www.suplc.co.uk
S&U PLC is the United Kingdom's foremost niche consumer and motor finance provider.
Based in Solihull in the West Midlands it has operations throughout the United Kingdom from Edinburgh to London to Grimsby to Falmouth in Cornwall. It provides work for nearly 800 people and is proud to provide 140,000 people throughout the country with their consumer and motor finance requirements.
S & U 's motto is to provide Britain's "foremost consumer and motor finance service for its customers". We continually strive to achieve that ideal and the results are benefiting our customers, our employees and of course our shareholders.
UPDATE: S & U anticipates further progress throughout the year
Adds comments from broker Collins Stewart.....
The niche money-lending firm S&U (LON:SUS) said today that trading for the first six months of the year had been "in line with market expectations".
The home credit business had maintained momentum and increased revenue by 3 percent in the period compared to last year, while Advantage, the motor finance division has continued the impressive start it made to the year, said the company.
Advantage saw the number of new advances in the period climb more than six percent compared to the first six months of 2010.
"At a time of great economic uncertainty and a faltering recovery, our home credit and motor finance customers are clearly demonstrating the value they place upon the convenient, responsible and understanding service we provide," said S & U.
Chairman Anthony Coombs added: "By continually nurturing these relationships we anticipate sensibly and confidently, further progress throughout the year."
The firm also revealed it had opened a new branch of its home credit business in Derby and was exploring further ways to expand the home division called Loansathome4u.
Collections remained satisfactory, increasing by 1 percent on slightly lower book debt and the company said the three positive trends it reported in May had continued - namely, the slight shortening of the loan profile, the improvement in impairment and the strong credit available to existing customers.
In motor finance, it said the quality of collections remained excellent as did the quality of new customers, reflected in the fact that the average net car advance has increased from £4,500 to £5,000.
"We see Advantage going from strength to strength," said the firm.
The six months has seen the company pay off £2million of loans and reduced its borrowings and gearing to 40 percent against 51 percent last year.
It has also put in place a flexible bank funding facility to cover core borrowing, which will mature in April 2016, it said.
Regarding the firm's possible move to the AIM market from the Official List, it said it had completed consultations with shareholders and it will remain on the Official List, where it had traded for 50 years.
"Our recent growth in shareholder value, if not our liquidity, has merited a move from the fledgling to small cap sector and we anticipate still further progress," it said.
The company intends to issue its interim results on September 22 this year.
Broker Collins Stewart recommends a "buy" for the stock and targets a price of 750 pence (share price: 547.5 pence). It says that today's statement included a number of encouraging comments which suggest that interim results will reveal strong collections, sensible loan growth and a credible increase in earnings.
Analyst Robin Savage added that the trading statement supported the broker's view, stated in a previous note, that S & U should double shareholder value over three years.
