Full year results from Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB1), released after the market close on Monday, failed to ignite investor interest despite showing encouraging progress.
The acquisition of a majority stake in Fluent Money Group also failed to generate any enthusiasm, with the shares drifting 1% lower to £11.07.
OLD NEWS
Part of the reason for the muted share price response was the fact the 2021 results were substantially in line with figures the firm published in a trading update in late January.
Revenues were 27% higher than 2020 and 34% higher than 2019 thanks to a 13% increase in mainstream advisors and a 12% jump in average sales per advisor.
Gross new mortgage completions climbed 32% to £19.6 billion with the firm's market share of new lending averaging 6.3% during the year.
Market share in the second half exceeded 7%, which is encouraging given growth had appeared to stall in the first six months.
'The Group has started 2022 with a strong pipeline of written business and adviser recruitment', said chief executive Peter Brodnicki.
'Refinancing activity remains positive and demand for housing continues to be very strong, with an increasing number of property instruction driving greater activity levels.'
ON THE ACQUISITION TRAIL
The £73 million acquisition of a 75% stake in Fluent Money Group, an intermediary for aggregators and other national lead sources, builds on the group’s strategy to become a generator and distributor of leads to member firms.
The deal follows the acquisitions last year of a 49% stake in Evolve Financial Solutions, a new build specialist mortgage broker, and a 25% stake in mortgage broker M & R FM Ltd.
The firm also took a 'strategic investment' in Boomin, the so-called next-generation property portal, saying it had made 'significant progress in lead generation and early customer engagement strategy' thanks to the tie-up.
The Fluent Money Group acquisition is expected to be significantly earnings enhancing in the first full year post completion, which should prompt brokers to upgrade their 2023 profit forecasts.
Commenting on the results, Peel Hunt analyst Robert Sage called the results positive and flagged Mortgage Advice Bureau shares were down 20% year to date while the housing and mortgage markets remained buoyant.
