5 May 2016 07:00
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED AND IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, NEW ZEALAND, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT AN OFFER OF SECURITIES FOR SALE IN THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION. INVESTORS SHOULD NOT SUBSCRIBE FOR OR PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES REFERRED TO IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT EXCEPT ON THE BASIS OF INFORMATION IN THE ADMISSION DOCUMENT PUBLISHED BY MORSES CLUB PLC IN CONNECTION WITH THE ADMISSION OF ITS ORDINARY SHARES TO AIM.
5 May 2016
Morses Club PLC
("Morses Club" or the "Company")
Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings
Morses Club, a leading UK non-standard consumer finance company, announces that further to its announcement of 29 April 2016, its ordinary share capital, consisting of 129,500,000 ordinary shares, has today been admitted to AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange plc, under the ticker "MCL".
The Placing Price was set at 108 pence per Placing Share and the Placing raised £68.5 million of gross proceeds. Based on the Placing Price, the market capitalisation of Morses Club at Admission is approximately £140 million. The Company has a free float of approximately 44%.
Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer, said:
"We believe that Morses Club has great potential, not only because of our products and the personalised nature of our services, but also because the UK home collected credit market is changing. We believe that both market consolidation and increasing digitisation represent attractive opportunities and that following our admission to AIM we are well placed to make the most of these opportunities for the benefit of our shareholders."
The Company's AIM admission document can be viewed at morsesclubplc.com.
Enquiries
Morses Club PLC | ||
Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer | Tel: +44 (0) 330 045 0719 | |
Andy Thomson, Chief Financial Officer | ||
Numis Securities Limited (Nominated Adviser, Joint Bookrunner & Joint Broker) | ||
Andrew Holloway, Charlie Farquhar, Paul Gillam, Hugo Rubinstein | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7260 1000 | |
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Bookrunner & Joint Broker) | ||
Richard Gray, Fred Walsh, Charles Leigh-Pemberton, Fabien Holler | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500 | |
Deloitte LLP (Financial Adviser to the Company) | ||
Chris Nicholls, John Ball, Craig Lukins | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7936 3000 | |
Media enquiries:
CNC Communications | |
Nick Bastin, Simon Evans | Tel: +44 (0) 20 3219 8800 |
Notes to Editors
About Morses Club
Morses Club is currently the second largest UK Home Collected Credit lender with approximately 200,000 customers and approximately 1,840 agents across 100 locations throughout the UK.
The Company markets a range of loan products through a combination of traditional and online marketing channels. A significant majority of the Company's borrowers are repeat customers and the Company enjoys consistently high customer satisfaction scores, of at least 95 per cent.
Morses Club traces its history back over 130 years and was originally established as a drapery store and retail business. It diversified into UK HCC in 1997, and merged with the business of Shopacheck Financial Services in 2015.
About the UK non-standard credit market
The UK non-standard credit market, of which UK HCC is a subset, consists of both secured and unsecured lending and is estimated to comprise around 12 million consumers.
Non-standard credit is the provision of secured and unsecured credit to consumers other than through mainstream lenders. Lenders providing non-standard credit principally lend on an unsecured basis and the market is characterised by high frequency borrowing.
Since 2009, unsecured personal lending has grown from £161 billion to £244 billion in 2015.
UK Home Collected Credit
UK HCC is considered to be a specialised segment of the broader UK non-standard credit market. UK HCC loans are typically small, unsecured cash loans delivered via self-employed agents directly to customers' homes. Repayments are collected in person during weekly follow-up visits to customers' homes.
UK HCC is considered to be stable and well-established, with approximately 3 million people using the services of UK HCC lenders, of which between 1.5 million and 2 million people borrow regularly.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
This announcement is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States or any other jurisdiction.
This announcement is not a prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Rules issued by the FCA. The Placing is exempt from the requirement to produce an approved prospectus and accordingly no such prospectus has been or will be prepared in connection with the Placing.
Investors should not purchase any ordinary shares in the Company ("Shares") referred to in this announcement except on the basis of information contained in the Admission Document.
The information contained in this announcement is for information purposes only and does not purport to be full or complete. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information contained in this announcement or its accuracy, fairness or completeness.
The Shares have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"), or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction of the United States. The Shares may not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States (except pursuant to an exemption from, or a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the US Securities Act). No public offering of the Shares is being made in the United States. The Shares are being offered and sold only outside the United States in "offshore transactions" within the meaning of, and in reliance on, Regulation S under the US Securities Act ("Regulation S").
The Shares have not been approved or disapproved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, any state securities commission in the United States or any other regulatory authority in the United States, nor have any of the foregoing authorities passed on or endorsed the merits of the Placing or the accuracy or adequacy of the information contained in this announcement. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the United States.
The securities referred to herein have not been registered under the applicable securities laws of Australia, Canada, Japan or the Republic of South Africa and, subject to certain exceptions, may not be offered or sold within Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Ireland or the Republic of South Africa or to any national, resident or citizen of Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Ireland or the Republic of South Africa.
The distribution of this announcement outside the UK may be restricted by law. No action has been taken by the Company, Numis or Panmure Gordon that would permit a public offer of Shares in any jurisdiction outside the UK or possession of this announcement where action for that purpose is required. Persons outside the UK who come into possession of this announcement should inform themselves about the distribution of this announcement in their particular jurisdiction. Failure to comply with those restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of such jurisdiction.
Numis Securities Limited ("Numis") is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA') and has advised the Company and no one else in connection with the Placing and Admission, and is acting exclusively for the Company as nominated adviser and broker for the purpose of the AIM Rules for Companies.
Pamure Gordon (UK) Limited ("Panmure Gordon") is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the FCA and has advised the Company and no one else in connection with the Placing and Admission, and is acting exclusively for the Company as broker for the purpose of the AIM Rules for Companies.
Deloitte Corporate Finance is a division of Deloitte LLP ("Deloitte") which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the FCA and has advised the Company and no one else in connection with the Placing and Admission, and is acting exclusively for the Company as financial adviser.
None of Numis, Panmure Gordon nor Deloitte will be responsible to any person other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to its customers, nor for providing advice in relation to the placing and Admission or the contents of this announcement. In particular, the information contained in this announcement has been prepared solely for the purposes of Admission and is not intended to inform or be relied upon by any subsequent purchasers of Shares (whether on or off exchange) and accordingly no duty of care is accepted in relation to them. Without limiting the statutory rights of any person to whom this announcement is issued, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by Numis, Panmure Gordon or Deloitte as to the contents of this announcement. No liability whatsoever is accepted by Numis, Panmure Gordon or Deloitte for the accuracy of any information or opinions contained in this announcement, or for the omission of any information from this announcement, for which the directors of the Company are solely responsible.
Capitalised expressions used but not defined herein shall have the meaning given to them in the Admission Document.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This announcement contains forward looking statements relating to the Company's future prospects, developments and strategies, which have been made after due and careful enquiry and are based on the directors of the Company's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "believe", "could", "envisage", "estimate", "intend", "may", "plan", "will" or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. The directors of the Company believe that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, but may be affected by a number of variables which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement.
The price of the Shares and any income expected from them may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the full amount invested upon disposal of the Shares. Past performance is no guide to future performance, and potential investors should consult an independent financial adviser.
Neither the content of the Company's website nor any website accessible by hyperlinks on the Company's website is incorporated in, or forms part of, this announcement.