Morses Club PLC Acquisition of Hays Credit LLP

Morses Club PLC, the UK's second largest home collected credit lender, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the business and assets of Hays Credit LLP, a home collected credit lender.

Hays is a family-run business which has been operating since 1957, providing loans to approximately 2,700 customers across the North East of England. Hays has outstanding balances of approximately £1.6m.  Hays is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is a member of the Consumer Credit Association.

The acquisition further expands Morses Club's core home collected credit business in the North East of England, complementing the recently announced acquisition of the business and assets of Eccles Savings & Loans Limited, the North West based home collected credit business with 3,000 customers.

Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, commented:

"I am delighted to announce this acquisition and welcome Hays' customers to Morses Club. Hays is a high-quality business and further expands our offering for clients in the North East.  Home collected credit is the fundamental core of our business and our recent acquisitions demonstrate our commitment to both continuing to grow our home collected credit capabilities, as well as diversifying our broader online product offering".

About Morses Club

Morses Club is the second largest UK Home Collected Credit (HCC) lender with 230,000 customers and 1,942 agents across 98 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 95% 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 £209 billion in February 20183.

1 Independent Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by Mustard
2 FCA High Cost Credit Review Technical Annex 1: CRA data analysis of UK personal debt - July 2017
3 Source: Table J Bank of England Money & Credit Report February 2018

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.