PayPoint Plc (LON:PAY) today issued an unaudited post-close trading update for the financial year ended 31 March 2023.

Group net revenue for the financial year ended 31 March 2023, excluding Appreciate Group, is expected to be around £125m (FY22: £115.1m, with accelerated revenue growth across all three business divisions.

The Group anticipates that profit before tax will be at the top end of the range of market expectations, excluding exceptional items and Appreciate Group impacts since completion of the acquisition.

In Payments & Banking, net revenue growth has been driven by a continued strong progress in digital transactions and a resilient energy sector performance, comprising cash and digital bill payments and £246 million of Energy Bills Support Scheme vouchers.

In the year ahead, PayPoint sees significant opportunity to leverage further its integrated payments platform, MultiPay, for its clients, with a particular emphasis in Open Banking, direct debit and prepayment solutions.

In Appreciate Group (now known as Love2shop), following completion of the acquisition on 28 February 2023, trading has been in line with expectations across all channels, in Park Christmas Savings, Appreciate Business Services and High Street Vouchers. Integration work is already well underway, building on the strong momentum in both businesses, unlocking commercial revenue enhancements and continuing PayPoint’s focus on organisational alignment.

As expected, a small operating loss was incurred in March 2023, before taking into account any acquisition related amortisation and financing costs. The company blames this on the seasonal nature of the business where profit is primarily generated in Q3 of the financial year.

Nick Wiles, Chief Executive of PayPoint Plc, said:

“This has been another positive year for the PayPoint Group where net revenue growth has accelerated across all three of our business divisions. We were also delighted to complete the acquisition of Appreciate Group on 28 February 2023, opening up further revenue opportunities and expanding our capabilities in the gifting, rewards and prepaid savings markets.

We are entering the new financial year in a materially enhanced position across the Group: a full-strength sales team delivering high conversion rates; healthy pipelines for our FMCG and integrated payments propositions; a business-wide partnership philosophy yielding further revenue opportunities; and a dynamic platform of innovative technology and solutions enabling integrated payments and commerce for our extensive base of clients, retailer partners and SMEs. We will continue to invest in growth areas across the Group in the coming year, particularly in card processing, Open Banking, digital payments and the Appreciate Group, to enhance our capabilities, unlock opportunities and accelerate our growth.

All of this underlines our confidence in delivering further progress in the new financial year, with the acquisition of Appreciate Group, delivering as indicated at the time of acquisition, an earnings enhancement in our first full year of ownership.”