Morses Club PLC Acquires Shelby Finance Ltd.

Morses Club PLC, the UK's second largest home collected credit lender, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Shelby Finance Ltd., a provider of online instalment loans.

Shelby Finance is fully authorised by the FCA to provide online instalment loans and will operate as a subsidiary of Morses Club PLC.

This acquisition is an important strategic development for Morses Club as it will accelerate the launch of a new, branded online instalment loan product. The Company has seen an increasing number of visitors to its website who are looking for alternatives to its core HCC offering.  The introduction of an online instalment loan product is the next step in the Company's strategy of developing digital products to complement its HCC offering and target a wider range of customers across the UK non-standard credit market.

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

"The acquisition of Shelby Finance is another example of the progress we continue to make with our strategic plan of using technology to offer customers a broader range of products, supplementing our core home collected credit offering and ensuring customers can access credit with the flexibility they require.

"Outside the HCC sector, there are c. 9 million additional customers who access the wider non-standard credit market. The introduction of our new branded online instalment loan product will enable us to offer these customers access to credit in increasingly flexible ways with all the benefits of Morses Club's customer service ethos.

"We anticipate that the new online instalment loan product will be launched in the first half of our trading year and look forward to updating the market once the full launch plan has been finalised."