‘Strong year’ for AIM-listed home credit lender

AIM-listed West Yorkshire credit provider Morses Club has reported an increase in revenues and pre-tax profits.

Chief executive Paul Smith hailed a “strong year” for the Batley-based company.

In its preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended 23 February 2019, the group reported that revenue had increased by 0.3% to £117.0m.

Adjusted profit before tax increased by 14.6% to £22.0m, while total credit issued was £178.5m, a 2.4% increase relative to the previous year.

Morses Club said that technology remained a major focus, and it has introduced a customer portal which will be rolled out by 2020.

At the same time it announced the retirement of CFO Andy Thomson, from the 1 July 2019. He will remain as a non-executive director on the board of Morses Club.

He was involved in the RCapital acquisition of Morses Club in March 2009, and led the finance function during the acquisition and integration of Shopacheck Financial Services in 2014/15 before his appointment to full-time CFO in 2016.

Paul Smith, chief executive officer of Morses Club, commented: “FY19 has been a strong year for Morses Club as we have continued to develop our core offering which is increasingly enabled through our complementary technology platform, grown cashless lending through the Morses Club Card, and made a number of acquisitions.

“These have all contributed to the sustainable growth of the loan book, customer numbers, increased levels of revenue and profit, as well as the maintenance of a base of high quality lending.

“We are delighted by the robust performance of the Group across all our key financial metrics as we continue to deliver consistent returns for our shareholders, whilst keeping customers and their needs at the heart of the business.”

“We believe that it is precisely this kind of ability that will assist us in keeping the home collected credit numbers in scope whilst others in the market may struggle with growth following the FCA’s changes to the way in which home collected credit sales can be enacted.

“Indeed, trading conditions in the home collected credit market for the current year are challenging and whilst Morses Club is equipped to steer a steady course in such conditions, it remains to be seen whether or not smaller players will have the ability or appetite to do so.”

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