Debt Free Gives a Trading Update
This morning Debt Free Direct Group PLC gave a trading update. I find it strange for them to make an announcement quite unexpectedly and it must leave the current shareholders scratching their heads.
The point is that on 20th October, Debt Free announced it would publish its interim results on the 20th November. The expectation from the shareholders must therefore have been for a period of silence up until the 20th November. I note that Debt Free gave a trading update at roughly the same time last year, but this hadn’t been preceded by giving a concrete date for the results - strange stuff, perhaps they expect a double whammy!
Whilst I’m in a mild critisicm mode, I also don’t like the name of the Company. It’s been oft said, but if you take out a secured loan you don’t magically become “Debt Free”.
Anyhow, less of my pugnaciuos remarks and on with a quick look at the results.
Amongst a report of very strong trading, they report an increase of over 100% in IVAs, turnover increasing 91% to £12.2m and a significant increase in re-mortgage deals (which is where I assume they are also clumping their secured loans deals).
The strong IVA growth follows similar reports from Accuma, Compass and Debts and, given it’s a measure of people in severe debt, is quite a worrying trend.
On another note, the number of Spam Comments on this blog has dropped a little. From some ridiculous figure like 50+ a day, its been down to around 10 for the last two days - I hope this is the beginning of a trend and not just the effect of some Spammers taking a holiday or attending some Spam Conference!
