Stockport lender Together, one of the UK’s leading specialist secured lenders, has announced strong growth and record levels of lending in its results for the year ended 30 June 2018, as the group’s loan book reached a new high of £3bn.

Building on over four decades of experience, Stockport lender Together continued to grow strongly, with annual loan originations up 40% to £1.7bn. Highlights included our highest ever month of lending in June of £169.2m, while we maintained a conservative loan-to-value on originations of 58.0%. The group remained highly cash generative and profitable, delivering cash receipts of £1.2bn during the year, and profit before tax up 29.3% to £121.7m.

Mike McTighe, group chairman at Together

Group Chairman, Mike McTighe commented:

“We maintained our strong growth momentum in the year while continuing to invest in our people, products, distribution channels, systems and governance. We also continued enhancing our senior management team with several senior appointments across the group, including the arrival of John Lowe from Coventry Building Society.

“We also added further depth and diversity to our funding, issuing our first public residential mortgage backed securitisation for £275m, extending our 2024 bonds with a successful £150m tap, refinancing our £255m Lakeside securitisation, increasing the scale and maturity of our banking facilities and successfully launching our first warehouse facility for small balance commercial real estate, the £525m Highfield securitisation. The group’s continued progress was reflected in rating upgrades from both S&P and Fitch.

“With an established track record, a unique and successful model and the investment we are making in our platform, we believe Together has a great opportunity and remains well placed to deliver on our ambitious growth plans.”

Marc Goldberg, Commercial CEO, said:

“We are proud to report another great set of results for Together as we delivered record lending during the year. Our continued strong growth would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our now 700 colleagues, who remain focused on delivering positive outcomes for our customers and intermediaries throughout their journey with Together. We’re delighted to have been recognised by our entry into the Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For, at number 34, and I want to thank all of our colleagues for their commitment to helping our customers to achieve their financial ambitions.”

Pete Ball, Personal Finance CEO, added:

“We are excited to have achieved another period of record lending during the year as we grew our loan book to £3billion. Particular highlights over the year have included building out our distribution partnerships with the UK mortgage clubs and networks, as well as continuing to invest in our people, product range and service offering.

“Over the last 12 months we have focussed improving communications with customers through every stage of a loan, and we are proud to report an increase to 93% of customers saying they are happy with our service.

“Looking ahead, we’re focussed on further enhancing our platform and extending our distribution reach to provide more customers with the products and finance solutions they need.”

Highlights

• Strong growth in loan book to £3.0bn, driven by further record lending volumes at conservative LTVs
  • Loan book at £3.0bn, up 32.0% (2017: £2.2bn).
  • Average monthly loan originations up 40.0% to £138.3m (2017: £98.8m).
  • Group weighted average LTV of new originations during 2018 remained conservative at 0% (2017: 57.1%).
  • Net impairment charge at £11.4m for the year, representing 0.43% of the loan book value ^([1]) (2017: £7.4m, 0.36%).
• Increased interest receivable and cash generation
  • Interest receivable and similar income up 18.5% at £292.2m (2017: £246.5m), driven by interest earned on increased loan book levels
  • Group remains highly cash generative with cash receipts of £1,3 m (2017: £1,0m)
• Continued growth in profits
  • Underlying EBITDA up 13.3% to £219.2m (2017: £193.4m). EBITDA up 18.4% (2017: £185.2m).
  • Profit before tax on a statutory basis grew 29.2% to £121.7m compared with £94.1m for the year to June 30, 2017. (The underlying profit before tax for last year, excluding one-off refinancing and transaction costs, was £117.1m).
• Further scale, diversity and maturity added to funding structure
  • Issuance of first public residential mortgage backed securitisation, for £275m in September 2017.
  • £255m Lakeside ABS facility extended on favourable terms in January 2018.
  • £150m issuance of 2024 bonds successfully completed in January 2018.
  • Ratings upgrades from S&P and Fitch.
  • Momentum maintained with increase in revolving credit facility from £57.5m to £71.9m in April 2018.
  • On June 27, 2018, the Group completed a new £525m commercial real estate warehouse facility via the special purpose vehicle Highfield Asset Backed Securitisation 1 Limited (‘Highfield ABS’).