Together’s loan book grows to £5.9billion

Cheadle-based specialist lender, Together, has today announced its quarterly results revealing its loan book grew to £5.9billion, despite continued uncertainty in the UK economy.

The finance group, which provides property loans to individuals and businesses, recorded average monthly lending of £212.5million in the quarter ended December 31^st – up 6.3% on the same period in the previous year.

The group loan book increased to £5.9bn – up 3.6% on the previous quarter and 33.3% on the same quarter last year. Customer arrears profiles remained “benign, reflecting robust loan book quality”, a Together spokesperson said.

Gerald Grimes, Group CEO Designate at Together, said: “Our business delivered another robust performance in the period, against a backdrop of extreme macroeconomic uncertainty, growing the loan book to £5.9bn while controlling origination volumes, increasing rates and maintaining prudent loans-to-value (LTVs).”

The group remained highly profitable and cash generative. Underlying profit before tax of £25.8 million, down from £43.0 million in Q2 ‘22 primarily due to higher impairment charges resulting from future macroeconomic uncertainty in forward-looking IFRS 9 modelling. Cash receipts were £559.9 million, up from £507.4 million in Q2 ‘22.

Together, which has its headquarters at Cheadle Royal Business Park, further enhanced its customer experience during the quarter, by redesigning and launching a new website and improving document management, collections and call handling infrastructure, among other operational improvements.

It added further strength and diversity to its funding, supporting future growth, with the successful launch of a new £467million warehouse facility for first charge owner-occupied and buy-to-let mortgages. As of December 31^st, the group had £1.3bn facility headroom, according to the latest results.

Meanwhile, Together made continued progress against its sustainability targets in the three-month period, establishing a climate working group to progress its ambitions to reduce emissions and energy consumption as the business moves towards net zero.

Continuing its focus on colleagues, the group signed the Race at Work Charter, which aims to enhance recruitment and progression for underrepresented ethnic minorities. It also joined the Business Disability Forum, was awarded a 55/Redefined age accreditation as a result of its commitment to supporting employees over the age of 55 and approved a plan to support more than £1million of charitable giving each year.

Mr Grimes said: “We continued to deliver our strategic change agenda during the quarter, making further incremental progress on delivering the right experience for our customers and creating a more agile, efficient, and scalable platform. We also rolled out new training programmes to support growth and performance for all of our colleagues and made good progress against our sustainability targets and measures.

“While inflation has started to show signs of trending lower and the pace of interest rate rises has slowed, some economists are forecasting the UK economy could enter recession during 2023, and this continued uncertainty may result in increasing numbers of people looking to specialist lenders for support. With a clear purpose, a proven and well-funded business model and a successful multi-cycle track record, we believe Together is well placed to help many more customers realise their ambitions.”