Shl

Shl is one of the world’s leading personnel performance businesses supplying a range of psychometric assessment tools together with consultancy services. From Brewin Dolphin’s appointment in January 2004 the Human Capital team worked closely with Shl to raise the profile of the business and resolve a number of key issues. These actions helped unlock significant value for shareholders, the shares advancing from below 90p to 180p an uplift of more than 100% 2.4x the return delivered by the FTSE Small Company Index.

Despite its market leading products, Shl was a business that was poorly understood by investors and constrained by a number of structural problems. Following Brewin Dolphin’s appointment a process was begun to expand investor knowledge and explain the investment proposition. This involved defining a clear investment proposition, the production of regular written research, in-depth guidance on investor presentations and more exposure to institutional investors.

At the same time the management team’s strategic initiatives transformed the financial performance of Shl creating accelerated demand for the company’s web based assessment product and improving net margins.

Broadening the understanding of the business amongst blue chip institutional investors helped to generate the demand that was necessary to reinvigorate the share register and deliver positive share price momentum. From the time of Brewin Dolphin’s involvement with the company this process led to a steady and sustained improvement in the company’s rating.

A management buy out team launched a recommended cash offer for the company in 2006 valuing the company at approximately £100m.

Past performance is not a guide to future performance.