- Based in Batley, West Yorkshire, Cattles is a doorstep lender, which lends to subprime customers rejected by high-street banks.
- In December, it scrapped its dividend payouts for at least a year. Analysts reckon that Cattles will save almost £100 million by abandoning thedividend for this year and for the first half of 2009. Cattles gave no indication of when it would resume payments, but some observers suggested that it could be almost two years.
- Group wants to secure about £1 billion in retail deposits by 2010 to help to reduce its reliance on the wholesale markets for funding. Cattles is also in talks with its banks, led by Royal Bank of Scotland, about renewing the terms of its increasingly expensive £500 million credit facility, which is due to come up for renewal next July.
- The share price cratered in December and over Xmas due to delays in its application for a banking licence. Its application for a banking licence went to the Financial Services Authority in August, but a tougher approach by the regulator because of the recent banking turmoil and the failure of London Scottish Bank, the subprime lender and deposit taker, means that Cattles has had to rethink its February schedule.
- However, a recent reversal in the share price has been linked to potential news that the licence might now be granted....
What's everyone reckon? Is a business like this likely to survive the crisis?
