LONDON (Alliance News) - Doorstep lender Morses Club PLC on Thursday reported strong annual profit growth as both credit issued and customer numbers rose.
In a separate, announcement, Morses announced the impending departure of Chief Financial Officer Andy Thomson.
Morses Club's revenue for the 52 weeks to February 23 rose 0.3% to GBP117.0 million, but on a proforma, like-for-like basis, it rose 6.0%.
Morses Club is providing proforma results to adjust for a change in accounting standards since the previous financial year's results.
Statutory pretax profit rose 26% to GBP20.2 million, and 15% to GBP22.0 million on an adjusted basis.
Credit issued rose 2.4% to GBP178.5 million, net loan book growth was 6.0% proforma and like-for-like, while customer numbers increased 2.6% to 235,000.
Morses' return on equity was 27.2% from 22.9% year-on-year, while its cost to income ratio was 57.4% from 56.2%.
Morses is paying a 5.2 pence final dividend, taking the total for the year to 7.8p from 7.0p year-on-year.
"Financial year 2019 has been a strong year for Morses Club as we have continued to develop our core offering which is increasingly enabled through our complementary technology platform, grown cashless lending through the Morses Club Card, and made a number of acquisitions," said Chief Executive Paul Smith.
"These have all contributed to the sustainable growth of the loan book, customer numbers, increased levels of revenue and profit, as well as the maintenance of a base of high quality lending," he continued.
"We are delighted by the robust performance of the group across all our key financial metrics as we continue to deliver consistent returns for our shareholders, whilst keeping customers and their needs at the heart of the business."
Looking ahead, credit issued in the year-to-date is down slightly year-on-year due to lower demand, but Morses is confident on growth both organically and via new acquisitions.
Turning to the board change, Thomson will depart as CFO from July 1, though he will remain as a non-executive director. A search for a new CFO is "well advanced", Morses said.
Chair Stephen Karle said: "Andy has been instrumental in building Morses Club into the UK's second largest home collected credit lender and guiding the company through its successful flotation in 2016. His analytical skills and financial judgement have been invaluable over the past ten years.
"On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Andy for his efforts and look forward to working with him in his capacity as a non-executive director. The board has conducted a thorough process to identify a suitable successor and is pleased to have attracted a number of quality candidates."
Shares were flat on Thursday morning at 177.00p each.