Hello, welcome to RM's half year results for 2023. My name is Mark Cook, Chief Executive, and I'm joined on this webcast by Emmanuel Walter, our interim CFO. I am pleased to get the opportunity to share with you our transformation program as part of our half year results. It's only been 80 days since I updated you on the 2022 results, but we've made good progress, which I will update you on. The agenda for today is split into four segments. I will give you an overview of H1 2023, the stabilization phase, and an overview of the transformation program. Emmanuel will then give a financial overview of the H1 in more detail. I will follow with an update on strategy and operations. I will then conclude with the summary before we open up the conference call and webcast for any questions.
We embarked on an ambitious transformation program, which commenced in the H1 , and we expect to start positively impacting financial performance in FY 2024. This is not a big disruption transformation with large exceptional capital costs, but rather a multi-year continuous improvement program with six monthly phases containing clear, decisive cost savings and improvement targets. My priority has been initially being focused on phase I, which was to stabilize operations and financials following a very challenging 2022. While we accomplished a lot, these challenges will continue to influence the full year results, and certainly have done so in the H1 . The H1 results are not unexpected, and with the support of our lenders. In this stabilization phase, we have identified opportunities for growth and operational efficiencies, some of which have actions already, albeit they do not yet positively impact our financial performance.
I will talk you through all completed transformation actions completed in phase I a little later. We have a 50-year track record in education and believe as we progress through the transformation stabilization phase with a focus and deliverable strategy, we can deliver significant enterprise value creation despite the lag effects of the prior year challenges. All of this creates an interesting growth opportunity and positive inflection point for RM, and it goes without saying, given recent history, that RM isn't a business that needs to change. Now, turning to the performance in the H1 . While this was not unexpected, the self-made issues in the Consortium business in 2022 continue to impact the financial and operational performance in the current year, and still occupies a lot of management time as we seek to recover trading and fully restore customer confidence.
Revenue was GBP 87.6 million, down 11%. The return of Consortium trading has been slower in a more challenging market. This is reflected in the results. RM Assessment continued to deliver strong revenue growth of 8% from new and existing contracts. We operated well within our covenants during the H1 and had a net debt of GBP 52 million at half-year. We completed the sale of RM Integris and finance businesses, with net proceeds of GBP 8.7 million received at H1 and GBP 4 million expected in H2. We also disposed of GBP 8.5 million of IP addresses. We extended our GBP 70 million banking facility to July 2025, with revised covenants and reached agreements on a funding plan with the pension trustees and the pension regulator.
In our resources division, we went live with the Consortium's new e-commerce platform in the final six weeks of the half. Consortium remained challenging going forward, with trading volumes below where we expect to be. We are determined to improve performance and restore customer confidence in the business. I am pleased to say that the resources TTS, own, own design products and TTS International continue with double-digit growth. I'm very pleased with the management's turnaround of the technology division, which is nearing completion of its commercial turnaround and heading towards the expected profitability by the end of this fiscal year. Elsewhere in the business, we had success in retaining and winning new customer contracts and assignments, which has translated into new wins and retention in both technology assessment and growth in our TTS International business.
In summary, the clear actions we have taken as part of our transformation program, phase I, to identify, execute, and deliver cost savings, has identified initial annualized savings in excess of GBP 10 million in FY 2024, we will continue to look for further savings opportunities as we work through the transformation program. I mentioned at the start, there's only been 80 working days since I last updated you on progress. Despite this, we've worked hard to make every day count. Since we reported in March, we have completed the following actions: Launched a new e-commerce platform for the Consortium business, incorporating our own new automated distribution center. We are reducing dependency on third parties and bringing key skills in-house. Commence restructuring and rationalizing in the U.K. and India business. Rebuilt a finance function with key appointments and are mapping our key business processes.
We are reducing working capital through inventory management and accounts receivable overdues, clearing the backlog of customer tickets from prior challenges, specifically in resources. Finally, I've introduced an internal culture focused on reducing unnecessary spend. I will now hand you over to Emmanuel to talk through the financials.
