Picture of Sancus Lending logo

LEND Sancus Lending News Story

0.000.00%
gb flag iconLast trade - 00:00
FinancialsHighly SpeculativeMicro CapNeutral

REG - Sancus Lending Group - Trading Update and Capital Strengthening

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240424:nRSX7743La&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 7743L  Sancus Lending Group Limited  24 April 2024

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute
inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No.
596/2014 as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations
2019. The person responsible for making this announcement on behalf of the
Company is Rory Mepham.

 

24 April 2024

 

 

Sancus Lending Group Limited

(the "Group" or the "Company")

Trading Update and Capital Strengthening

 

The Board of the Company today provides an update on the Group's unaudited
results for the year ended 31 December 2023 and announces a strengthening of
the Group's capital position.

 

At the year-end the Group had pro-forma loans under management of £208m, an
increase of 23% (31 December 2022: £169m).  The increase reflects growth in
our Irish loan book, which grew strongly from £21m to £32m as at 31 December
2023 and also the pro-forma impact of the joint venture we announced with Hawk
Lending Limited in Jersey on 5 December 2023. As at 31 December 2023 the
pro-forma Jersey loan book was £114m (31 December 2022: £70.5m). The UK loan
book was broadly flat at £63m (31 December 2022: £65.9m).

 

During the year the Group increased its turnover by 24% to c. £12.4m (31
December 2022: £10.0m).    This growth reflects progress in our UK and
Irish businesses in particular.  Overall, the Company now currently estimates
that it will report an operating loss of between £9.5m to £10.0m for the
year ended 31 December 2023 (31 December 2022: £(4.7)m). This primarily
reflects the estimated impact of anticipated IFRS9 write-downs on legacy loans
written prior to the current senior management team joining the business. The
Board remains committed to returning the Group to profitability and is
confident in the strategic actions it is taking to achieve this.

 

One of these strategic actions includes ensuring that the Group maintains
sufficient financial strength and liquidity in order that it can execute its
strategy. Sancus Loans Limited ("Sancus Loans") is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of the Group that, as at 31 December 2023, funded £77.75m of its loans and
which is primarily financed by a financing facility provided by funds managed
by Pollen Street Capital. The Group is pleased to announce that Somerston
Fintech Limited ("Somerston Fintech"), a subsidiary of Somerston Group, the
majority shareholder of the Company, has subscribed for £5,000,000 of
preference shares (the "Preference Shares") in Sancus Loans (the
"Subscription"). The Preference Shares will be issued with a non-cash,
cumulative coupon rate of 15% and a maturity date of 23 November 2026. The
proceeds of the Subscription will be used to strengthen the liquidity of
Sancus Loans. The Group also expects that approximately £4m of these proceeds
will be available for transfer from Sancus Loans to other Group subsidiaries
in order to provide the Group with additional corporate flexibility and
working capital.

 

Related party transaction

Somerston Fintech is a related party to the Company in accordance with the AIM
Rules, by virtue of Somerston Fintech's shareholding in the Company.
Accordingly, the issue of the Preference Shares to Somerston Fintech
constitutes a related party transaction for the purposes of AIM Rule 13 of the
AIM Rules for Companies. The independent directors (being the Company's
directors with the exception of Tracy Clarke) consider, having consulted with
the Company's nominated adviser, Liberum Capital, that the terms of the
transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as its independent shareholders
are concerned.

 

Notice of Annual Results

The Group will release its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2023
in June 2024.

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Sancus Lending Group Limited

Rory Mepham

Keith Lawrence

+44 (0)1481 708 280

 

Liberum Capital (Nominated Adviser and Corporate Broker)

Chris Clarke

William King

+44 (0) 20 3100 2000

 

Instinctif Partners (PR Adviser)

Tim Linacre

Vivian Lai

+44 (0)207 457 2020

 

Apex Group Ltd

Matt Falla

Nicola Momberg

+44 (0)1481 755530

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  TSTIJMBTMTATTLI

Recent news on Sancus Lending

See all news