Trading update and notice of interim results

 1 September 2016

Morses Club PLC

Trading update and notice of interim results

Morses Club PLC ("the Company"), the UK's second largest home collected credit lender, provides the following trading update for the 26-week period to 27 August 2016.

Trading performance for the period has been strong and in line with expectations. Total credit issued increased by 16% to £66m compared to the same period last year, reflecting new territory builds, strategic growth initiatives and acquisitions. Impairment for the period was in line with the lower end of the Company's target range.

Customer numbers increased by 2.4% to approximately 208,000 as at 27 August 2016, driven by territory builds and acquisitions. 

The gross loan book remained level against last year, however the proportion attributable to the Company's highest tier customers increased by 6% compared to 29 August 2015. This reflects the success of the Company's credit policy to focus on higher quality lending.

The Company continues to make good progress on the development of its digital platform to provide innovative new services and products for its customers.

Notice of Interim Results and maiden dividend

Morses Club will be announcing its interim results for the 6-month period ended 27 August 2016 on Thursday, 6 October 2016 and confirms that it will declare its maiden dividend (to be paid in Q4 2016) on that date.

Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, said:

"The momentum in the business continues following our recent successful IPO, and demonstrates the resilience of our business model in challenging economic environments. We look forward to declaring our maiden dividend at our first results since IPO. The UK home collected credit sector is well established and, as the second largest lender in this market, we believe we are well placed to grow as the uncertainty caused by the outcome of the EU referendum is likely to cause mainstream lenders to tighten their underwriting criteria further.

"We also continue to make progress on our strategic growth initiatives to ensure that we take advantage of the opportunity that technology gives our industry in interacting with our customers, providing people who need credit with increased flexibility and ease in how they can access it." 

For further information

Morses Club PLC Tel: +44 (0) 330 045 0719

Paul Smith, Chief Executive OfficerAndy Thomson, Chief Financial Officer

Numis Securities Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7260 1000

Andrew HollowayCharlie Farquhar

Paul Gillam

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500

Richard Gray

Charles Leigh Pemberton

Camarco Tel: +44 (0) 20 3757 4984

Ed Gascoigne-PeesJennifer Renwick 

Notes to Editors

About Morses Club

Morses Club is currently the second largest UK Home Collected Credit lender with approximately 200,000 customers and approximately 1,840 agents across 100 locations throughout the UK.

The Company markets a range of loan products through a combination of traditional and online marketing channels. A significant majority of the Company's borrowers are repeat customers and the Company enjoys consistently high customer satisfaction scores, of at least 95 per cent.

Morses Club traces its history back over 130 years and entered the UK HCC market in 1997. The Company merged with Shopacheck Financial Services in 2015.

About the UK non-standard credit market

The UK non-standard credit market, of which UK HCC is a subset, consists of both secured and unsecured lending and is estimated to comprise around 12 million consumers.

Non-standard credit is the provision of secured and unsecured credit to consumers other than through mainstream lenders. Lenders providing non-standard credit principally lend on an unsecured basis and the market is characterised by high frequency borrowing.

Since 2009, unsecured personal lending has grown from £161 billion to £244 billion in 2015.

UK Home Collected Credit

UK HCC is considered to be a specialised segment of the broader UK non-standard credit market. UK HCC loans are typically small, unsecured cash loans delivered via self-employed agents directly to customers' homes. Repayments are collected in person during weekly follow-up visits to customers' homes.

UK HCC is considered to be stable and well-established, with approximately 3 million people using the services of UK HCC lenders, of which between 1.5 million and 2 million people borrow regularly.