Thanks, Mark. Moving on to look at our financial overview. Revenue fell 11% to GBP 88 million. Our RM Assessment division showed further solid growth, up 8% versus H1 2022. This was offset by lower revenues across RM Resources and RM Technology, which we'll discuss in more details on the next slide. Lower revenues and increased costs associated with delivering FY 2022 year-end and the dual running of distribution side and technology stacks in RM Resources impacted profitability in the period, with adjusted operating profit decreasing to a loss of GBP 4.5 million. Adjusted diluted EPS decreased from 3.4 to a loss of 6.7 pence per share.
Net debt at the end of May was GBP 52 million, GBP 11 million higher than the same time last year and GBP 5 million higher than November 2022, with the increase driven by H1 losses and working capital outflows following the cash protection activities ahead of FY 2022 year-end. As a reminder, we have a GBP 70 million revolving credit facility in place. On this slide, we bridge our GBP 10.3 million revenue decrease versus H1 2022. In resources, revenue decreased by GBP 9.5 million to GBP 42.2 million. As you can see from the breakdown, the international business saw strong levels of growth, up 18%, with improvement across most geographies, and most notably Europe, where revenues have doubled against pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
Revenue in the UK decreased by 26% to GBP 31.8 million, mainly driven by lower trading volumes in the Consortium business, where revenues were impacted by lower customer volumes and decreased spend following the disruption of last year's IT implementation. There were further year-on-year growth within our assessment business of GBP 1.5 million, +8% to GBP 19.7 million, with growth in volume seen from both existing contracts and the benefits of new contract wins. In our technology business, revenue reduced by 8% to GBP 25.7 million. H1 2022 revenue included GBP 1.3 million of IP asset sales. More recent sales have been reported as other income. Excluding IP sales, revenue reduced by 4%, driven by the loss of customer in FY 2022. On this slide, we bridge our continuing adjusted operating profit movements.
Profit reduced in our resources business by GBP 5.7 million, impacted by the lower trading volume in Consortium and GBP 2.5 million increased costs relating to the dual running of distribution side and technology stacks across the division. In our Assessment business, profit increased by GBP 0.4 million, thanks to increased revenue and improved operational gearing. A reduction in Technology divisional profit of GBP 1.2 million, excluding the impact of IP sales, reflects the lower revenues. Corporate cost increase of GBP 1.3 million reflects the costs associated with year-end activity, rebuilding the group finance function, and losses from adverse FX movement. Including the H1 2022 was GBP 1.3 million of IP sales, both revenue and AOP. Equivalent sales in 2023 have been classified as adjusted other income, therefore, not included in revenue or adjusted earnings.
On this slide, we set out the key component of our income statement, focusing specifically on the items below adjusted operating profit. Interest was GBP 2.2 million, up GBP 1.4 million on last year, comprised of the cost of servicing our debt facility. Total adjusted loss before tax was GBP 4.8 million, including discontinuing, down GBP 8.2 million from GBP 3.4 million profit in the prior year. If you look at the continuing element, we made a loss of GBP 5.6 million, which is down GBP 8.5 million, while discontinued increased GBP 0.3 million to GBP 0.8 million. Post-tax adjusted items total of GBP 11.7 million profit, driven by the gain of sales of RM Integris and Finance, GBP 9.5 million, and the sales of excess IP addresses, GBP 8.5 million.
Offsetting those gains were GBP 3.5 million of costs incurred in respect of our new Consortium IT platform implementation, GBP 1.8 million costs associated with our amended and extended bank facility, and GBP 0.9 million of amortization of acquired intangible assets. After adding back adjusted items, we report a profit after tax of GBP 6.8 million, including discontinuing operation, which is up from a loss of GBP 5.9 million in H1 2022. On this slide, we take a deeper look at the key drivers of our cash during the period, focusing on items below adjusted operating profit. In H1, we had an inflow of GBP 17.4 million from the sales of assets, GBP 8.5 million relating to IP sales and GBP 8.9 million relating to the sales of RM Integris and Finance....
working capital outflow of GBP 10.4 million, mostly related to returning supplier payments back to terms, following the cash protection activities approaching FY 2022 year end, which was partially offset by collection activity in chasing overdue receivables and reducing inventory in the resources division. CapEx spend of GBP 0.7 million related largely to BAU resourcing tooling, while pension contribution were GBP 2.3 million, which is in line with last year. Bank interest and commitment fees paid were GBP 2.8 million versus GBP 1 million in H1 2022, with lease liabilities down slightly from GBP 1.5 million-GBP 1.2 million in H1 2022. Let's move on to the financial outlook and guidance. We've taken cost action in FY 2023, which are expected to deliver in excess of GBP 10 million of annualized benefits full year in FY 2024.
