Diluted EPS                                                 12.5      30.9 
  8. Cash and cash equivalents 
                                                             30 November 30 November 
                                                             2020        2019 
                                                             GBP'000       GBP'000 
Cash at bank                                                 50,363      15,093 
Bank overdraft                                               (468)       (4,538) 
 
Net cash and cash equivalents per the statement of cash flow 49,895      10,555

Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash and short-term bank deposits with an original maturity of three months or less, net of outstanding bank overdrafts. The carrying amount of these assets is approximately equal to their fair values. Substantially all of these assets are categorised within level 1 of the fair value hierarchy.

The Group has four cash pooling arrangements in place at HSBC US (USD), HSBC UK (GBP), Natwest (GBP) and Citibank (EUR). 9. Other financial liabilities

The Group maintains a committed Revolving Credit Facility ('RCF') of GBP50.0 million, along with an uncommitted GBP20.0 million accordion facility, with HSBC and Citibank, giving the Group an option to increase its total borrowings under the facility to GBP70.0 million. The Group also has an uncommitted GBP5.0 million overdraft facility with HSBC. The Group has access to the Bank of England's COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility, a GBP50.0 million committed Commercial Paper facility, until 22 March 2021.

At the year end, the Group and the Company had drawn down GBPnil (2019: GBPnil) on these facilities, and the borrowed funds bear interest at a minimum annual rate of 1.3% (2019: 1.3%) above a three-month Sterling LIBOR. The average interest rate paid on the RCF during the year was 1.3% (2019: 2.0%).

The RCF is subject to certain covenants requiring the Group to maintain financial ratios over interest cover, leverage and guarantor cover. The Group has complied with these covenants throughout the year. The RCF is available under these terms and conditions until April 2023.

Reconciliation of financial liabilities to cash flows arising from financing activities: 


                                              GBP'000 
Balance at 1 December 2018                    37,428 
Cash flows: 
Repayments of borrowings                      (37,428) 
Interest paid on borrowings                   (894) 
Total cash flows                              (38,322) 
Other non-cash movements                      894 
Balance at 30 November 2019                   - 
Recognition of leases on adoption of IFRS 16  43,019 
Cash flows: 
Proceeds from borrowings                      50,000 
Repayments of borrowings                      (50,000) 
Interest paid on borrowings                   (481) 
Principal repayments of lease obligations     (13,579) 
Total cash flows                              (14,060) 
Lease increases                               5,848 
Other non-cash movements (1)                  697 
Balance at 30 November 2020                   35,504

1 In 2020, other non-cash movements primarily comprise unwind of the discount on lease liabilities.

Leases a. Adoption of IFRS 16

The Group applied the modified retrospective transition approach on adoption of IFRS 16 and recognised lease liabilities in relation to leases which had previously been classified as operating leases under the principles of IAS 17 Leases ('IAS 17'). The weighted average lessee's incremental borrowing rate applied to the lease liabilities on 1 December 2019 was 1.7%.

The table below shows the reconciliation of operating leases commitments previously recognised under IAS 17 and lease liabilities initially recognised under IFRS 16: 


                                                          GBP'000 
Operating lease commitments at 30 November 2019           55,562 
Non-lease payments                                        (1,910) 
Effect of discounting at the date of initial application  (10,633) 
Lease liabilities recognised at 1 December 2019           43,019 
Of which are: 
Current lease liabilities                                 11,627 
Non-current lease liabilities                             31,392

In line with IFRS 16 transition options, the associated right-of-use assets were measured at the amount equal to the lease liability, adjusted by the amount of accrued lease incentives relating to those leases, recognised in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position at 30 November 2019. An immaterial amount of an onerous lease provision required an adjustment to the right-of-use assets at the date of initial application. b. Leasing activities

The leases which are recorded on the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position following implementation of IFRS 16 are principally in respect of buildings and cars.

