Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to welcome you to the 2025 final results presentation for Amcomri. I'm delighted to say that we've had a record year, fifth year of consecutive strong growth, despite many of the challenges that the global situation has presented to us, both in 2025 and more recently in 2026. I think the results that we're going to take you through today hopefully give you good confidence that we're continuing to validate the model, the team delivering the model, and I think it helps also demonstrate the resilience that our model has built into it, to accommodate wider challenges in the world. Very keen to show you that progress, take you through that, and we'll just run through first our summary.
We'll go through our financials, take you through a couple of case studies, talk about the pipeline and what we see the summary and the outlook looks like, and obviously plenty of time for question at the end. Just like to revisit the model briefly with you. Many of you have seen this before, but just to give you a quick walk through the basis of our Buy, Improve, Build model. On the left-hand side of the slide, you can see at the moment, the buy side of our process as you, I think many are aware, we have an SME, U.K., and Irish industrial focus.
What we're looking for is businesses that have got significant latent opportunity that hasn't been developed, but we can acquire those businesses through a transactional process that works to our advantage, and then take those businesses with latent opportunity and work through a series of processes where we work to improve and build the business, working with the management teams in the business on an autonomous basis with the objective of breaking that SME plateau that many of these more mature industrial businesses have. The opportunity we have is to buy well on the input side, and then obviously apply our industrial skills, and our operational skills to progressively build those businesses. The further opportunity that that model provides is organic growth, clearly through the build, but secondly, bolt-on opportunities and then further synergistic acquisitions within the two divisions that we have in the group.
That's the sort of headline of our model. I think over the last 12 months, and as we go into 2026, we're seeing continued strong performance from the model, good resilience and diverse risk profile associated with it, which is a good position for us to be in at this point. I'd like to move to the next slide. Thank you. Just a quick recap on our markets and operating divisions. Again, I know this is knowledge to some of you have already. If we look at the bottom of the page there, the key markets that we're servicing, across the bottom of the page, we've seen no substantial change in our end markets in terms of what we're targeting. That's still a core area for us that you can see.
We've seen some positive movements in some of those markets over the last 12 months. Not surprisingly, defense has seen some uplift, and we see a lot of focus, again, not surprisingly at the moment on the energy and power side. The way we address those markets, just to recap, is through two divisions, Embedded Engineering, and B2B Manufacturing. In the B2B Manufacturing business, what we're essentially doing is manufacturing a product that is used in other parts of industry. We manufacture a range of industrial products. The tapes business we have, for example, Premier Limpet, gaskets and seals, and then precision engineering and other printing activities. They all sit in B2B Manufacturing, all about manufacturing a product. On the left-hand side, we've got Embedded Engineering. Embedded Engineering is really about providing niche technical services to high integrity, capital intensive industries, infrastructure, large sites, power, petrochemicals, et cetera.
This is all about technical service provision in Embedded Engineering. Our strategy is to continue to evolve that model, to refine it, and we will continue to focus on those two primary sectors as we move forward. Over the period, as some of you are aware, over the last five years, the business has substantially scaled against that model. We've moved from somewhere around GBP 6.5 million turnover in 2020 to this year, as you'll see in the results shortly, just slightly under GBP 71 million. A substantial scale up that we've managed to achieve through that business model and those markets. Just quickly, going through the headlines of 2025, Siobhán will take you through this in more detail. Very pleased with the results. We've had a number of challenges, as I said in the introduction, that we've managed on that journey.
Some of our markets and some of our businesses are up, some of them are down. The benefit of our model is we have that distributed risk under certain challenging conditions. I think that's worked well. We've maintained our margins at 36.6%, and as I've said a few seconds ago, our revenue is now just under GBP 71 million. That's 22% up on the prior year, and our adjusted EBITDA, GBP 9.2 million, which is 19% up. I think if we look at the performance of the acquisitions that we made in the period, EMC and Electronix, we're very pleased with both of those acquisitions. They've been very positive to our performance in the year. They're both showing strong performance into 2026, which we're very pleased with. The balance sheet position, as the slide shows, is still strong, and Siobhán will talk about that in a little bit more detail.
We've got a pipeline, and a scale-up capability that is still very strong. Our pipeline, as Mark will touch on in a few minutes, has never been stronger on the acquisition side. Similarly, in the improve and build part of our model, we have got a significant number of organic growth projects that we're targeting on a focused basis, which I'll cover in a few minutes. I think in terms of the high-level messages behind those very pleasing results, our key markets, as listed on the slide there, are still very positive for us. We had some pressure in the rail infrastructure market that you may recall from my previous presentation or our previous presentation, where the infrastructure cycle, investment cycle had slowed. What we're seeing now is some recovery in the smaller projects side of that rail electrification, which we are well-positioned to take advantage of.