In H1, we already taken action for GBP 2.3 million, especially related to the technology headcount reduction, GBP 1.5 million. We have other activity related to procurement and properties for GBP 0.8 million. In H2, we already actioned GBP 6.3 million of saving, mostly related to restructuring in resources and technology for GBP 5.5 million, the remaining are related to procurement and properties, GBP 0.8 million. We are also working on further identified action, which could net further benefits between GBP 1.4 million-GBP 2.9 million. The restructuring cost is expected to reach GBP 1.6 million in FY 2023, evenly split between technology and resources. In term of outlook, we expect year-on-year growth for assessment and technology, resources will be slower to recover.
Our expectation for the adjusted operating profit for FY 2023 is around breakeven. In terms of net debt at the end of the year, we expect it to land between GBP 44 million-GBP 53 million. In terms of our activity to reduce working capital, is also to reduce inventory in resources over GBP 5 million by the end of the year. I will now hand over to Mark to go through strategy and operation.
Thanks, Emmanuel. We have a clear structured transformation program in place with five identified work streams: stabilization, people and teams, finance and corporate, divisions, and strategy. The identification, execution, and benefit realization within these work streams are broken down into six monthly phases, with the program being managed by an experienced transformation director reporting directly to me. On the next few slides, I will summarize the actions we've already taken and executed across the three work streams. The transformation program needs to include strengthening the cultural and commercial mindset across the business. The response to our customers' needs, needs to be faster and more agile, so we can take advantage of market opportunities, the further potential within the business, and continuing growth in the EdTech market.
I had previously outlined some senior hires that have now been completed, with our Chief Digital Officer in place and our new permanent CFO and Company Secretary starting in the H2 . Through our FTE committee, a weekly cadence is now in place that addresses each incremental or replacement hire to ensure management have control and an agile response to market conditions. Our total business has 325 less people than the prior year, approximately 15% of the workforce. In the H1 , we commenced consultation for further reductions in technology and resources. Our overall premise in restructuring is to ensure that we invest in permanent RM colleagues and not third-party advisors, interims, and consultants.
The finance team was most impacted by the stresses caused in FY 2022. I'm pleased to say that in addition to our new CFO, Simon Goodwin, who joins at the end of this month, we have in place new directors of finance, planning and analysis, group controller, and an internal audit and controls manager. Within our finance and corporate work stream, we commenced mapping our key business processes to better identify our internal control framework. This work will be used as the basis to build an IT enterprise architecture that better fits the strategy of the business and operating model. Our Chief Digital Officer, Dr. Gráinne Watson, is responsible for the current IT estate and its development in the future. Despite the Evolution go-live in Consortium in March, we've been focused on remediating the issues caused by the previous attempt to go live in FY 2022.
This has involved the accounts receivable and payables, customer services teams in India and the UK, and addressing outstanding customer queries, supplier on hold, and invoicing versus delivery queries. The net effect of the prior year query backlog has had a detrimental impact on customer confidence and the speed at which customers have returned to the Consortium website. In preparation of the Consortium go-live, inventory was built in FY 2022 to handle the expected volumes. Running down inventory to the now appropriate levels of trading volumes is a priority. We have an inventory reduction plan in place to materially improve the customer's company's working capital, which I'll report on at full year.
We are not looking to roll out the Evolution ERP system to the rest of the business, and we are working collaboratively with existing IT vendors and our in-house teams to build an appropriately priced and fit-for-purpose enterprise architecture. As part of strengthening the senior team and delivering on the transformation program, I'm pleased to report that we have made the appointments of heads of procurement and real estate and workplace in order to maximize the potential of the post-pandemic changing workplace. Initial progress across procurement has been promising, with tighter controls on international travel and other spending lines, and more materially, FY 2024 cost saving and other benefit realization. We have executed a number of new initiatives across our real estate and workplace to reduce costs.
