SJH.L Regulatory News (SJH)

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

06 December 2019

ST. JAMES HOUSE PLC

 ("SJH", the "Group" or the "Company")

Trading Update

The Board of Directors of the Company (the "Board") is pleased to provide the following trading statement and update on recent developments (the "Update").

Payments Division 

The payments division has seen orders for pre-paid cards exceed 13,000 in November, with 700 delivered and activated as at 30 November 2019. The Board believes it remains on target for the revised forecast of 20,000 cards to be delivered and activated by the end of January.

Euro IBAN wallets are now available to clients and fully functional, giving fast, seamless and low-cost transactional capability across 33 countries. Market Access t/a Another ("Another") now provides Euro account clients with full access to borderless payments across the EU Member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Monaco and San Marino. Additionally, the Another Euro pre-paid card is fully connected to the IBAN account so that balances can be automatically swapped between cards and accounts simply through one platform. Pound Sterling accounts are being rolled out for qualifying clients with a view to a broader roll out in the New Year, with US Dollar to follow shortly. Foreign exchange and international payments through the SWIFT system are now also available for those transactions which originate or end outside of the Single European Payments Area ("SEPA") zone.

In anticipation of the upgraded payment gateway and fraud prevention software in January, the merchant services team have conducted a successful merchant acquisition campaign with the goal of producing a more industry diverse sales pipeline. Together with recent agreements signed with two Baltic and European acquiring partners, resulting in successful test transactions from new merchants, we are confident of a positive contribution to the group during the first quarter of 2020.

Lottery Business

The number of Lottery lines played on a weekly basis is approximately 30% higher than for November 2018. This growth ensures the Lottery Business continues to be on target to make a positive operating contribution to the Group for the second half of the year to 31 January 2020.

Group

Working capital remains constrained, however the Board believes the improving operating performance will alleviate the position gradually. In addition, the Board is actively exploring options to improve the Group's position before the ending of the current financial year (31 January 2020).

Chief Executive Graeme Paton commented, "We now have a fully functioning suite of GBP and EUR prepaid cards, proper IBANs in EUR as well as GBP accounts for qualifying businesses with USD services to follow shortly - all accessible through the Another portal - our clients can send and receive money to and from virtually anywhere as well as manage their cards, wherever they can connect to the internet".

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