Whilst the high-level projects still remain slow, we've got some good traction on the smaller projects. We've also, in that business that we have in that sector, WJ Projects, they very successfully transitioned to do more maintenance activities, which has the benefit of longer-term recurring revenue. We've seen a good recovery in the performance of that business in the first quarter this year. We're pleased with the performance there. I think if we look across the other key markets, the general trend and pressure towards electrification, power generation, grid upgrades, and private network upgrades, we see a lot of activity in those markets that's very beneficial for us, and we're well positioned to take advantage. Similarly, most recently, of course, in petrochemicals, a lot of pressure in that sector.
From the point of view of the refineries that we serve in the U.K., we've got a very good position with those customers. The pressure that comes on those facilities under the current circumstances, we're able to take a positive from that in terms of the refinery demand for maintenance and services. Secondly, the second one to comment on is around defense. Clearly the same principles apply. The defense market is very strong at the moment for very obvious reasons. Two of our businesses, probably three, Blundell, Claro, and Drurys, are well positioned in that market. We've seen some uplift in our markets around both conventional defense and, more recently, the use of drones has also positively impacted on our Blundell business, for example. Quite a positive move there.
I think to summarize that market position in terms of the diversified end position that we've got where we're spread across several markets where we do see movement, obviously we're balancing that risk. Overall, we're pretty pleased with the position of our end markets. Similarly, on our Buy, Improve, Build model, that continues to deliver across a couple of examples. Our Drurys and Claro businesses that we purchased at a discounted rate, we've got very good performance on those. Mark will talk through one shortly on a case study. Our acquisitions that I've mentioned already are performing well. Our 2025 results, I think, demonstrate that across the whole model, whilst we may have movements, overall, we get a very positive, resilient result. As I've mentioned earlier, the pipeline looks very strong, both organically and from an acquisition point of view.
Overall, key message I think, I would say we're very happy with the performance. We're seeing good run into 2026. The caveat, of course, must be what's happening in the Gulf at the moment. A very unpredictable situation. There are one or two of our businesses that have some mild vulnerability to that, particularly where we're in the B2B sector and we're manufacturing and we're dependent on supply chains. At this stage, we're seeing no significant impact from the activities in the Gulf. We've put in place a robust risk assessment process that is now weekly updated to monitor that situation and make sure we're taking appropriate mitigating action. Whilst it's uncertain, within the controls that we have, we are very proactive on managing that situation. In terms of our strategy, relatively simple really, in that we're not intending to substantially change what we're doing.
Our model we feel works very well. We are continuing to refine it. We will continue to focus on that SME industrial sector, where we have got a lot of experience, both in transaction and in our operational teams and their experience of the Improve and Build cycle. In Embedded Engineering, our task now is to continue to add to the services that we provide. We are looking more specifically to target our acquisitions to specific services that we do not currently have that we can add to our Embedded Engineering portfolio and get more synergies by working those existing businesses with new acquisitions, EMC being a most recent example. We are finding that our customers are very receptive to us adding services to the provision of our current operations in Embedded Engineering. We will be developing out those services within our chosen markets.
In B2B Manufacturing, our task is really to continue the organic growth of those businesses and support them. We have had a lot of success in our engineering businesses, following the curve of growth that they have been able to deliver, we will continue to look for businesses in manufacturing in the SME sector that have latent opportunity that we can acquire in a sound transactional basis that we can then develop and break that SME plateau that we have talked about before.
I think the key outcomes continue to be a strong focus on total shareholder return, providing a superior, consistent financial outcome that has got an element of resilience in it through our structure, and ultimately, looking to scale that now to the next stage now we have been on the market for just over 16 months. Hopefully that gives you a good insight into our strategy and our direction.
Probably at this point, I will hand over to Siobhán to take us through the numbers in more detail.
Thank you, Hugh. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning. I am very pleased to be able to report a strong financial performance for 2025, with meaningful progress across our key metrics. In terms of our revenue, our revenue has increased by GBP 12.9 million- GBP 70.9 million at the end of 2025. This represents a 22% increase year-on-year growth, it has been driven by both organic revenue growth and the successful integration of the acquisitions that we have done in 2025.
Importantly, we have seen a shift in our revenue mix. The revenue from our Embedded Engineering division now accounts for more than 52% of the group's revenue, this is up from 43% in 2024. This is significant because our Embedded Engineering companies typically have higher margins, that mix shift has contributed to the increase in the gross profit margin, which is up from 36.4%- 36.6%.
Our adjusted EBITDA has improved 19% to GBP 9.2 million. This really demonstrates our continued ability to convert that top-line revenue into earnings while maintaining margin discipline. If we move down to the P&L, our operating expenses are up GBP 3.4 million on 2024. This is comprised of a number of different elements. First of all, we have an additional GBP 1.5 million of operating expenses from the new acquisitions in 2025. We also have an increase in our group overhead in AGP, predominantly related to the cost of being a listed entity. We also have the full-year contribution coming onto our P&L from the acquisitions we've done in 2024. In terms of our exceptional costs, these have reduced significantly since 2024. We had over GBP 1.7 million of IPO-related costs in 2024, and these have now repeated into 2025.
The costs in the current year relate to one-off trading and restructuring costs. We also have our share-based expenses. If we look at our financing costs, this is comprised of a number of different elements. We've over GBP 1.6 million of financing costs on our external loans. This is down over GBP 200,000 on the previous year. The remaining balance is made up of our HP lease and our lease interest expense, which has increased somewhat in the current year. The net effect of these two is a reduction in our overall financing costs of GBP 100,000. Lastly, if we look at our net profit after tax, very pleasing to be able to say it's more than doubled, up to GBP 3 million at the end of 2025. Overall, we can clearly see our group is delivering profitable growth.
We are improving our revenue quality and also demonstrating strong margins throughout our P&L. Turning now onto our balance sheet. We strengthened our financial position at the end of 2025. Our total assets have increased to GBP 67.8 million, up from GBP 59 million at the end of 2024. What's comprising those balances at the end of the year and also the movements throughout the year? First of all, if we look at our non-current assets, our right-of-use assets have increased to GBP 7.5 million. A large portion of this increase is coming from direct targeted capital expenditure across three of our B2B manufacturing companies. Of the GBP 2.1 million of capital expenditure in the year, over GBP 1.6 million of that expenditure relates to those targeted growth areas.
Our intangibles have increased over GBP 6 million to GBP 23.5 million at the end of 2025. That's directly related to the goodwill that we're recognizing on those acquisitions in 2025. Moving down to the balance sheet. If we look at our key working capital movements, you can see our inventory is pretty flat year-on-year. Our receivables have increased by over GBP 3.8 million. However, if you look at on a like-for-like basis, if we take the receivable balances of the new acquisitions we've done in 2025, their total balance at the end of the year was GBP 3.8 million. On a like-for-like basis, we're showing a pretty flat balance overall. If you take that into consideration with the 22% increase on our revenue since 2024, we're clearly showing very good working capital management throughout. Our cash has reduced to GBP 8.6 million.
This is following the completion of those acquisitions in 2025. We'll go through the cash flow in a little bit more detail on the next slide. Just to touch upon our net debt position. This includes our deferred consideration. It has increased to GBP 11.2 million, up from GBP 6.1 at the end of 2024. This results in a leverage position of 1.2x adjusted EBITDA, which is a very comfortable level for us as a group to operate within. Lastly, just to touch upon our continued deferred consideration.
There is an increase in the balance up to GBP 4.6 million, and this directly relates to earn-out obligations for WJ Electronics and EMC, and this is payable subject to performance targets over the earn-out period. Just to summarize, our net assets have increased to GBP 23.7 million, reflecting the earnings retained and the value created whilst also leaving us with. Excuse me.
The value created through our acquisition activity leaves us very comfortable with our prudent leverage position also. Lastly, just to touch upon our cash flow. As I mentioned, we've maintained disciplined capital deployment while preserving that liquidity headroom for future opportunities. The net cash inflow from operating activities remains stable at GBP 6.6 million, despite the increase in the GBP 3.8 million in receivables, which as I mentioned, has been linked to both revenue growth and the integration of acquired businesses during the year. In terms of our investing activities, our capital expenditure, as I mentioned, GBP 2.1 million spent in the year, GBP 1.6 of this went into growth-related capital expenditure. The balance covering health and safety, maintenance, and also software implementation across the group in the year. The acquisition spend total GBP 4.2 million, and that includes the acquisition of EMC and Electronix Services in 2025.
On the financing side, we undertook selective refinancing during the year. With some of the interest rates beginning to ease and some of our facilities nearing the end of their terms, we took the opportunity to reset some of our debt. The net result on cash flow, an increase in our net debt of GBP 1 million. While it's clear we have a strong group cash position at the end of the year of GBP 8.6 million, the refinancing allowed us to extend those maturities and also importantly, increase liquidity and provide more flexibility for the group. We also paid down over GBP 2.3 million in deferred consideration. This includes deferred consideration for WJ, Kestrel, eTrac, and we also did the final purchase of the minority interest in J A Harrison. What does that leave us with?
We close the year with a cash balance of GBP 8.6 million, which gives us comfortable headroom and positions us well to pursue future growth opportunities into 2026. I'm now going to pass you over to Mark, who's going to go through some of the most recent acquisitions for the group.
Thanks, Siobhán. Good morning, everyone. Over the next few slides, I'd just like to run through a recap of our acquisitions in 2025, talk through our latest acquisition in 2026, which we've now exchanged on, but not yet complete, then talk through a couple of case studies from some of our other operating companies, where we demonstrate breaking the SME plateau, which is a key theme of our Buy, Improve, Build model. Starting with Electronix Services, this is our first acquisition outside of the U.K. We acquired it in July last year, and it's based in Dublin in Ireland. It's another electronics repair and refurbishment business. Unlike TP Matrix and eTrac, our other two electronics businesses, whose customers predominantly are in the rail sector, Electronix Services has exposure to other industries such as pharmaceutical, medical devices, and transportation.
Some of its customers would include the likes of the large multinationals and pharmaceutical companies in Ireland such as Boston Scientific, as well as Irish Rail on the transportation side. Following the success we've had of eTrac and TP Matrix over the last number of years, this acquisition was a logical next step for us to our growing subgroup of electronics businesses. Since we've actually acquired Electronix Services, we've looked at a number of other opportunities in this sector. It's high margin. It's a gross margin of 60%. It's cash generative. It's low working capital requirements, CapEx light, also has a very strong and skilled management team with a lot of technical expertise and knowledge.
It also opens up a new market for us in Ireland. Having been over to the business on a number of occasions, we've now built up a substantial pipeline of other opportunities in Ireland, which we're looking forward to developing and expanding on next year. Moving on to EMC Elite Engineering Services. You may recall we talked about this acquisition this time last year at the roadshow. It was our first acquisition since the IPO. We acquired it last March. Just to recap, it's another electrical mechanical engineering service provider to the power generation process and aggregate industries, more recently has got involved in the renewable energy space following a large contract win that EMC won last year. This acquisition further complements and expands our service offering within the Embedded Engineering division.
Like Electronix Services, it's a proven sector specialist, also has a very strong management team, a lot of technical expertise and technical knowledge. Because of the services that EMC provides in terms of equipment maintenance, equipment upgrades, project services, these are often driven by regulatory requirements such as planned shutdowns and planned outages. You may recall last June, we announced a large milestone contract win for EMC in June 2025 related to an electrical engineering installation project for a large U.K. renewable energy backup site. That's traded all the way through the second half of last year and into the first half of this year. On the back of that large contract win, it's really positioned EMC well to grow and win further opportunities and also expand its service offering and its specialist services.
On the back of that large contract win and also the underlying business, EMC was immediately earnings accretive to the overall group position and a great acquisition to get over the line last year, as was Electronix Services, another very good strategic fit for our Embedded Engineering division. Just moving on to our latest acquisition in 2026. Firstly, just for context, GridCore Electrical Services Limited. This is a new subsidiary of Amcomri's, and it's entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the business and assets of the National Compliance and Testing division of Enerveo Limited, which is a subsidiary of SSE plc.
National Compliance, it's a U.K.-wide specialist electrical and testing business, and it was deemed non-core by its parent, Enerveo, and was to be divested of. This presented Amcomri with a unique opportunity to acquire an established testing and compliance business, which is in a particular area of strategic interest for us at a discounted entry point. Its annualized revenue is in the region of GBP 5 million and has a strong, sticky customer base with a lot of recurring revenue, and also has a very strong and experienced team who'll be coming across to GridCore as part of the transaction. The acquisition price for this business and asset transaction is GBP 1, and we're hoping to complete the acquisition by the end of May. We're just going through a number of conditions in relation to the business purchase agreement at the moment. This is a slightly different proposition for us.
It's not a classic retirement type acquisition such as Electronix Services, which we discussed a moment ago. It's a carve-out of a business from a division, and we're bringing it across into a newly set-up subsidiary of Amcomri. However, it provides us with an opportunity to buy an established business in a particular area of strategic interest for us and do this at a discounted entry point. We have a lot of experience of doing these business and asset transactions, most recently with Drurys and Claro, which we acquired in March 2024, which we're going to talk about in a moment. I'm just going to let Hugh now just talk a little bit more about the proposition and give the industrial overlay in terms of why we're particularly interested in this area.
Okay. Thanks, Mark. Very briefly, the benefit that this brings to the group is it allows us to further populate our matrix of services into key markets with an additional service that we don't currently have, particularly electrical testing and the remedial work that's associated with any testing that is not satisfactory. That all can now be delivered through GridCore Electrical Services and our other businesses. There's a good synergistic overlay from the tests.
secondly, it also gives us access to what we call private networks, where we have an ability to provide the HV services from WJ, from EMC, and also now from GridCore Electrical into private networks that are operated by major sites, potentially paper mills, dockside ports, et cetera, where we're able to now, through GridCore Electrical Services, develop an increased position in providing services to those private networks, both with this business and our other businesses that we already have. We see it as an excellent fit to the group, and as Mark's explained, a very preferential transaction that allows us to get that entry point in good position, basically.
Yeah. Thanks, Hugh. Just moving on then to two case studies where we talk about breaking the SME plateau, one on the Embedded Engineering side and one on the B2B Manufacturing side. Starting with TP Matrix, this is an acquisition we bought back in March 2021. It's another electronics repair and refurbishment business predominantly focused on the rail sector. The rationale for this acquisition was it had a very technical niche service offering, had an embedded position within the rail sector, and it was a classic retirement type sale, which had hit the SME plateau. It was doing GBP 1.5 million turnover and GBP 350K EBITDA at the time of acquisition, and the vendor was holding it at this level. However, we saw a lot of latent opportunity to break this plateau. It had a high growth margin and a lot of top-line pipeline and commercial development opportunity.
Post-acquisition, we put in place a very strong management team, a commercially focused managing director. He came from the rail sector, and he really understood the service and the value that TP Matrix was providing to its customers and was able to look at pricing then accordingly. A very strong commercial director who'd previously worked in TP Matrix and had a lot of experience working with the customers. On the back of that, we won a lot of new customers as well as new projects with existing customers, such as a number of large TfL contracts. I think if you look in the top right-hand side in the bar chart, you can really see the improved financial performance of this business over a relatively short space of time. We bought this business, as I mentioned, when it was doing GBP 1.5 million turnover, GBP 350K EBITDA.
We paid four times multiple for it and paid half up front and half over three years. As you can see, in the last couple of years, we've achieved well in excess of GBP 1 million EBITDA. Finally, on the back of this acquisition, we've gone on to acquire, as I mentioned, eTrac last year, and there's also a couple of other opportunities in this sector we're looking at at the moment. Okay then. Drurys Engineering, we've also talked about this business previously before, but it's a slightly different proposition, just want to mention it again. This is one of our precision engineering businesses, which supplies predominantly into aerospace and defense. The rationale for this business entry point to the acquisition is slightly different. We were aware of this business.
It has always had a strong management team, with good end markets, but it was part of a group that ran into financial difficulty. A bit similar to what's happened with GridCore and the National Compliance acquisition, this presented us with an opportunity to buy a very established business at a discounted entry point through a pre-pack administration in March 2024. Post-completion of that acquisition, we implemented a stabilization plan with the management team, restored customer confidence, and ensured we had continuity of supply. Our operational team worked alongside the management team to improve a lot of business process improvements, improve capacity, improve margins. In parallel to that, we obviously had this significant increase in end market demand through aerospace and particularly defense.
On the back of that, we've selectively increased and invested in our CapEx to support this demand, as Siobhán had mentioned on her earlier slides. Again, I think if you look at the top right-hand corner, you can see the increased substantial improved financial performance of this business in a relatively short space of time, and it achieved over GBP 1 million EBITDA in the last 12 months. Okay. Just discussing the pipeline. I'm going to hand over to Hugh in a moment, who's just going to talk briefly on a few organic growth opportunities that we're working on, and then wrap up on the final slide. Just before doing that, just to touch really on the acquisition strategy and on the current acquisition pipeline. What we've included here is just a snapshot of some of the current businesses that we're looking at.
I think what you can see here is a range in terms of the split between the Embedded Engineering division, the B2B Manufacturing division, and also a couple of bolt-on opportunities as well, which we've done a number of already. I think the overriding point to make on the acquisition pipeline is that we've never been so busy. We're absolutely inundated with opportunity, and we have to be very selective now in terms of which opportunities we're choosing to deploy resources to look at. At the back end of last year, we spent a lot of time getting around the market, meeting a lot of regional corporate finance advisors around the U.K. and also Ireland. On the back of that have significantly increased our pipeline. In parallel to that, we also get a lot of off-market opportunities, a lot of referrals from other businesses.
We've also gone down the direct target marketing route, where we're targeting specific end markets, specific businesses, and having quite a lot of success with that. The final point I'd really make is that we've absolutely got a huge amount of opportunity and extremely bullish in terms of being able to roll out our model and our Buy, Improve, Build model at an accelerated pace. I'll just pass you back to Hugh, who's just going to talk through some of our organic growth opportunities from our existing operating companies.
Okay. Thank you, Mark. I know there's a lot of interest in our organic growth performance. We thought it would be helpful just to give some context to that and also explain how we approach that. There are some nuances to the particular markets that we operate in and how that impacts on our ability to generate organic growth. Just to give it context, if you look at our businesses generally, particularly in Embedded Engineering, our entry point is that we've got stable, mature businesses that have not shown significant organic growth by their very nature. That's part of our interest in acquiring them, is they've got latent opportunity. The customer base that we have in those end markets is, generally speaking, very conservative. They're technically risk averse.
They want proven solutions. They just do not quickly act to take on new clients or new technical services or new products. The challenge that we have is to work with those clients over an extended basis to get projects through that can generate organic growth. Once we've got a position with those customers where you have been able to give them a service that they value, or a particular technical innovation that allows them to extend life of assets, generally, you have a very strong embedded position. The longevity of earnings and the longevity of the relationship is very significant. There's a barrier to entry almost for others once you've achieved that position. The key point I wanted to make is that that's not a linear progression.
It doesn't year on year just become additive as if you were selling an item of clothing and you could just sell more. It's more about having sometimes lumpy projects that deliver in one year. Then there might be a gap before the next shutdown. We get the next piece of business. Our challenge with organic growth in explaining it is to help our shareholders and interested parties understand that dynamic. Against that background, you'll see that we have made good progress on organic growth. We tend to, so you can understand how we do that, we approach it in two stages really. The first stage of our organic growth projects with our companies is to look at what we can do internally. That might be cost reduction, it might be pricing structures, it might be margin optimization.
That internal activity is the first point of our target to get organic earnings growth. Secondly, we work on the revenue development of the businesses. As Mark's shown you in those two case studies, you can see both of those factors coming through. The revenue growth opportunity is conditioned by the factors in the market that I've explained. It may not be linear, there may be some test work. That test work could be quite extended. The outcome of that might not be every year repeated. It might be one year. Then there might be a gap. Then you may get the benefit in a second year. The way we manage that process is we've now identified the top organic growth opportunities in our businesses.
We prioritize them, we review them monthly, then, depending on the priority and the benefit that they can provide, they get significant group support to help accelerate that project. If it's a smaller project, the management teams themselves will take that on board and run it, as Mark's demonstrated through both of the two case studies very successfully. I think just to pick on a couple of successes that we particularly had in 2025 that you can see in the results, the EMC project that we've won on the renewables site is a very significant organic growth uplift. We've won a major valve contract on a long-term basis with the U.K.'s largest oil refinery. Our Kestrel Valves business has made significant inroads into the energy from waste market with its specialist valves service provision.
All of which have made significant difference to those businesses over the period. The task now is to continue to roll that model. We thought it'd be helpful just to explain the underlying trends in that organic growth area. Just to summarize, hopefully I won't spend a lot of time on this because we want to leave time for questions, but hopefully you can see that the model that we've now continued to evolve and develop, I think we've got to a position where we can demonstrate strong growth momentum. We still have very positive conditions in our end market. We are now being able, through the presence on the market and people being aware of our activities, has helped fill that pipeline that Mark's talked about. We've got substantial number of operational organic improvement projects that we can carry through, and we're working on those.
I think looking into 2026, with a caveat of what's going on in the Gulf at the moment, which we're closely monitoring, I think we're quite confident, certainly, over the next few months of the performance of the business, subject to us maintaining a close look on that Gulf position. The reason for that is, as I've explained, our end markets do have some resilience, although it's a very unpredictable environment at the moment. We've got good visibility on forward projects, I think a most important point I wanted to make was around the fact that we've continued successfully to attract a lot of talent into the business. In the last 12 months, we've recruited a further 19 senior or technical people into our businesses, which has been a very positive development and allows us to continue that scale.
I think at the end of the day, my message would be, I think we're now able to demonstrate proven model. I think the model is robust and proven. We've got a proven team that are delivering it, hopefully you can see from the results, we've got proven results coming out of that process. We're very pleased and would like to move to the point of taking questions if we can.
Thank you. We have had a number of questions pre-submitted and submitted live. Just as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please type them into the Q&A box situated on the right-hand side of your screen. Our first question for today is, if government spending slows, how exposed are you to a turn down in defense?
I'll take that. If we look at the defense revenue component as a function of the total revenue of our business, in the last 12 months, it's moved up slightly. When we came to the market with the IPO, it was around about 6%, 6.5%. What we've seen is that move up to around 9.5%, and the primary businesses that we have that are connected to that expenditure are Blundell Production Equipment, which is providing electronic equipment into the defense industry, and Drurys and Claro. If we look at any downturn in expenditure that may come out of defense review or government changes, which I think is probably in the short term, a little bit unlikely, I don't think that will predominantly or significantly impact on the business. That is because the nature of the underlying products and services that we provide.
Potentially in Blundell, it could dial down slightly the electronics equipment side of things. From what we're seeing, I think we've got a reasonably good resilience to any U.K.-based defense downturn.
Thank you, Hugh. Our next question is, net debt has increased quite a bit. How comfortable are you with leverage at this time or at this stage, sorry?
Yeah, I'll take that, Evie. Yes, as Siobhán pointed out, net debt has increased to GBP 11.2 million at the end of last year at a leverage of 1.2x . If you roll that forward over the course of this year, factoring in our National Compliance and Testing acquisition, which is the consideration of only GBP 1, and assumed no further acquisitions for the rest of the year, your leverage would come down to sub 1x by the end of the year. That said, we're confident of landing another couple of acquisitions this year. If we assume we add in another couple this year at a level of, say, GBP 750K EBITDA at a 4x multiple and roll that forward into next year as well, we stay within acceptable limits of 1.5x , which is a leverage ratio we're comfortable operating in.
Thank you. Do the founders you buy from always stick around or do some leave once they have sold?
I'll probably answer that if it's helpful. We have a mixture really. If we look at the retiring founders, what we are trying to do is create a positive outcome for them, clearly, both personally and financially. If you look at the basis of our model, sometimes the reason we get a discounted entry is because of the risk of transition, particularly with them holding particular technical skills or customer relationships. What we try and do is always find a balance that works for them and works for us. Classically, that will involve them staying for a period of probably not less than 18 months. We have some instances where founders have expressed a desire to leave after a period and then enjoyed the experience of working with us, pleasingly, and they have continued a longer-term relationship on a consultancy or part-time basis.
Those sorts of arrangements work quite well for us because we don't lose the technical expertise. We keep the engagement, and clearly it works for them as well because it gives them an intellectual interest going forward. It does vary, but that's the general characteristics of how we would look to operate the model, de-risking, but also then recognizing that people want to move on.
Thank you. Our next question is, the numbers look great this year, but how much of that is repeatable next year?
Yeah. I'm obviously done.
Good.
I think if we look at the journey that the group has been on. Hugh mentioned earlier, back in 2020, revenue was over GBP 6.5 million, adjusted EBITDA of GBP 750K. Roll forward to 2024, revenue at GBP 58 million. 2025, GBP 70.9 million, representing 22% repeat uplift. If we look at the forecast guidance that has been published this week, revenue at GBP 80 million at the end of 2026. We, the Amcomri team, absolutely back ourselves to achieve that. In summary, do we think the numbers are repeatable? Yes.
To add to that, I would say if you look at what's driving those numbers and the end markets that we're serving and the condition of those end markets and the services that we're providing, as well as the end markets being positive, in some instances, in Embedded Engineering, for example, we're seeing the underlying demand increase. Because as some of these assets that we work on get older, and we're seeing it particularly in the petrochemical sector at the moment, the owners are looking to extend the life of those assets for many years. I'll give you one example. We had a valve that came into our Kestrel workshops about four weeks ago that had been in service for 50 years, and the operators now are seeking to extend the life of that for another 50 years.
That's a significant extension of life to an old piece of equipment that requires a lot of work. Actually, the work in some areas is rising as a result of asset extension. That plays to our skills and our strengths, and that's how we're constructing our Embedded Engineering division to be able to access those sorts of opportunities. As Siobhán says, as well as the hard numbers at the top, underneath that, the drivers are quite positive for us, which we obviously are seeking to develop.
Thank you. Our next question is: Can you speak a bit more about the way that you filter the acquisition pipeline? What are the hurdles or judgments that you apply and ensure that you aren't spending too much resource on the wrong targets?
Hugh, do you want to start that one?
Yeah. I think, as I mentioned, Evie, the pipeline has never been so buoyant. We've had a significant amount of new opportunities come through over the last number of months. We've taken on board a couple of new investment analysts who've helped us in regard to evaluating these opportunities as they've come through. I think over the last number of years, we've developed quite a strict, disciplined approach in terms of evaluating businesses through our investment criteria. There's a lot of characteristics that we look for when we're assessing businesses, either in the Embedded Engineering division and also on the B2B Manufacturing division as well.
I think if you look at the range of acquisitions that we've done over the last number of years, in terms of classic retirement type acquisitions, we've also moved away into doing slightly different acquisitions, such as the business and asset businesses we've bought and are buying with GridCore. We have a slightly differentiated approach in terms of how we approach certain transactions. That said, we don't move away from our investment criteria and the characteristics, I guess, that have worked very well for us to date.
Thank you. Our next question is: Should investors expect an equity raise at some point to fund growth?
Want to take that?
Yeah.
Yeah. I think, as I mentioned, talking through where we are, clearly there is a hell of a lot of opportunity in terms of the acquisition pipeline. I think, as we talked through, we're quite comfortable with our leverage position at the moment. We have sufficient debt capacity. We've got cash resources, and we've also, the way we structure our transactions and ability to be able to fund upfront consideration and then spread the deferred consideration through an earn-out ensures we're very efficient in terms of our use of cash. In the short term, we're not expecting any equity raise. That said, we've grown quite significantly over the last number of years. We see a lot of opportunity in the SME market.
We want to remain opportunistic, and if any large or good compelling propositions come in that require a larger capital raise, that is something potentially we consider in time. I think it's important just to note that we could look at that in due course, but not at the moment. It's not considering.
Thank you, Mark. Our next question is: You talk about the entrepreneurial mindset. Can you explain how subsidiary-level management are left to their own devices versus overseen by central management?
Yeah. I'll pick it up. The whole model is based on running autonomous business units that get appropriate levels of support when they need it, coach those businesses if they need that particular element of support, and support them financially. Also put in place then systems, processes that allow them to run their business autonomously to good standards and take the benefit of the experience that we have acquired over the years in what works and what doesn't work, and secondly, then facilitate with those management teams the growth that we've talked about. In some instances, that means that we apply higher levels of support to businesses that are early in the journey and maybe haven't become quite as established through the ownership transition as they need to be.
We have the Amcomri triangle, that I think is in the appendix, that we use to define that stage where we build a foundation. Then secondly, as they gain experience of working in our model and gain scale themselves, what we try and do is encourage them to build their business as it were their own, if you can see what I mean, but give them the support and the structure that enables them to do that safely with high degrees of financial integrity and good process in it. Our two industrial directors Mark and Steve, very focused on making sure that those processes are embedded, executed, and continued as the business grows. We're sort of supportive, but we're very keen to keep that autonomous entrepreneurial spirit in the business, but within a framework that is robust and got good integrity.
Thank you. Can you talk more about competition for deals, especially from PE and Nordic serial acquirers? How do you avoid bidding wars?
You want to take that, Mark?
Yeah. I'll take that. I think the area of the market that we focus on, which is the lower end of the mid-market, is certainly becoming more competitive. As I mentioned, when we really started out back in 2020, 2021, we talked about the TP Matrix acquisition, for example. We bought that at a very good price point. There wasn't a huge amount of competition at that stage. Since then, moving forward five years, there is much more interest and competition in the space that we're operating in, due to Scandinavian players are taking much more of an interest in the U.K. SME market. There's some smaller U.K. buy and builds as well that have cropped up in the last couple of years. That has made it more competitive, and it has increased the price point slightly.
That said, I would still back us to win all the deals that we go for. I think the reasons for that really are, we've obviously got a lot of transaction experience, having done 19 of these acquisitions now. We've a strong track record, strong reference points. We also have a very strong and capable operational team. We've also got Hugh's industrial knowledge, which also sets us apart when we're competing with other competitors. I think what we've recently done as well, as evidenced by the GridCore acquisition and the previous business on asset acquisitions, we can have the ability to do different type of transactions as well. Not just doing the vanilla retirement type acquisitions that the Swedish players might be looking at.
Thank you. We are now moving on to our final question for today. If you have any further questions, please email the team, who will respond to any questions that weren't covered today. Our final question is, how do you manage the complexity of integrating new acquisitions to the group?
If I start with that, and then maybe Siobhán can pick up on the financial piece. When we acquire a business, generally speaking, what we'll do is, on the run-up to the acquisition, we'll define a 180-day plan that manages the initial transition into the group. Depending on what that business does, what situation it's in, what the ownership structure looks like, how big it is, that plan will have a series of elements to it that we will put together into a project plan and run it on a time base over the first 180 days to make sure that we get a really good, robust runway, where the business is clear on how it needs to operate under our ownership. We try and promote evolution there rather than revolution.
If there's something we need to do really quickly, maybe on the financial integrity of the business, that would be in the plan. We tailor the plan to the individual transitions that we take place. Again, if you go through the presentation pack, there should be in the appendix a triangle that shows the foundations that we choose to operate on. Our model has a defined number of areas that we concentrate on. Getting the people right, getting the health and safety components of the business right, making sure we've got proper cash flows and financial integrity and control, which Siobhán will pick up on in a minute. Basically setting a basic framework that puts integrity, stability, and also ensures that the individuals in the business are not unduly disturbed or destabilized by the transition that's taking place.
Generally after 180 days, what we'll then do is to start to build our understanding of the business and start on that journey of making internal changes that may be beneficial to the financial performance. Not until we've got that sound base in our model across operations, finance, HR, and commercial customer relationships. Maybe, Siobhán, you just want to touch on the financial elements of that are quite important.
Absolutely. In terms of integrating an acquisition successfully into the group, what we do is we also focus on a key number of KPIs that we're tracking to make sure the company's aligned with our strategy, our growth profile, and also for market expectations. On the financial side, there's a number of different KPIs that we would track, whether it be revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA, financing costs. Hugh mentioned cash conversion, very important for the group. We would monitor debt levels, and make sure that the companies integrate appropriately. On the operational side as well, we've touched upon looking at with a new company, what projects they're delivering, what the margins are. We regularly support the teams in terms of reviews on project control, pipeline conversion, and also if there's a customer concentration.
Overall, we would use KPIs as a way to integrate the companies successfully into the group, and I think we've shown a good track record of that over the past five years, really.
Thank you. That's all the questions that we have time for today. I'll hand back over to the management team for any closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you. Well, hopefully you've found it useful. I think we feel we've made very good progress. As we've talked about the model that we've got, the Buy, Improve, Build model. What that has brought through the model and the basis of that is strong transactional experience, a strong focus on financial integrity, and clearly a very in-depth industrial expertise that we've been able to bring together into the overall outcomes that you're seeing today. We very much believe it's got legs. The thing is very scalable. I think we've demonstrated over the last five years how we can systematically do that, and I think with the team that we've now got in place, we're really looking forward to taking it to the next stage, and we're very positive about that.
Probably could do with a little bit of help in some of the wider global issues at the moment, but we're not unduly concerned about it. We will continue