An important step in our operational real estate footprint is the dual running costs in resources for the TTS and consulting brands in both warehousing and distribution, IT, and staffing. This is a priority in the H2 . Some cost savings have already been actioned, of course, in year, will have their full material impact in FY 2024. Whilst we make material improvements across people, finance, and services, the work we are doing with the divisions and strategy work streams will be the key to unlocking the growth opportunities within RM. We have traditionally structured into three divisions. This represents our current operating model with the revenue generating units. However, in the marketplace, we have also been known for our brands, for example, TTS and the Assessor platform.
Internally, we have pockets of rich EdTech knowledge as we design, develop, and bring to market hundreds of new products per annum, alongside deep testing and assessment business process knowledge and capability to advise on digital transformations. These pockets of IP are important for us to recognize in order to monetize and use as a competitive differentiator. The strategy evolution will be based on the premise of increasing value creation, with high value adding SaaS-based and other managed platform services delivered to a global customer base. We will focus on the areas we are excellent at and with the attributes of producing high margin and repeatable revenue streams. Coupling the physical resource development with digital learning content will give RM EdTech an even greater differentiator. More on this will be revealed in future updates.
The strategy evolution across our divisions has already begun, and with key highlights over the next three slides. Increasing demand is coming from our TTS own IP and unique in-house developed resources. For example, the robotics Bee-Bot programming range and the resources range to international markets, headed by ICT and early years categories. This is a key differentiator for RM. As mentioned before, we went live with the Consortium e-commerce platform and the Harrier Park Automated Distribution Center in Nottingham. Operational activities are now focused on rebuilding customer relationships with marketing promotions and resolution of previous system and account queries. Inventory is being reset to align with trading volumes and releasing valuable working capital. We will continue to focus on market and category growth areas in the future and optimizing the new IT system in the H2 . Assessment, strong growth in revenue and profit continues.
This has been fueled by two new customer wins, a 100% customer renewal, and six new major implementations for existing customers. Our strategy work continues to explore the potential from digital Software-as-a-Service based and AI learning solution offerings to attach to our global customer platform. Specifically, our global customers need a trusted expert assessment partner to hold their hand on a journey towards a fully digital testing and assessment experience, and ultimately transform the learning experience for candidates. RM Assessment is well positioned to become the go-to partner for the world's leading awarding and education organizations such as Cambridge, Oxford, International Baccalaureate, and professional qualifications such as ACCA and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. The Technology division has been undergoing a root and branch transformation over the past 12 months. This will complete in the H2 .
The division has better commercialized with improved account and contract management, and rebuilt margin into a managed and standard operating practice. With a new hardware approach, global tier one partners, coupled with a 50-year RM brand across education, this has led to 95% customer retention and opportunities for our new PR-led marketing and customer campaigns. A good example of growing pipeline is with the Department for Education's Connect the Classroom program. The managed services, connectivity, and hardware strategy is still to target larger multi-academy trusts as the drive for academization continues. The further developments for the RM ICT platform will enable the provision of managed services to all areas of education and to a global customer base. These operational and strategic improvements will take time, and profit recovery will lag revenue growth. RM Technology continues to benefit from a strong market position and channel reach.
How will we capitalize on the education technology opportunities and other strong market positions? RM differentiates itself through five key areas: extensive domain experience and a deep understanding of the education sector with 50 years of expertise and IP. Strong partnerships with educational institutions and industry leaders. Continuous investment in research and development to stay at the forefront of innovation. Proven track record of successful implementations and customer satisfaction, and global reach and scalable solutions adaptable to different educational systems and cultures. Decisive actions already taken in the H1 helped stabilize the business, reduce costs, and strengthen operations. These actions will largely flow into benefits in FY 2024. The consulting business within resources continues to present us with challenges, and it, and its underperformance clouds the value of the rest of the group, impacting our profit expectation for the full year.
