We’re becoming more cautious towards S&U (SUS). The motor finance group said rolling 12-month loan impairments had crept up to 23.4 per cent of revenue during the four months to the beginning of December. That’s up from 22.7 per cent at the end of July and 20.1 per cent at the January year-end. However, finance director Chris Redford said he expects this to level out in the near future.
Management said this was due to a change in the Advantage Finance product mix, which had written loans for customers with a lower average credit score for competition reasons. However, the level of impairments was still below the 2010 peak of almost 40 per cent. Live customer numbers also grew from 49,000 at the half-year to 53,000. That boosted net receivables by 6 per cent to £240m.
