BLV.L Share News (BLV)

(Sharecast News) - Property franchise company Belvoir Group updated the market on progress in its financial services division on Thursday, and announced a new exclusivity agreement with Dacre, Son & Hartley - one of the north of England's largest independent estate agents.
The AIM-traded firm had identified financial services as a means of diversification and a valuable additional revenue stream for both its franchisees and for the group as a whole in 2016.

At that time, it had 13 financial advisers supporting around 20 of its Newton Fallowell offices operating under the 'Mortgage Advice Bureau' (MAB) umbrella, and contributing £0.14m to the group's 2016 gross profit.

Following the acquisition of Brook Financial Services in July 2017 and MAB Gloucester in November 2018, the Belvoir Group now had 160 advisers operating across the North, the South West, the Midlands and Wales.

In the 10 months to October, Belvoir said its financial services division had written 7,961 mortgages, recruited net 37 advisers - up 30% from December 2018 - and contributed £1.9m of gross profit to the group's performance.

The board said its strategic objective was to increase both its geographical coverage of financial services across the UK, and its market share in existing territories.

That would be achieved through the recruitment of additional financial services advisers to work with both independent estate agencies and group franchisees, who would provide introductions to their clients.

On the subject of the new exclusivity agreement, Belvoir said it has entered into an eight-year deal with Dacres - a 20 office estate agency network based in Yorkshire - to deliver financial services to their extensive client base.

Belvoir said it believed that, with the right systems in place, the Dacres network could support an increase from its current four advisers to 10 over the next two years.

As a result, the agreement was expected to contribute around £0.1m to the group's operating profit in its first full year of operation.

"Our diversification into financial services is proving to be a real win-win for the group with growth arising from working with both our networks and independent agents," said Belvoir chief executive officer Dorian Gonsalves.

"We are really excited to be taking on the financial services for Dacres.

"Our financial services team based in Barnsley is well placed to support their network and is looking forward to working closely with their offices to build up the level of mortgage sales delivered to their clients."

At 1557 GMT, shares in Belvoir Group were ahead 2.75% at 121.25p.