S & U PLC Trading Statement (6235Y)

TIDMSUS

RNS Number : 6235Y

S & U PLC

07 December 2017

7(th) December 2017

S&U plc

("S&U"or "the Group")

TRADING STATEMENT

S&U plc, the specialist hire purchase motor finance and property bridging lender, announces its trading update for the period from 1(st) August to 6(th) December 2017 and is pleased to continue trading in line with expectations.

Motor Finance

Advantage Finance, our specialist motor finance provider based in Grimsby continues its excellent progress. Despite recent downgraded forecasts for the UK economy, Advantage applications for finance have been very good. This has enabled Advantage both to maintain this year's rate of transactions growth and to revise, refine and further strengthen its under-writing model.

As a result, live customer numbers have grown to 53,000 from 49,000 at the half year; this means that net customer receivables now stand at over GBP240m for the first time, compared to nearly GBP227m in July.

Monthly collections and overall credit quality remain good. Whilst rolling 12 months impairment to revenue has increased slightly to 23.4%, this continues to be primarily due to overall portfolio product mix.

Whilst the above underwriting refinements have seen a slight reduction in loan approvals, appropriate in a more uncertain economic climate, the introduction of Advantage's new e-signature Dealfo system has been well received by both customers and brokers and has led to an improvement in the approval-transaction rate.

Property Bridging Finance

Our pilot bridging operation, Aspen Finance, has made significant progress and increased its loan book to GBP9m from GBP2m in July. Margins and LTV are within budget and very early repayment experience is good.

Aspen's growing reputation for efficient, consistent and prompt service to the broking community, augers well for a successful trial period concluding in H2 2018.

Funding

Having obtained further funding of GBP20m during the period, the Group now has total available committed facilities of GBP115m, sufficient to accommodate current growth at both Advantage and Aspen. Further facilities will be arranged as required.

Commenting on the Group's performance and outlook, Anthony Coombs, S&U Chairman, said:

"Whatever the current political uncertainty, particularly over Brexit, and despite a forecast slowing economy, demand for S&U's products remains very robust. Our selective lending and continuous refinement of our under-writing underpin our debt quality and produce steady sustainable growth.

"I am pleased to see this seemingly becoming more widely recognised within the investing community; we will continue our high standards of responsible lending and the excellent performance which results from this."

For further information, please contact:

S&U plc: www.suplc.co.uk

Anthony Coombs, Chairman 0121 705 7777

Peel Hunt

Adrian Trimmings/Rishi Shah 020 7418 8900

Media and Investor Relations

Ged Brumby 020 3047 2527

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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December 07, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)