23 Jul 2002
Egg plc Results for the Six Months to 30 June 2002
"We have had another strong half year for customer growth with 362,000 net new customers acquired taking our total to over 2.3 million. This impressive result reflects the success of our recent refresh of the Egg brand, with the Q2 TV advertising campaign outperforming our expectations and helping to deliver 205,000 net new customers for the quarter. Even after this strategic investment in brand and marketing spend, our UK business delivered growing profits in Q2 and we remain confident that this trend will continue as we move into the second half of the year."
Paul Gratton, CEO, Egg plc
Financial Highlights:
- UK profit before tax of £8.7 million (H1 2001: £61.7 million loss)
- Operating income up 103% to £154.4 million (H1 2001: £76.2 million)
- Loss per share 0.1p (H1 2001: 5.8p)
- Total assets increased to £9.7 billion (H1 2001: £7.9 billion) with credit card balances reaching £2.1 billion (H1 2001: £1.5 billion)
- Savings balances grew by £1.6 billion (H1 2001: outflow of £0.7 billion)
- Investment in international expansion £7.5 million (H1 2001: £1.7 million)
Business Highlights:
- 205,000 net new customers in Q2 2002 (Q2 2001: 146,000) taking the total above 2.3 million
- Egg Card now has 5% market share of UK card balances
- Zebank deal completed May 2002, remain on track to launch Egg in France later this year
Chief Executive Paul Gratton said:
"This has been an impressive performance for the first half of 2002. We have grown the customer base strongly with 362,000 net new customers acquired during the period. The Egg brand identity and website were updated and refreshed in April to position us well for international development. We are delighted with the success of this initial roll-out in our home UK market. In particular, the new TV advertising campaign has provided real momentum to our customer acquisition campaigns during the second quarter.
"Our core UK business continues to deliver profits. Operating income has increased to £154.4 million for the half year, up 103% on the comparative period in 2001. Costs remain well under control with annualised operating costs per customer falling to £58 during Q2 2002, as compared to £79 in Q2 2001. This reflects our ability to both implement cost efficiencies and absorb volume growth.
"Whilst we continue to monitor credit performance closely, we are happy with the credit quality of our card portfolio and our proposition continues to attract upmarket customers.
"We announced in May this year that we have now completed our acquisition of Zebank after receiving the necessary approvals and licences from the Banque de France. I am pleased to report that we remain on track to launch Egg in France during the latter part of 2002."
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