We have a transformation program in place, with clear work streams and outputs being tracked, and we will continue to identify and execute cost savings and efficiencies over the coming years. My focus is also turning to our new strategy: unlocking the value and enhancing margin within our divisions and brands. Some of the attributes of the value drivers in our strategic thinking are RM-designed physical resource products, combined with our own developed digital curriculum-focused learning content. A global SaaS-based assessment platform with AI-enhanced solutions, supported by a global managed service platform for IT and connectivity. I have spent the best part of my career working in technology businesses and leading technology transformations. My priorities at RM are clear: to work with the board and the leadership teams to bring that experience to bear, with the objective of rebuilding value for all of our stakeholders.
We look forward to giving progress updates. We will now take any questions from the conference call and webcast.
The line is now open for any questions. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. There are no questions on the line. I will hand over for any webcast questions.
Thank you very much. We do have one question on the webcast. What is your expectation for profitability in FY 2024? Will it be another year of recovery?
Yeah. Thank you, Chloe. We've already mentioned this year is very much a transformation and restructuring year, which we've given indications on. We have a transformation plan that we've embarked on, and this will be in six monthly segments. We will either identify, execute, and then enjoy the benefits realization of those programs. That will be an ongoing process over coming years, and it's really focused on continuous improvement, efficiencies, automation, etc . The benefits we've already identified and executed on in the H1 of this fiscal year will flow in terms of benefits realization in FY 2024. That's when we will see circa GBP 10 million of savings, cost savings, flowing into FY 2024. We shouldn't think of the transformation plan as a big, cumbersome restructuring, CapEx type program. It's continuous improvement, which every business, quite often faces into.
Thank you, Mark. In terms of expectation for FY 2024, we expect predicted the profit. We're expecting 2023 year delay to 2024 year of conditions.
Thank you very much. I believe we have a question from Julian Yates from Investec on the conference line now, so I will pass back to Susie.
Julian Yates, you may go ahead now.
Great, thanks. Just got a couple of questions from me. One quick housekeeping and the other a bit more strategic. Housekeeping, just looking into EBITDA, could you just remind me of your sort of depreciation going forward to the EBITDA number? I guess more slightly positive territory than your, than your profit number. Just to remind me of that, the depreciation we can add back to the operating profit. The more strategic question is to do with Consortium. You've helpfully split out the Consortium revenues. Is there any way to split out or give us an indication of the losses the business is making or estimated to make for the year? We can kind of pigeonhole that in one area and enable us to sort of see what the profitability of the TTS business is sort of going forward.
I guess a follow-on from that, confirmation that TTS has been run in a separate warehouse, plans to migrate that to your... to, to the big warehouse you're, you're putting in, and are there any ways to monetize that, the larger warehouse that you have?... with the Consortium revenues running through, which are clearly at a lower base now than expected. You've got a big sort of warehouse facility there, sort of, ways to monetize it, I guess, is, is the question.
Hi, Julian. Thanks for the question. I think to give some expectation in term of depreciation for FY 2023 would be around the GBP 6 million mark. As we guided just earlier, we're expecting a breakeven on the AOP basis for the year, which will translate into an EBITDA above GBP 6 million mark. On your second question on further profitability between Consortium and TTS, I'm sure you're aware, we're running own profitability at the cash-generating unit at the resources level. I'll hand it back to Mark for the second.
Yeah. Thank you, Julian, for, for, for those questions. In terms of our real estate footprint, we've hired a head of real estate and workplace, Karen, and Karen has looked at all of the detail that we have in our real estate footprint. Operationally, you're quite right. We have two distribution center warehouses in the Nottingham area, operating both TTS and Consortium. Indeed, there is an opportunity for further benefit realization from rationalization activities. We'll be very pleased to talk about that in the H2 , when we, when we talk at full year. Yeah, very good, very good call out. Thank you.
Just, just on that, as a follow-up, would there be sort of risk migrating TTS over to the new facility if that was the plan? Would it be to remain distinct, with TTS it seems to be running pretty profitably at the moment.
Yeah, I mean, there's a number of issues. I mean, one is physical, inventory and location. The two sites are actually quite close to each other, 15 minutes from, from transport point of view. The Harrier Park facility has significant capacity to enable us to move additional inventory into that facility. Whether we co-mingle the inventory physically and/or on the same operating system within the distribution center is, is a, is a further decision point in question, quite frankly. Just the rationalization of the physical footprints, would be one that, would be fairly straightforward, I would say. My operations team, have got very detailed plans for us to assess the decision on this in the H2.
