The hangover from the height of the lockdown continues to affect income from the personal injury sector, a listed firm revealed today.

NAHL Group plc, which runs National Accident Law (NAL) as well as generating enquiries for other firms, told investors that revenue and underlying profit are likely to be down for the full year 2021 – stating that these projections are in line with expectations.

In a pre-close trading update announced to the London Stock Exchange today, the company said revenue is expected to be 5% down at £38.9m and underlying profit 30% lower at £4m. Due to there being no exceptional costs in 2021, compared with costs of £1.4m in 2020, the group expects to report a ‘small’ profit before tax for the year, following a £200,000 loss in 2020.

Revenue in the consumer legal services division was down 10% to £26.6m and underlying operating profit is expected to fall 35% to £3.5m. National Accident Helpline generated 32,132 enquiries in the year compared with 36,214 in 2020, a year including a quarter largely unaffected by the pandemic.

The NAHL Group said it expects enquiry volumes in the PI business to ‘gradually’ recover as the UK emerges from the pandemic and the population becomes more mobile. It plans to continue to increase the placement of enquiries into NAL, by processing all RTA and an increasing number of higher margin non-RTA claims this year.

James Saralis, chief executive, said: ‘While our business continued to experience headwinds throughout 2021, I am pleased with the progress we were able to make on our strategic objectives of creating a higher margin personal injury business and delivering growth in our catastrophic injury business.’

The company also announced today it has extended the term of its revolving credit facility by two years to the end of 2024 with a limit reduced from £25m to £20m.

Final results for the year ended 31 December 2021 will be announced on 29 March.

Shares in NAHL Group plc rose 1.7% to 47.9p on the morning of the trading update.