Mortgage Advice Bureau profits unaffected by Brexit

Mortgage Advice Bureau Holdings (MAB), an AIM-listed network for mortgage intermediaries, has provided a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2016.

Underlying profit before tax for the year ended 31 December 2016 was ahead of market consensus despite the lull in activity in the housing and mortgage market surrounding the EU referendum.

Group revenue was in line with market consensus and increased by 23% to £92m, driven by an increase in the average number of Advisers to 888 in the 12 months to 31 December 2016.

Average revenue per adviser was flat in 2016 due to the impact of the quiet period. Despite this, the company expects to see a turnaround during the current year. The total number of advisers increased by 20% to 950 period end.

The group’s cash position at 31 December was over £18m including over £10m of unrestricted cash balances.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) estimates' gross mortgage lending (GML) for 2016 and 2017 are £246bn and £248bn, respectively. Its first estimate for 2018 was also £252bn, showing that GML growth is expected to be flat for this and next year.

Peter Brodnicki, CEO of Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc, said: "Despite the uncertainty the EU referendum brought to the housing and mortgage markets last summer, MAB has delivered yet another strong performance. Activity levels picked up following the expected summer lull, and from this position the housing and mortgage markets are forecast to be flat over the next few years.

"Regardless of the EU referendum and predictions of flat housing and mortgage markets, MAB's future growth plans remain unchanged. Our strategy is very clear both in the short and longer term, and the investments made in 2016 form part of our longer term planning to maintain year on year market share growth and further strengthen MAB's overall market position."

The share price rose 2.33% to 379.25p at 1332 GMT on Friday.