Morses Club PLC – AGM Statement
At the Annual General Meeting to be held in Leeds today, Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, will make the following trading statement covering the period from 24 February 2019 to 24 June 2019:
“We have had a busy first four months of the current financial year, making significant progress with our digital product diversification strategy, enabling customers to access credit flexibly. As we announced yesterday, through our fully owned subsidiary Shelby Finance Ltd we have acquired U Holdings Limited (trading as U Account), a leading digital current account provider offering an alternative to traditional banking by providing a fully functional agency banking service. In February we announced the acquisition of the business and certain assets of CURO Transatlantic Limited (“CURO”), a provider of online loans in the non-standard credit market.
“These complementary acquisitions have increased our customer base by over 25% and will accelerate our ability to offer a wider range of lending products to suit the financial needs of the non-standard credit market. We are working hard to ensure that these businesses are fully aligned with Morses Club’s core ethos of high-quality lending and prudent financial stewardship, and that we deliver excellent customer service. As previously announced, management anticipate both these businesses should be earnings accretive by FY21.
“In our core HCC market we continue to focus on high quality lending and differentiating our offering by delivering best in class customer experience. In line with this, in March we successfully launched our customer portal, which has reached 25,000 active users within its first three months and has received very positive customer feedback.
“We are delighted to welcome our newly appointed CFO, Andy Hayward, to Morses Club. He brings with him a wealth of experience in the mobile technology and digital payments space and will play an important role as we continue to deliver our strategic plans.
“Despite challenging conditions year to date in our core HCC market, current trading remains in line with expectations. Customer numbers are stable, but credit issued is slightly down year-on-year as customers are borrowing less frequently. We are confident in our strategy of using technology to diversify and expand our product offering to serve our customers’ needs.”
The results of the AGM will be announced following the conclusion of the meeting later today.