3 Jul 2019 09:30
3 July 2019
Morses Club PLC
Appointment of Non-executive Director
Morses Club PLC ("Morses Club", or the "Company"), the UK's second largest home collected credit lender, is pleased to announce the appointment of Leslie ("Les") Easson as a Non-executive Director. Les will join the Board of Morses Club on 1 September 2019, as he retires from his current role as the Company's Operations Director on 31 August 2019.
Les has worked for Morses Club for more than 36 years, starting his career as an agent and working through all the management levels culminating in his appointment to Operations Director in 2012. In 2014 he successfully managed field operations through the merger of Morses Club and Shopacheck which led to the flotation of the enlarged business in 2016. He has led the successful acquisition of 19 HCC businesses and overseen significant operational and IT changes to ensure that field managers and agents deliver the best customer service with the 'Treating Customers Fairly' principle central to the whole operating model. He has been instrumental in transforming Morses Club's approach to customer-focused operations, ensuring that the close customer-agent relationship that defines Morses Club has remained at the heart of the business as it has expanded and evolved to meet changing customer needs.
Stephen Karle, Chairman of Morses Club, commented:
"On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Les for his many years of hard work at Morses Club. His expert knowledge and understanding of the HCC industry, combined with his commitment to providing best-in-class customer satisfaction, has been invaluable to the Company. We look forward to benefiting from Les's experience and deep sector knowledge in his new capacity as a NED."
The following information is disclosed pursuant to Rule 17 and Schedule Two (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies
Leslie Gordon Easson, age 58, has been a director of the following companies during the five years preceding the date of this announcement:
Current Directorships: Croftness Development Limited
Former Directorships (previous 5 years): Shopacheck Financial Services Limited
Hay Wain Group Limited
Morses Club plc
Leslie Easson was awarded a total of 377,388 options over Ordinary Shares in the Company as part of the Company's deferred share plan, which is subject to performance conditions. Mr Easson has no direct interests in Ordinary Shares.
As part of the pre-IPO re-organisation of the Company, as described in the Company's Admission Document, Mr Easson received partial consideration on the sale of his 5.7% beneficial interest in selling shareholder Hay Wain Group Limited (previously known as Perpignon Limited), and has the right to receive deferred consideration from Hay Wain Holdings Limited (parent company of Hay Wain Group Limited). The deferred consideration payable to Mr Easson is a function of any capital and income receipt by Hay Wain Group Limited with respect to the Company's Ordinary Shares and is calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Save as set out in this announcement, there are no further matters to be disclosed in accordance with AIM Rule 17 and paragraph (g) of Schedule Two of the AIM Rules for Companies.
For further information
Morses Club PLC Paul Smith, Chief Executive OfficerAndy Hayward, Chief Financial Officer | Tel: +44 (0) 330 045 0719 |
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker)Fabien Holler / Atholl Tweedie (Corporate Finance) Erik Anderson (Corporate Broking) | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500 |
finnCapJonny Franklin-Adams / Anthony Adams (Corporate Finance)Tim Redfern / Richard Chambers (Corporate Broking) | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
CamarcoEd Gascoigne-Pees / Jennifer Renwick / Kimberley Taylor | Tel: +44 (0) 20 3757 4984 |
Notes to Editors
About Morses Club
Morses Club is the second largest UK Home Collected Credit (HCC) lender with 235,000 customers and over 1,900 agents across 95 locations throughout the UK.
The Company offers a range of loan products to its customers through its extensive self-employed agent network. The majority of the Company's borrowers are repeat customers and the Company enjoys consistently high customer satisfaction with scores of 97% or above1.
The Company is using technology to broaden its offering and provide new products to ensure customers can access credit with the flexibility they require. In April 2016, its cashless lending product, the Morses Club Card, was introduced, enabling its customers to buy online as well as on the high street. Dot Dot Loans, the Company's first online instalment product, was launched in March 2017.
Morses Club successfully listed on AIM in May 2016.
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 10 million consumers2.
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 February 2014, unsecured personal lending has grown from £161 billion to £216 billion in February 20193.
1 Independent Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by Mustard2 FCA High Cost Credit Review Technical Annex 1: CRA data analysis of UK personal debt - July 20173 Source: Table A5.2, Bank of England Money and Credit Bank stats February 2019
About 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 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 1.6 million2 people using the services of UK HCC lenders.
2 High Cost Credit Review ANNEX 1 - July 2017