Trading Statement

S & U PLC

11 December 2025

 

11 December 2025

S&U plc

("S&U" or "the Group")

TRADING STATEMENT

S&U PLC (LSE: SUS), the specialist motor and property finance lender today issues its trading update for the period 5^th August 2025 to 10^th December 2025.

Business Highlights

The turnaround in S&U's fortunes, predicted in our last trading statement of early August, and confirmed at our interim results in October, continues apace. Group profit at the end of the third quarter continues to beat budget. Trading, particularly at Advantage, our motor finance business, is healthy both in terms of new business volumes and quality. As a result, group net receivables, the life blood of future profitability, now stand at c.£491 m (2024: £447 m) and are accelerating month by month.

This surge clearly confirms the abilities of our businesses, once freed from the shackles of regulatory intervention. The lifting of the FCA's s166 process at Advantage in April, and the calming effect that the Supreme Court's sensible decisions on commission disclosure in early August have had on the wider industry, presage a firmer motor finance market. Indeed, the latest Finance and Leasing Association statistics show the used car finance market up by 6% in September, having declined slightly by 2% in the preceding months.

By comparison, the performance of both Advantage and Aspen has been remarkably resilient given the chaotic and monumentally mishandled recent budget, and its dampening effect on consumer confidence in general and more specifically on the housing market. Ironically, a happy consequence now appears to be a dawning realisation within the Treasury and the FCA that without growth and greater access to credit, consumer satisfaction and protection are pretty hypothetical.

Advantage Finance

The last four months have seen an upsurge in trading at Advantage, led by CEO Karl Werner. Recent monthly agreement volumes have averaged 2,500, or over £25m in value compared to 7,121 deals in the first half. Advantage's third quarter, to the 31^st of October, saw a record 869,000 finance applications, and now receivables are a net c.£318m, an increase of 14% on the previous quarter.

This has given Advantage the opportunity to both improve its interest margins, especially amongst higher tier customers and, with a renewed scorecard and updated affordability measures, also improve the quality of its loan book. As a result, latest collection rates for November are at a record 93.4% of due. Recency statistics on collections are at their best level for two years. The very compliant way in which Advantage manages and guides its customers who fall into arrears is shown by the most recent figures on the number and size of successful repayment arrangements. In this way Advantage can assist its customers to protect and improve their credit ratings - an attribute too little recognised in the non-prime market.

We would encourage the Financial Conduct Authority to remember this when addressing industry concerns about its Commission Redress scheme which is currently under consultation. Advantage is only tangentially affected by this commission debate, having never employed discretionary commission

("DCAs"); or tied arrangements; Advantage estimates that only 2.4% of its customers even potentially qualify for redress consideration under the proposed rules. Nevertheless, in conjunction with the Finance and Leasing Association, Advantage has produced a comprehensive and constructive response to the FCA, which proposes reductions in scope of redress and a much more focused and efficient process.

Whatever the outcome, the company anticipates that the effect of commission redress upon Advantage's current robust trading performance will be minimal. Its strong rebound should continue unabated.

Aspen Bridging

Despite the drag on transactions in the residential property market caused by the government prevarication mentioned earlier, Aspen continues to sensibly grow its loan book. At half year net receivables stood at £148m. At the end of the period under review these are now c.£173m.

Repayments in the period were at £47m and year to date they are ahead of budget at £160m. Advances in the period were £75m, driven by a greater number of smaller deals for bridging products augmented by our very popular Buy to Let loans the average size of which is over £1.3m. Margins are stable and on budget. Application numbers were inevitably affected by drawn out budget speculation and then imposition of higher taxes on rental incomes, council tax extensions and a new mansion tax; however, these have rebounded in the last three weeks.

The quality of Aspen's loan book also remains good with just 16 out of 240 loans beyond term. Aspen is making steady progress on resolving the very small number of longer-term cases.

Although it is to be hoped that lower interest rates will produce a significant but unlikely revival in the UK's hidebound residential market, Aspen will nevertheless produce a solid second half and another good profit for the year as a whole.

Funding

The very welcome acceleration in activity throughout the Group of the past few months has seen Group net borrowings rise to £241m from £180m at the half year. Whilst the existing funding capacity of £280m will meet our requirements for the immediate future, an exciting project is at present under way to confirm substantially larger, but flexible, medium-term facilities on a competitive basis. These will facilitate the expansion we foresee for both businesses over the next three years.

Commenting on S&U's trading outlook, Anthony Coombs, S&U Chairman, said:

"Recent months have undoubtedly confirmed that S&U has regained its "Va Va Voom"; to quote my predecessor's habitual phrase. It is also true that investors are increasingly aware of the value inherent in family-controlled SME businesses with rewarding dividend policies. With both Advantage and Aspen on the right track, we have every confidence in the good rewards for shareholders we anticipate in the years to come".

For further information, please contact:

Enquiries Anthony Coombs	S&U plc	c/o SEC Newgate
Financial Public Relations Bob Huxford, Harry Handyside, Aqsa Ali	SEC Newgate	020 7653 9848
Broker Andrew Buchanan, Rob Parker	Peel Hunt LLP	020 7418 8900
Broker James Felix, John Welch, Daniel Gee-Summons	Berenberg	020 3207 7800

 

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