The Group's right-of-use assets and lease liabilities are presented below: 


                               30 November 
                               2020 
                               GBP'000 
Buildings                      30,819 
Cars                           1,936 
IT equipment                   123 
Total right of use assets      32,878 
Current lease liabilities      12,078 
Non-current lease liabilities  23,426 
Total lease liabilities        35,504 10. SHARE CAPITAL

During the year 441,306 (2019: 636,595) new ordinary shares were issued, resulting in a share premium of GBP0.9 million (2019: GBP1.7 million). All new shares were issued pursuant to the exercise of share awards under the Save As You Earn scheme. In the current year no new shares (2019: 475,738 shares) were issued on settlement of vested tracker shares.

Treasury Reserve

Treasury shares represent SThree plc shares repurchased and available for specific and limited purposes.

During the year, 33,949 (2019: 974,583) shares were utilised from treasury reserve on settlement of vested tracker shares. At the year end, 35,767 (2019: 70,751) shares were held in treasury.

Employee Benefit Trust

The Group holds shares in the Employee Benefit Trust ('EBT'). The EBT is funded entirely by the Company and acquires shares in SThree plc to satisfy future requirements of the employee share-based payment schemes. For accounting purposes, shares held in the EBT are treated in the same manner as shares held in the treasury reserve and are, therefore, included in the financial statements as part of the treasury reserve for the Group.

During the year, the EBT purchased 645,122 (2019: 860,000) of SThree plc shares. The average price paid per share was 315 pence (2019: 291 pence). The total acquisition cost of these shares was GBP2.0 million (2019: GBP2.5 million), for which the treasury reserve was reduced. During the year, the EBT utilised 1,723,288 (2019: 654,994) shares on settlement of Long-Term Incentive Plan awards. At the year end, the EBT held 634,386 (2019: 1,712,522) shares. 11. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES

The Group's significant related parties are as disclosed in the Group's 2020 annual financial statements. There were no other material differences in related parties or related party transactions in the period compared to the prior period. 12. ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCE MEASURES ('APMs') - definitions and reconciliations

Adjusted APMs

In discussing the performance of the Group, 'comparable' measures are used, which are calculated by deducting from the directly reconcilable IFRS measures the impact of the Group's restructuring costs, which are considered as items impacting comparability, due to their nature.

Restructuring costs

Support function relocation

This category comprises (income)/costs arising from a strategic relocation of SThree's central support functions away from the London headquarters to the Centre of Excellence located in Glasgow.

Senior leadership restructuring

This category of costs is attributable to several key changes made to the regional leadership structure within EMEA excluding DACH region in the prior year.

The Group discloses comparable performance measures to enable users to focus on the underlying performance of the business on a basis which is common to both years for which these measures are presented. The reconciliation of comparable measures to the directly related measures calculated in accordance with IFRS is as follows:

Reconciliation of adjusted financial indicators for continuing operations 


                                                   2020 
                Revenue   Net     Administrative expenses, incl.  Operating    Profit      Tax       Profit      Basic 
                          fees    impairment losses               profit       before tax            after tax   EPS 
                GBP'000     GBP'000   GBP'000                           GBP'000        GBP'000       GBP'000     GBP'000       pence 
As reported     1,202,622 308,575 (276,815)                       31,760       30,595      (11,833)  18,762      14.2 
Exceptional     -         -       (468)                           (468)        (468)       89        (379)       (0.3) 
items 
Adjusted        1,202,622 308,575 (277,283)                       31,292       30,127      (11,744)  18,383      13.9 
 
 
 
                                                               2019 
 
                Revenue   Net     Administrative expenses, incl. Operating   Profit       Tax      Profit      Basic 
                          fees    impairment losses              profit      before tax            after tax   EPS 
                GBP'000     GBP'000   GBP'000                          GBP'000       GBP'000        GBP'000    GBP'000       pence 
As reported     1,324,703 337,996 (280,241)                      57,755      56,801       (15,480) 41,321      31.8 
Exceptional     -         -       2,273                          2,273       2,273        (428)    1,845       1.4 
items 
Adjusted        1,324,703 337,996 (277,968)                      60,028      59,074       (15,908) 43,166      33.2

APMs in constant currency

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