from investments in Dubai, class actions, and AI development.

• Recent investments in new and established services are generating strong returns.