COVID-19 Trading Update

RNS Number : 6401G

Ramsdens Holdings PLC

18 March 2020

 

 

Ramsdens Holdings PLC

("Ramsdens" or the "Group")

COVID-19 Trading Update

Ramsdens, the diversified financial services provider and retailer, is pleased to announce that it has traded well during the year ending 31 March 2020 ("FY 2020") and confirms that it anticipates reporting FY 2020 profit before tax in line with the guidance provided in the Group's Trading Update dated 8 January 2020.

The Retail initiatives introduced by the Group during the year have continued to generate good returns, the Group's Pawnbroking loan book remains of good quality and the Purchase of Precious Metals segment has continued to perform well, benefiting from the strong gold price.

However, as has been widely reported, since February 2020 the spread of COVID-19 has significantly reduced demand for international travel and, as a result, the Group has experienced a significant decline in customer demand for its Foreign Exchange offer over recent weeks. The extent of the future impact from COVID-19 on this income stream is difficult to predict but will result in a material reduction in FX revenues in the near term.

FY2021 Outlook

The Group benefits from diversified income streams and a strong balance sheet, including approximately £10m of cash and an undrawn £10m revolving credit facility. At this stage, it is not possible to provide meaningful guidance on the financial performance for FY 2021 but the Board continues to assess the impact of COVID-19 in particular and the uncertain macro-economic background in general on its business and is planning accordingly.

Peter Kenyon, CEO of Ramsdens, commented:

"We are in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 situation continues to evolve quickly and the extent and duration of its future impact across all areas of peoples' lives is difficult to assess. Our first concern continues to be the wellbeing of our colleagues and our customers and we have taken actions to protect them.

At the start of February, we were looking forward with optimism to accelerating our growth plans.  Just a few weeks later, we have no visibility on how long the current international travel disruption will last and how this will impact our Foreign Exchange income stream in the year ahead. 

Despite these challenges, as a business we have the benefit of offering diversified services to customers and, given the uncertainty, we anticipate an increasing need for our asset-backed pawnbroking and gold buying services to support customers through potential short-term cash flow difficulties.  Our store expansion plans are under review as we continue to assess the Government's ongoing response to controlling the virus and efforts to support the economy.

The Board will provide a further update as and when appropriate."

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION.

Enquiries:

Ramsdens Holdings PLC    Tel: [phone]

Peter Kenyon, CEO

Martin Clyburn, CFO

Liberum Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser)   Tel: [phone]

Richard Crawley

Joshua Hughes

Hudson Sandler (Financial PR)   Tel: [phone]

Alex Brennan

Lucy Wollam

About Ramsdens

Ramsdens is a growing, diversified, financial services provider and retailer, operating in the four core business segments of foreign currency exchange, pawnbroking loans, precious metals buying and selling and retailing of second hand and new jewellery.  Ramsdens does not offer unsecured high cost short term credit.

Headquartered in Middlesbrough, the Group operates from 161 stores within the UK (including 4 franchised stores) and has a growing online presence.

In the last financial year, the Group served over 830,000 customers across its different services. Ramsdens is fully FCA authorised for its pawnbroking and credit broking activities.

www.ramsdensplc.com  

www.ramsdensforcash.co.uk  

 

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