06 October 2021

MANOLETE PARTNERS PLC

("Manolete" or the "Company")

Trading Update

In June 2020 the UK Government reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic by suppressing UK insolvencies through the use of various "Temporary Measures" contained in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020. These measures largely ended, effective from 1 October 2021 as did a number of other business support schemes, including furlough. Manolete's trading for the interim six-month reporting period ended 30 September 2021 was during the time that these "Temporary Measures" were in full effect. Despite these unprecedented restrictions, the Company has performed well and in line with the Board's expectations during the period.

During the six months ending 30 September 2021 (all figures unaudited):

-       64 cases were completed (23% higher than the 52 case completions in H1 FY21).

-       Those 64 cases were settled for an aggregate settlement value of £7.9m.

-       The average duration of the 64 cases from the date of signing the investment agreement to the date the case was legally settled was 11.5 months, which is in line with the Company's long-term average.

-       The Return on Investment of those 64 cases was 157% which represents a Money Multiple of 2.57x (meaning every £1 Manolete invested into those cases returns £2.57).

-       255 new UK insolvency case enquiries were received, which was 5% higher than the previous six months but 24% below H1 FY21 which was affected far less by the Temporary Measures referred to above.

-       78 new case investments were made (11% lower than the previous six months, which underlines Manolete's high standards of rigorous case assessment and 29% below H1 FY21). 

-       £4.3m of cash was received from previously completed cases.

50 new UK insolvency case enquiries were received in the month of September 2021, the highest level the Company has experienced since July 2020.

Manolete started the second half of its financial year with 262 live cases in progress.

As at 30 September 2021, Manolete had drawn down £11m from its £25m three-year Revolving Credit Facility with HSBC.

Half year results for the six months ended 30 September 2021 will be announced by the Company next month.

Steven Cooklin, CEO of Manolete, commented:

"The Manolete business has performed admirably despite the extraordinary temporary measures enacted by the UK Government designed to suppress UK insolvencies and to support UK employment levels. Effective from the start of this month, those measures have now very largely ended with a return to broadly normal insolvency processes.

"As can be seen from the data released by the UK Insolvency Service, the number of monthly Creditors Voluntary Liquidations had already bounced back to pre-pandemic levels for each of the last four months.

"There is always a time lag between an insolvency appointment, investigation work being done by the Insolvency Practitioner and then cases being referred to Manolete, but we are now starting to see the increased number of insolvency appointments being reflected in our KPIs - September saw the highest level of new case enquiries being received since July 2020. We also witnessed a strong recovery in our numbers of new signed cases at 15 for that month, 50% higher than the previous month. Even with this sharp upturn these KPIs are still far below the level we were experiencing before the Government instigated the necessary economic support measures so we anticipate further strong growth in the number of signed cases in the months ahead.

"With a return to largely normal UK insolvency processes from 1 October 2021, Manolete is well positioned to benefit from that and the likely, widely predicted, increase in insolvency appointments as the economy realigns from the effects of the pandemic".

For further information please contact:

Manolete Partners: 

Steven Cooklin (Chief Executive Officer)                        via Instinctif Partners

Peel Hunt (NOMAD and Broker)                                  +44 (0)20 7418 8900 

James Britton

Rishi Shah

Instinctif Partners (Financial PR)                      manolete@instinctif.com / +44 (0)20 7457 2020

Tim Linacre

George Peele