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For Immediate Release

1 June 2021

Zaim Credit Systems Plc

("Zaim" or the "Group")

First quarter 2021 trading update

Another record-high quarter of loans issued

Zaim Credit Systems plc (the 'Group' or 'Zaim'), the Russian focused fintech group, announces a trading update from its wholly owned subsidiary, Zaim-Express LLC, ('Zaim-Express') in respect of the first quarter of the financial year ended 31 Dec 2021.

Highlights[1]:

·    Further strong growth of the business which continues to perform well

·    Another record-high quarter of loans issued of £5.1m growing by 34% vs. Q4 2020

·    Loans issued online reached £4.3m, growing by 49% vs. Q4 2020

·    Online business comprising now 84% of business and continues to be the main engine for growth

·    The Group continued to trade profitably in Q1 2021

·    Focus of the Group is now to maximise growth and customer numbers over profitability and gain as much market share as possible over the near term

·    In line with strategy to maximise growth and number of customers the Group secured additional R50m of funding from existing debt providers in April (as previously announced)

Siro Cicconi, Zaim's CEO commented:

 "In the first quarter of 2021 we have continued to perform well and the growth in the business remains strong with a 34% Quarter on Quarter increase in loans issued, driven by the pivot in strategy to a majority online focused business.

This online strategy has driven outstanding growth in the last three quarters and making the business sustainably profitable due to a significantly lower fixed cost base and greater scalability. Our continued investment in our proprietary platform and process, including the development of a soon to be launched mobile application through which we hope to be a significant additional driver of growth in the business, makes us confident that the online part of the business is now very well positioned to capture further market share.

Q1 is traditionally the weakest and worst performing quarter of the year due to seasonal, holidays and traditional factors, so I am delighted the business continued its strong growth which is underpinned by strong cash generation from the existing portfolio. This sets the scene for a positive rest of the year to come and I look forward to updating the market further in due course"

First quarter 2021 trading update

The table below presents the two main KPI's (loans issued and default rate) for the last five quarters:  

Notes: 

1 All figures presented throughout this announcement represent unaudited management information taken from the internally generated management accounts of Zaim-Express LLC

2 Default rate is defined as no payment received after 120 days of the origination of the loan

3 Data is not yet available for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 as the earliest time to determine default rates is 120 days after the end of the period

The Group continued to see strong growth in loans issued during the quarter with an increase of 34% QoQ, driven by growth in the online business

The weighted average default rate increased slightly to 17.7% in Q4 as a result of the increase in the number of first-time customers which inherently have statistically higher probability of defaults.

This increase in default levels is in line with the management expectations and is a result of the strategy to maximise growth and gain as much market share as possible. This is being diligently managed and is caused by the rapid growth of online business and is not due to any deterioration of business performance.

Recent trading & Outlook

With Q1 now behind us the business continues to grow strongly and with the availability of further funding the Group is well placed to gain further market share. We continue to implement improvements to the user experience and technology and explore new product offerings to further grow the business.   

Enquiries:

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR").