I'm Mark Cook, Chief Executive Officer, and I'm joined by Simon Goodwin, our Chief Financial Officer. In today's update, I'll begin with a summary of our results for the period. Simon will provide a detailed review of the financials, and I'll conclude with an update on our strategic priorities. I'm pleased to share that we are making strong progress in setting the business up for long-term growth, which is the core focus of our strategy. Our profitability improved, supported by margin improvements and the impact of cost savings taking effect. EBITDA was up 46% on the same period last year. Overall revenue was moderately lower year on year, although assessment delivered growth, which I'll come back to shortly in the divisional overview. GBP 20 million worth of cost savings have been delivered so far this year.
We hit a major milestone in our growth strategy with the launch of RM Ava, our adaptive virtual accreditation platform. RM Ava brings together our existing assessment tools into one cloud-based platform, covering the full assessment lifecycle, from content creation and secure online testing through to AI-driven marketing and feedback. This launch strengthens our digital assessment offering, a space where we already perform well, and puts us in a strong position to capture more of this significant global opportunity. It's an opportunity that sees margins improve year on year as customers progress on their journey from paper to digital. Debt remains elevated as expected, reflecting our planned investment in RM Ava. This is a strategic investment that's setting us up for future growth and in a high-potential segment where we have a clear competitive advantage.
We remain committed to reducing net debt, and we will do so in a way that serves the long-term interest of the business and our stakeholders. Our banking partners remain supportive of our direction. We secured an extension to our facility, which is a clear vote of confidence in our strategy and the progress we're making. 2025 is shaping up as a year of real momentum. We are progressing with our transformation to build a sustainable business and drive long-term growth, and we're on track to meet full-year expectations. RM has three distinct divisions, each focused on improving learning outcomes, but delivering different products and solutions to largely separate customer groups. Our assessment division continues to deliver strong progress, with platform revenue up 19%. Platform contracted order book has grown from GBP 95.7 million at the end of FY 2024 to GBP 106.6 million, including contracts awarded in H1 and signed in H2.
Renewals include SACE, the South Australian Certificate of Education Board, where we will move more of the secondary school assessments onto our digital platform, including maths, science, geography, and music. With ACCA, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, we're extending our digital marketing partnerships out to 2032, and we're adding new malpractice functionality to further strengthen exam security. At the start of H2, we were pleased to secure a new logo win with Trinity College London, agreeing a digital marketing partnership for their global music and drama exams. Subjects that require a different kind of assessment approach than a more structured area, like maths or geography. In terms of proof of concepts, as you can imagine, there's a huge interest in how AI could potentially support assessment.
We're at the forefront of that conversation, running live pilots with customers to explain how AI marking compares to human markers across different exam types. Our first study focused on English language testing. We are now working with customers to test AI marking across a broader set of subjects and to show how it can give students richer, more insightful feedback to help them prepare for their final exams. Alongside that, we're in the middle of our summer peak, the busiest time in the assessment cycle. During this period, around 15 million exams will be marked on our platform, which puts on track the 21 million marked papers for the full year. Things are running to plan. We've scanned over 106 million images, and up to half a million papers are being marked a day on the platform.
As of the 1st of July, we were more than 12 million papers marked, with up to 4,300 markers working in the platform at the same time. This isn't just about scale; it's a key moment in a learner's lifecycle. We know how much it matters, and we're fully committed to doing our part, delivering with accuracy, care, and quality. Moving on to our technology division, RM Technologies supports over 6,000 schools across the U.K. with IT and IT services. Unlike generic providers, we really understand how education works. That shaped our summer campaign with the Digital Poverty Alliance, focused on tackling the digital divide, which is a key part of our social purpose. It is this sector insight that makes us a strong IT partner for education.
The division's H1 revenue was temporarily impacted by pressures on U.K. schools' budgets and delayed government funding for key initiatives such as Connect the Classroom. They ended the period securing a number of bids and trusts for managed services and connectivity. Connect the Classroom is now a key opportunity for H2 and into 2026. It's a U.K. government program funding better digital infrastructure in schools. It's a strong fit for RM Technology, allowing us to double down on more core capability and use our deep understanding of the sector. Our Learning Resources division, TTS, also saw revenues dip due to the challenging U.K. schools market and trade tariffs affecting U.S. sales. The Middle East performance, though, has been a significant uptick, with sales more than doubled compared to the same period last year.
That's thanks in part to the opening of a new office in Dubai, which is giving us a springboard for growth across the region. What sets TTS apart is our own intellectual property, award-winning in-house learning resources that improve how children learn and stay engaged. In the half, we launched 104 new products, helping us stay relevant and stand out in a transactional market. I'll now hand over to Simon, who will take you through our financial performance for the half year.
Thank you, Mark. Moving on to a more detailed financial summary of the half year. Our half-year results last year included a small amount of revenue and a GBP 300,000 operating loss from the last weeks of trading of the consortium business in December 2023. The H1 2024 results have been adjusted to remove those consortium values. It is also worth emphasizing that RM is still a very second-half-weighted business, with over half of our revenue and more than three-quarters of our EBITDA on operating cash flow being generated in the second half last year. We anticipate a similar trend this year. With that context, we are pleased with our first half results and the continued progress in key areas that they demonstrate.
Headline revenue did reduce by 6.5% to GBP 73.2 million, with declines in the TTS (Learning Resources) and Technology divisions, as well as the continued decline in legacy assessment contracts not quite being offset by the significant growth that we continue to see in recurring revenues in the Assessment division. Even with the reduction in revenues, adjusted operating profit improved to a profit of GBP 0.9 million from a loss last year of GBP 0.3 million. This marks the first H1 adjusted operating profit that RM has made for a number of years. This result equates to an adjusted EBITDA in H1 of GBP 3.5 million, a 46% improvement on the GBP 2.4 million EBITDA in H1 last year.
This profitability improvement has been delivered through a combination of significant revenue growth in the higher margin assessment platform business, as well as the annualized impact of the GBP 20+ million of cost savings that we have delivered in the previous two financial years. Adjusted net debt has increased further to GBP 59.6 million, which is in line with the increase we saw in the first half of last year, again reflecting the heavy H2 weighting of each of RM 's three divisions. The increase in net debt in H1 2024 included increased capital investment in RM Ava, which was officially launched recently. Other key areas of progress in H1 were the extension of our main banking facility on similar terms by a further one year to July 2027. We remain incredibly well supported by our lenders, HSBC and Barclays.
We also completed the triannual valuation of our two main defined benefit pension schemes, which now show a combined technical provision surplus of GBP 10.5 million. As a result of this, we were able to agree with the schemes' trustees that no further contributions will be required into those schemes over and above those already agreed. On the next slide, we show a summary income statement for the first half year of 2025. We have already covered the adjustment for the discontinued consortium business, as well as the headline revenue and adjusted operating profit numbers. Net finance costs include debt facility interest charges and net finance income from our DB pension schemes. This is broadly in line with last year. Adjustments after tax are significantly lower in H1 2025 at GBP 1.6 million than the GBP 3.5 million of last year.
This is as a result of the work to implement the group's target operating model, which is now complete at the half year. The GBP 0.7 million tax credit in H1 2025 includes the impact of recognizing deferred tax assets. Turning to adjusted revenue, here we bridge the GBP 6 million decrease from the reported revenue in the first half of FY 2024. The first bridging item is the closure of the consortium business, which ceased trading 8th December, 2023, and contributed GBP 0.9 million of revenue in last year's H1 result. Revenue from continuing operations therefore reduced by GBP 5.1 million in H1 2025. During the period, assessments revenue grew by 4.1% to GBP 20.5 million in total.
The division saw continued strong revenue growth in core platform revenues of +19%, as well as in third-party scanning revenues of +24%, resulting in a total increase of +20% in recurring revenue to GBP 17.1 million in H1 2025. This very strong growth is on the back of a successful period of contract renewals with an almost 100% success rate. In addition, we continue to see growth in the volume of assessments processed on our platform from most customers. H1 saw digital project revenues increase, primarily from the major contracts signed with IB and Cooper. Revenue growth was partially offset by the continued, but fully expected, wind-down of legacy and other non-core contracts. TTS revenues decreased by 8.6% in total. U.K. revenue declined as U.K. schools' budgets continue to be squeezed, with budgets not fully keeping up with the impact of teacher pay awards and increases to employers' NI.
Pleasingly, TTS U.K. held market share in this difficult environment. International revenue also declined in the period, with the uncertainty around U.S. tariffs on our predominantly Chinese-manufactured products having a direct impact. Technology revenue was down GBP 3.1 million on prior year, with school IT budgets coming under the same pressure experienced by TTS. In addition, delays in the announcement of the key government-funded project Connect the Classroom have had a material impact on technology's H1 revenues. With this funding now confirmed for 2025 and beyond, we are optimistic that revenues will recover going forward. On this slide, we bridge the movement in adjusted operating profit from the reported loss of GBP 0.6 million in H1 2024 to the GBP 0.9 million profit in H1 2025. Again, we have shown last year's consortium losses of GBP 0.3 million falling away.
On the back of the H1 revenue growth, especially in the most profitable recurring platform revenues, divisional contribution from the Assessment division increased by 11.7% to GBP 6.7 million in H1. This equates to 32.6% of revenue generated by the division, up from 30.5% last year. The declining revenues experienced in both TTS and Technology divisions have resulted in small reductions in contribution from both divisions. This revenue impact has been largely offset by the continued impact of cost savings, as well as improvements in operational efficiency delivered within both divisions. When also combined with the impact of cost savings from corporate overheads, reducing the allocations to these divisions, both have delivered stable or growing adjusted operating profits. A significant focus of our cost-saving initiatives has been to address the high level of central corporate overheads within RM.
While these overheads still remain too high, I am pleased that we have delivered a 10% reduction in corporate overheads in H1 2025. This has been achieved via realignment of the company's property portfolio, renegotiation of third-party contracts, and headcount reductions as we move towards our target operating model. On this slide, I will take you through the key drivers of our cash flow in the period, focusing on the impact on adjusted net debt. Adjusted net debt at the end of H1 was GBP 59.6 million, which is an increase of GBP 7.9 million from the end of last financial year, similar to the GBP 7.1 million increase seen in the equivalent period last year.
Operational cash flows, including movements in working capital and lease payments, continue to be on a stable footing, with a GBP 0.3 million cash inflow in H1, in line with H1 2024, reflecting the improvements made to underlying cash management within the business. As mentioned, capital expenditure has increased in H1 2025 to GBP 4.2 million, compared to the GBP 2.1 million reported in the first half of last year. This increase is almost entirely due to the investment in RM Ava, as the business continues to set itself up to take advantage of the significant opportunity that the move to digital assessment by both existing and new customers offers. The GBP 4.2 million of CapEx in H1 2025 is made up of GBP 3 million relating to Ava build in the period, GBP 0.8 million of timing adjustments relating to Ava spend from last financial year, and GBP 0.4 million of other BAU capital expenditure.
The GBP 3 million of Ava spend in the period is broadly the run rate of expenditure that we expect to continue through the rest of FY 2025, FY 2026, and into FY 2027, taking the total platform bill to approximately GBP 20 million. Defined benefit pension contributions of GBP 1.2 million in H1 are significantly reduced on the GBP 2.1 million of H1 2024. Agreed contribution levels going forward reduce further to only GBP 0.6 million per half year until the end of 2026 when they cease altogether. Interest and financial fees paid of GBP 2.8 million are slightly reduced on H1 last year as the benefit of lower interest rates start to come through. Moving on to the financial outlook to the end of FY 2025, second half revenue is expected to significantly outperform H1, in line with historical seasonality linked to the timing of global exam sessions and U.K. back-to-school trading.
We also expect the Connect the Classroom funding will start to unwind during H2, as well as seeing the impact of new contract wins in assessment. CapEx investment in RM Ava will continue in H2 and into FY 2026 at similar underlying levels seen in the last two half-year periods. We will switch our focus from the target operating model work towards delivering a simplified legal entity and systems environment. This means separating our three divisions from each other and the entanglement of legacy corporate systems and processes. This work will result in continued adjusting items going through our P&L. Our four-year outlook remains in line with market expectations for revenue and adjusted operating profit, and we fully expect to operate within the agreed banking governance, which remain broadly unchanged within our newly extended banking facility. Now, I would like to pass you back to Mark.
