Acquisition for AIM-listed doorstep lender

WEST Yorkshire-based doorstep lender Morses Club, which has around 200,000 customers across the UK, has made an acquisition which will enable it to accelerate the launch of a branded online instalment loan product.

Shelby Finance, the Altrincham-based provider of online instalment loans, will operate as a subsidiary of Morses Club.

Morses Club, which floated on the AIM last year valuing the company at around £140m, says it has seen an increasing number of visitors to its website who are looking for alternatives to its core home collected credit offering. 

It said the introduction of an online instalment loan product is the “next step” in the company’s strategy of developing digital products to complement its HCC offering and target a wider range of customers across the UK non-standard credit market.

Paul Smith, chief executive of Morses Club, which is backed by investment firm Rcapital, said: “The acquisition of Shelby Finance is another example of the progress we continue to make with our strategic plan of using technology to offer customers a broader range of products, supplementing our core home collected credit offering and ensuring customers can access credit with the flexibility they require.

“Outside the HCC sector, there are c. 9 million additional customers who access the wider non-standard credit market. The introduction of our new branded online instalment loan product will enable us to offer these customers access to credit in increasingly flexible ways with all the benefits of Morses Club’s customer service ethos.

“We anticipate that the new online instalment loan product will be launched in the first half of our trading year and look forward to updating the market once the full launch plan has been finalised.”

Eversheds advised Morses Club on the deal.

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