Responses to AGM questions28 Jun 2022 15:41
All
A colleague who is also an investor in PFG asked some questions to PFG via email to be addressed at the AGM tomorrow. PFG kindly provided responses to these. Obviously, none of this information is market sensitive but given some responses address points often raised on these PFG notice boards I thought I would share for the benefit of fellow shareholders:
q1) Appreciate purpose of AGM is to approve or reject specific actions. As some of those actions relate to dilution of the share base the current shareprice, about to dip below £2, cannot be ignored. I would appreciate an indication from management as to performance during the current year and their view on what must be done to address the falling share price. - a1) We published our first quarter update in May, covering the trading period from January to March, and we plan to release our half year results at the end of July this year. This will cover the period from Jan to June 2022. I am unable to provide a more wholesome trading update outside of those updates. However, you will see in our first quarter update that asset quality across the business remained high and the underlying credit demand from customers was strong. We have no current plans to dilute the share base. The Board and I share your disappointment with the share price. However, with such an uncertain economic backdrop at present in the UK and high levels of volatility across equity markets, we must focus on making sure that we support our customers by providing them with the assistance they need and managing the things within our control.
q2) Linked to above, shareholders who have stuck with PFG deserve to know what management expectations actually are for this year and future years. Trading updates often refer to 'in line with management expectations' but I've never seen these expectations explicitly set out at the start of the year? I appreciate analysts have their views, but if PFG are linking management views to a particular analyst consensus this needs to be made clear. I want to know what EPS and divi target is for current year and 3 year look ahead. - a2) I am unable to provide you with what our internal budget and forecast models say about the financial direction of the company. References to “in-line with management’s expectations” are designed to provide shareholders and the market with an element of comfort that the external perception of how we are performing as a business matches that of the stock market.
q3) Update on provisioning and portfolio performance in the current high inflationary environment. - a3) Please refer to our first quarter trading statement on our website for the most up to date information.
q4) Update on the personal loan pilot which has been referred to a lot in past 18 months. Is this now delivering positive returns?- a4) As stated within our first quarter trading statement, the personal loans pilot phase will be assessed at the end of June and an update will be provided
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