Mortgage Advice Bureau Regulatory News (MAB1)

22 January 2019

Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc ("MAB" or the "Group")

Trading Update 

Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc (AIM:MAB1), one of the UK's leading consumer intermediary brands and specialist Appointed Representative Networks, today issues a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2018, ahead of publishing its final results announcement on Tuesday, 19 March 2019(1).

Revenue for the year ended 31 December 2018 increased by 13% to £123m driven by a 12% increase in the average number of Advisers to 1,130 in the year ended 31 December 2018 (2017: 1,008). The total number of Advisers had increased to 1,213 at 31 December 2018, an increase of 135 or 13% since last year end (2017: 1,078). For 2018 as a whole, we saw an increase in average revenue per adviser of 1%, continuing our growth in productivity despite the ongoing economic uncertainty driven by the Brexit agenda and a reduction in housing transactions overall.

The Group's profit before tax for the year ended 31 December 2018 is broadly in line with the Board's expectations. At 31 December 2018, the Group had a strong balance sheet with a cash position of over £25m, including over £13m of unrestricted cash balances. 

Although UK Finance has not recently updated its estimates for gross new mortgage lending for 2018 and 2019, the current information and run rates broadly support their previous estimates of £260bn and £271bn for 2018 and 2019 respectively, indicating that the market is likely to be relatively flat in the near term. These figures exclude Product Transfers, and it has only been over the last year or so that the large lenders have engaged intermediaries to help them to retain their existing mortgage borrowers through product transfers, with intermediaries continuing to grow their share of this market. UK Finance has recently revised its original estimates for the size of the product transfer market, indicating an annual market size of c. £140bn.

(1) It is expected that a proposed final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 December 2018 will be paid on 24 May 2019 to shareholders on the register at close of business on 26 April 2019.

Peter Brodnicki, CEO of Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc, said:

"MAB has delivered another strong performance despite the uncertainty caused by the ongoing Brexit negotiations. We continue to grow our market share and invest in accordance with our very clear strategy to ensure continued and sustainable growth.

 "We are looking forward to capitalising upon our recent protection initiatives to increase performance whilst also delivering the initial phase of our next generation MIDAS technology in the first half of this year. Both of these initiatives are already proving to be important recruitment drivers for Appointed Representatives, advisers and lead sources. This initial phase and further releases across 2019 and 2020 will benefit MAB advisers and customers, through improvements in efficiency, productivity, lead generation, product offering and customer experience. We are excited about how delivering this will help us to attract more advisers and customers into MAB, assisting our future growth plans."

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Enquiries:

Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc +44 (0)1332 525007

Peter Brodnicki, Chief Executive Officer

Ben Thompson, Managing Director

David Preece, Chief Operating Officer

Lucy Tilley, Finance Director

Numis Securities Limited

Stephen Westgate / Jamie Lillywhite (Corporate Finance)

Michael Burke (Corporate Broking)

Media Enquiries:

investorrelations@mab.org.uk