Pawnbrokers PLC
This is slightly off topic, but it’s been a while since I strayed from the beaten track.
Each morning of the working week I have a quick flick though all the Stock Market announcements to see if secured loans get a mention. Well, this morning I didn’t find anything, but the results of a business called H&T Group PLC (HAT) caught my eye. H&T are primarily a pawnbrokers and I don’t really know why, but I was slightly taken aback to see a firm of pawnbrokers ‘big enough’ to be listed on the stock market.
Having a quick glance at their results I see H&T actually have 71 stores and since listing in May look like they are on an expansion drive. They trade under the names H&T Pawnbrokers and Get>Go and also deal in cheque cashing, payday advances and pre-paid debit cards. The business appears to be quite a high margin one with £2.8 million operating profit on £14.5 million turnover. The problem with H&T seems to be its large debt (circa £35 million) and with interest payable in the 6 months and other exceptional costs (primarily relating to listing on Aim) made a loss £2.3 million. I note at the time of the listing they restructured their debt and H&T forecast interest payments to come down significantly in the future.
One slightly annoying thing is that I can’t find a website for them. I believe all businesses listed on the stock market, AIM or not, should have a website in the very least to appease the shareholders or prospective shareholders.
Another listed Pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond Holdings PLC (ABM) does have a website, but its only a one page affair giving brief details of the business and a link to their last results. With similar turnover of nearly £15million, operating profit of £3.8 million and bottom line profit of £2.3million Albemarle demonstrates what a gem of a company H&T could become and it is no surprise to see a lot of institutional interest when they floated.
‘The bottle-green,’ said old Arthur; ‘the bottle-green was a famous suit to wear, and I bought it very cheap at a pawnbroker’s, and there was–he, he, he!–a tarnished shilling in the waistcoat pocket. To think that the pawnbroker shouldn’t have known there was a shilling in it! I knew it! I felt it when I was examining the quality. Oh, what a dull dog of a pawnbroker!
Arthur Gride from Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby
