Morses Club announces revenues increase

10th October 2019

Home Credit lender, Morses Club has reported a strong financial performance in its latest interim results for the twenty-seven weeks ended 31st August 2019, The figures show Home Collected Credit (HCC) adjusted pre-tax profits were up 20.2% to £13.1m (H1 FY19: £10.9m).

Group customer numbers have increased to about 276,000, compared to 230,000 for the first half of the financial year, which includes around 52,000 customers.

The net loan book has grown over 12 months by 6.2% to £72.2m (H1 FY19: £68.0m), with Group revenue up 15.3% to £66.3m, compared to £57.5m for the same period in 2018.

The Group now consists of Morses Club, the UK’s second largest home collected credit lender, and its wholly owned subsidiary Shelby Finance, an online instalment loan provider, and its subsidiary U Holdings, a provider of online current account services.

Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, said “The period has seen continued strong financial performance in our core HCC business and significant developments in our diversification strategy. Our core HCC business remains one of the best in the sector and good progress has been made with our technology platform to enhance the customer/agent experience in HCC, as well as develop our product strategy, with clear adherence to our regulatory obligations.”

“Our fundamental approach is to develop all our business segments in response to what our customers tell us, and how they respond to our service offering. Whilst the HCC model is still a strong and highly relevant product, as our customers evolve, so must we.”

“We have introduced a customer portal in the period, which already has over 30,000 registered customers, actively using the functionality to pay online, request further credit and access other offers. Following our acquisitions, we are involved in a complex integration plan to ensure that the divisions of Shelby Finance are incorporated into the Group’s ethos of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) and customer service excellency. This will further enable the Group to offer relevant credit and online current account products, principally aimed at the non-standard customer. Both businesses have been subject to considerable re-engineering, but we envisage that the second half of the year will begin to further crystallise the work undertaken in the first half of the year.”

“Our digital division continues to go through a significant period of change, whilst our HCC division continues to deliver excellent results. The continued commitment, loyalty and work from all our teams, self-employed agents, suppliers and stakeholders is testament to our customer-centric culture and belief in our strategy.”