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RNS Number : 6922O
LSL Property Services PLC
11 February 2021
For Immediate Release
11 February 2021
LSL Property Services plc ("LSL" or "Group")
LSL completes strategic Financial Services technology
acquisitions and confirms senior management appointments
LSL announces the acquisition of a 60% stake in Direct Life
Quote Holdings Limited for GBP1.8m, and the acquisition in full of
the business and assets of Mortgage Gym Limited ("Mortgage Gym")
for GBP2.4m, as part of its digital strategy to drive growth in
Financial Services.
LSL is one of the largest providers of services to mortgage
intermediaries and mortgage & protection advice to estate
agency customers, completing c.GBP32bn of mortgages in 2019. It
currently represents approximately 9% of the total purchase and
remortgage market, with around 2,600 financial advisers.
These acquisitions will strengthen LSL's digital capability and
help to drive increased market share and profitability across its
award-winning PRIMIS intermediary network, Embrace Financial
Services, its specialist provider of mortgage and protection advice
to estate agency customers, and its RSC and Group First
subsidiaries, which focus on providing mortgage advice to buyers of
new build homes, working in partnership with new home
developers.
Direct Life Quote Holdings
Direct Life Quote Holdings principal subsidiary, Direct Life
& Pension Services Limited ("DLPS"), has developed an advanced
technology platform that offers digital protection insurance
product recommendations to intermediaries and direct to retail
customers via an end-to-end online service through third party
aggregators. The investment in DLPS will help both PRIMIS members
and LSL's directly employed advisers to increase their sale of
protection products for the benefit of clients and customers. The
agreement allows LSL to take a further share in the business at a
later date.
Mortgage Gym
LSL has been a strategic investor in Mortgage Gym which has
developed an innovative digital platform that confirms mortgage
eligibility within 60 seconds, matching borrowers with lenders.
Mortgage Gym will strengthen the technology support available to
LSL and PRIMIS mortgage advisors, increasing the efficiency of
users and help to pre-qualify leads, whilst increasing the
capability to generate leads from third party sources. The
technology is currently being piloted by LSL in the new build
market and under LSL ownership it will be used to accelerate its
deployment, enhancing the service proposition to developers, giving
LSL the opportunity to grow market share in this sector. It will
also bring significant benefits to Embrace Financial Services,
increasing the efficiency and productivity of advisers working with
LSL and third-party estate agency offices.
The consideration for the Mortgage Gym acquisition has been
settled by offsetting against LSL's position as a secured creditor
of Mortgage Gym by way of purchase from the administrators.
Mortgage Gym reported losses before tax of GBP3.9m for the year
ended 31 December 2019, at which date it had gross assets of
GBP1.5m. The reported losses in 2020 are expected to be
considerably lower and we expect the Mortgage Gym technology to
contribute positively to Group profitability once it is fully
deployed.
Management Update
LSL has appointed Steve Goodall as Managing Director of e.surv,
one of the UK's largest provider of surveying & valuation
services and Andy Deeks as Group Chief Strategy Officer. Steve
Goodall was most recently Chief Executive of AIM-listed ULS
Technology plc, a leading provider of digital home moving and legal
services platforms and, prior to this, he was Managing Director of
Legal & General Surveying Services for 13 years. Andy Deeks was
most recently an Executive Director at Coventry Building Society
with responsibility for Product, Marketing, Digital and
Strategy.
David Stewart, Group Chief Executive Officer of LSL, said:
"These important acquisitions will help LSL drive further growth
in Financial Services, which is at the heart of our strategy. They
provide us with market-leading digital capability, and I am
delighted that we have been able to complete these deals.
I'm also delighted to welcome Steve Goodall and Andy Deeks to
LSL. Steve is highly respected across the surveying and valuation
markets and his deep understanding of the sector will prove
invaluable to our plans to grow e.surv. Andy has already made a
significant contribution as we develop ambitious targets for the
Group and I've no doubt that he will play an important part in
taking the Group forward as we implement our plans in the coming
months and years."
In our Full Year Trading Update, released on 15 January 2021, we
were pleased to announce very strong trading in December 2020 with
full year 2020 Group Underlying Operating Profit expected to be
significantly ahead of 2019. We will provide further details with
the release of our Preliminary results for the year ended 31
December 2020."
Notes on LSL
LSL is one of the largest providers of services to mortgage
intermediaries and mortgage & protection advice to estate
agency customers, completing GBP31.7bn of mortgages in 2019. It
represents approximately 9% of the total purchase and remortgage
market with around 2,600 financial advisers. It was named Mortgage
Network of the Year by both Moneyfacts and Mortgage Introducer in
their 2020 awards, as well as Best Network 300+ ARs by Mortgage
Strategy.
e.surv is one of the UK's largest provider of surveying and
valuation services, supplying seven out of the ten largest lenders
in the UK, employing over 500 operational surveyors, and performing
over 500,000 valuation and surveys per annum for key lender
clients. It was named Best Surveyor/Valuer at the 2020 Mortgage
Strategy awards.
LSL operates a network of 226 owned and 130 franchised estate
agency branches.
For further information, please visit LSL's website:
lslps.co.uk
For further information, please contact:
David Stewart, Group Chief
Executive Officer
Adam Castleton, Group Chief
Financial Officer
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LSL Property Services plc investorrelations@lslps.co.uk
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Helen Tarbet
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Sophie Wills
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Buchanan 0207 466 5000 / LSL@buchanan.uk.com
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Forward Looking Statement
This announcement contains certain statements that are
forward-looking statements. They appear in a number of places
throughout this announcement and include statements regarding LSL's
intentions, beliefs or current expectations and those of its
officers, directors and employees concerning, amongst other things,
LSL's results of operations, financial condition, liquidity,
prospects, growth, strategies and the business it operates. By
their nature, these statements involve uncertainty since future
events and circumstances can cause results and developments to
differ materially from those anticipated. The forward-looking
statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date
of preparation of this update and, unless otherwise required by
applicable law, LSL undertakes no obligation to update or revise
these forward-looking statements. Nothing in this update should be
construed as a profit forecast. LSL and its Directors accept no
liability to third parties in respect of this update save as would
arise under English law.
Any forward-looking statements in this announcement speak only
at the date of this announcement and LSL undertakes no obligation
to update publicly or review any forward-looking statement to
reflect new information or events, circumstances or developments
after the date of this update.
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