Okay. Thank you. Just one follow-up, if that's okay, I've got the line. Covenants, just very quickly, you know, look forward, it looks like, renegotiate the covenants in some sense. If you could give an indication of your initial feelings from the banks, i.e., supportive sort of dialogue you've had to date on that basis.
Yeah, I'll, I'll hand over to Emmanuel in a moment, but just really supportive from our lenders, both through the year-end process and ongoing. We're in regular communication with our lenders on a monthly basis, both operational and financial, and also our strategic plans going forward. I'd like to sort of openly thank them for their support. Emmanuel, you can comment specifically on the half year.
Yes. Thank, thank you, Mark. One is the ongoing negotiation with our lender to amend our covenant for the rest of the financial year. Yeah, indeed, the going action, we currently expect to be suitable agreement with them, really one of the lenders the last few days. One of the topic of the going constantly this year will take time for offsetting to match into FY 2024.
Great. Thank you.
There are no further questions on the call. I'll hand back to you for the webcast questions.
Thank you very much. We do have a couple more questions now on the webcast. First is around what is the attitude of the lending banks? Have you been able to sell to reduce debt?
The attitude is incredibly positive. We went through a very rigorous year-end event to go through the amend and extend facilities that we agreed with our lenders. That tech gives us two years worth of extension to their support, and we continue to work with them on a monthly basis in terms of our financial and operational performance. We've said that we will be doing a strategic review of our business and where that will take us over the next three years, and we will be actively engaging with all of our stakeholders, including our lenders, through that process. I have to say, on an attitude basis, incredibly positive. They see a very good underlying business. We've gone through some challenges, we're fixing them, we've got cost savings in place, and we have their support going forward.
In terms of further things that we have to sell, Emmanuel?
Yes. As we guided us three months ago, obviously, we've been actively looking at selling Integris, and also selling R&D and finance and IT sales. Obviously, in term of my priority as CFO is to reduce net debt, and we continue to look at selling non-core assets when required to support our net debt level.
Thank you very much, Emmanuel and Mark. Our next question, is around cost savings, and whether you can provide any further comment on staff cost, cost savings in addition to the 325 reduction you've already referenced.
Yeah, sure. What we've referenced in terms of FTE, FTE and headcount is the number of FTEs that we have at half year end, end of May, compared to the prior year end, and that's a reduction of about 15% of our FTEs in the overall business. Since that H1 period, we have engaged in further consultations in both our technology and our resources business and we will report on the progress of that in the H2 . As I said before, continuous improvement is something we're gonna have in place for coming years, and it's about efficiencies, it's about automation, it's about maximizing the potential that we've got from the workforce we've got. And I think more importantly, is bringing interim contractors, consultants work in-house.
We want to invest in our people and our permanent staff, and we want to build their capabilities to actually serve us better in the future. I'll say a little more detail.
Yes. In terms of the costing, as I highlighted earlier, we're aiming for having about GBP 7 million of saving around technology and resources are all related to headcount reduction. In total, we are aiming in excess of GBP 10 million for the full year for FY 2024.
Thank you very much. We have no further questions on the web. I'll pass back to Mark for some closing remarks.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Chloe, and thank you for everyone that's attended this call today. The messages that we've given today is this is a great sound business in terms of underlying profitability. Clearly, we had challenges in FY 2022, which have carried on into the H1 of 2023, and we've called those out and been clear about those. We know where the issues are. We know how to resolve them. We've taken actions in terms of restructuring, transformation actions, which will bring GBP 10 million of annualized cost savings flowing into our benefit stream in FY 2024. In terms of prior consensus that was given from this business, we've been honest and clear and transparent around resetting that with a one-year delay.
The profitability in FY 2024, in terms of operating profit and EBITDA, has been stated and clear, and we're really focused on now making sure we can continue to grow the business, focus on our strategy, and continue to generate expectations for, and value creation for all of our stakeholders. Thank you.