Let me finish with an update on our strategy. As I said at the start, our core focus is setting the business up for long-term growth. RM has been a pioneer in edtech for more than 50 years. Staying relevant means evolving with the market to keep growing. RM has a bold ambition in assessment to become the world-class edtech platform. It is ambitious, but we are well placed to deliver it. We already perform strongly in this space, partnering with over 40 customers across 150 countries. That includes major exam boards with two of the world's largest: International Baccalaureate, Cambridge University Press and Assessment, as well as leading professional qualification organizations, including the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Our products and platforms already support the full learning lifecycle.
In 2024, more than 1.4 million on-screen tests were created and delivered using our tools, from maths, English, and geography through to accounting. Over 21 million assessments were marked using our platform. Only a fraction of these were fully digital, the majority currently involving collecting, scanning, and marking handwritten papers. While we're already in a strong place in this space, we are taking action to capture more in this global opportunity. RM Ava opens doors to new customers, new markets, and new revenue streams, while also improving margins. Our strategic focus is clear: grow the business and reduce our debt. We're entering our next chapter with clear intent, going after a major opportunity in front of us and making the business simpler and faster. Our strategy is built on two pillars.
First, we'll continue with the development of RM Ava to strengthen our competitive edge and enable the growth we're aiming for. Second, we'll progress with the legal and operational separation of our three divisions. We'll simplify the business to help each division grow and cut costs by removing unnecessary complexity. Continued development of RM Ava is central to our growth strategy. It will strengthen our already strong position in digital assessment and help us capture more of a growing global market. RM Ava brings together our tools into one modular cloud platform. This means a smoother experience for learners, easier integration for our customers, and faster rollout of new features as needs and tech evolve. No other provider offers a single platform that supports the full end-to-end assessment lifecycle for both enterprise and smaller customers. RM Ava will help us retain existing customers and attract new ones.
Its modular design supports upselling, adding more value in current accounts. Until now, we've only enabled the delivery of final exams. With RM Ava, customers can add mock exams and inter-class assessments, increasing volumes through our platform. It's also scalable, which means we can serve customers with lower volumes who wouldn't or couldn't reach us before. As more customers shift from paper to digital, we not only scale, we also improve margin. Two major multi-year contracts were signed ahead of the official launch, with more than GBP 100 million total contract value, which is a clear sign of early demand and confidence in the platform. With RM Ava, we're ready to scale confidently in a growing market. We're also progressing with legal and operational separations of our divisions, taking into account their different business models and giving each one the flexibility to operate in a way that supports its growth.
Each division has a clear strategy for growth. For assessment, it's about taking customers on the RM Ava journey, growing in our core markets and opening new ones. TTS already has strong market share in the U.K., so focus on selling more of what we already have, expanding further internationally, and developing with some new propositions away from schools but closely aligned to education. Technology will continue to focus on multi-academy trusts, a core strength, while also exploring opportunities across wider education and the public sector. Separation will make it easier and quicker to deliver on what each division needs to do. It removes shared systems and processes that could slow us down. It untangles legacy IT, so each division can adopt tech that fits their needs. It also creates future optionality, including the potential to divest non-core assets. However, only where and when it makes financial sense.
This work will start in H2, and I'll share more progress as we move forward. In summary, we're on track to deliver full-year expectations, and we're making strong progress in setting the business up for long-term growth. That progress is being driven by a clear focus. We're continuing the development of RM Ava to strengthen our position in a growing global market, and we're simplifying the business to help each division grow and reduce costs by cutting complexity. We're confident in the direction we're heading. RM has a rich 50-year history, and this strategy is about making sure we stay relevant for the next phase of education. We'll continue working with customers to make education more accessible, inclusive, and fair for everyone, everywhere in a way that's modern and built for today's needs. Thank you.