About us Harmoney gains significant momentum, announces new Chairman

Harmoney gains significant momentum, announces new Chairman

THE FUTURE IS CONSUMER-DIRECT.

Sydney, Australia, Aug 31, 2021

ASX/NZX release

FY21 highlights

  • Harmoney’s unique 100% direct-to-consumer model finds favour with new customer originations in Australia up 260% in H2 over H1
  • Customer growth across Australia and New Zealand quickly approaching 700,000 accounts.
  • Direct relationship with consumers continues to build “3Rs™” growth
  • Loan book grows to new $NZ501m record
  • Continued growth in loan originations up 6%, despite H1 COVID impact
    • Post period end, July 2021 originations surpassed prior record with NZ$54m in originations;
    • Cumulative direct loan originations of over NZ$2.1 billion since 2014.
  • Group 90+ arrears at 0.69% and losses at 3.9% of principal at historic lows
  • Significant undrawn funding capacity of NZ$205 million across Australian and New Zealand warehouse facilities
  • H1 Covid impact receding:
    • Due to H1 impact Pro forma Group Revenue down 8% to NZ$79m overall, but H2 rebound sets strong trajectory for H1 22
    • Break even pro forma cash net profit after tax, with a pro forma loss after tax of $8.9m before non-cash items and normalisation adjustments.
  • Harmoney’s growth in new customers due to strong marketing, and high levels of returning customers (“3Rs™”) due to direct relationships sets the business model on a strong continuing growth path.
  • Growth in new loan originations, low arrears and strong margins are significant lead indicators for receivables and revenue growth in FY22

Results: Resilient As Growth Bounces Back

Harmoney Corp Limited (ASX/NZX: HMY) (‘Harmoney’ or ‘the Company’), Australia and New Zealand’s largest online consumer-direct personal lender, is pleased to release its results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2021 (FY21). Harmoney reported resilient results despite COVID-19 impacts for FY21, with record period end receivables book at NZ$501 million and continued improvements across new loan originations, net lending margin and stable group arrears.

Following the introduction of Stellare’s™ Libra® 1.7 in Australia, new customer originations were up 260% half on half demonstrating the strength of the platform to identify credit worthy customers though Harmoney’s consumer-direct data. This tech-based quality account acquisition has been further demonstrated with stability in the 90+ days group arrears to 0.69% and continued improvements in net lending margin of 6.8% and net interest margin of 10.6%.

Commenting on the Company’s FY21 results, Harmoney CEO and Managing Director David Stevens said: “During FY21, we successfully listed on the ASX and NZX, launched Libra® 1.7 in Australia and Libra® 1.8 in New Zealand, grew our loan book to over NZ$500 million and continued to deliver a quality end product to our customers.

“Overall, FY21 was a tale of two halves, with a significant recovery in originations in the second half from the impacts of COVID-19. This recovery is expected to drive a strong uplift in revenue and receivables growth in FY22. In addition, we are now well-positioned with close to 700,000 direct consumer accounts representing a 51% cumulative annual growth rate over the past six years. As Australia and New Zealand’s largest 100% consumer-direct personal lending platform, we have just begun to see the results of the investments and benefits of our approach to consumer lending. With the ability to access rich insights through our data we are able to offer our customers tailored solutions to meet their needs while reducing lending risk and delivering strong results for our shareholders.”

Momentum grows post-Covid.

fy2021 originations growth trend v2

FINANCIAL & OPERATIONAL : H2 Accelerates Following Tech and Marketing Investment

Harmoney achieved, when rounded, break-even pro forma cash net profit after tax for the year. While pro forma total income was down in the year to $79m, on a lower average loan book due to the impacts of Covid-19 in H2-FY20 and H1-FY21, this was more than offset by lower funding costs and credit losses as net lending margin increased by 9% to $33m.

Marketing costs, which are fully expensed as incurred, increased to $16.5m driven by Harmoney’s rapid post IPO scale up in the Australian market, with these costs remaining steady as a percentage of originations. Personnel costs also increased post IPO as Harmoney expanded its development capability in relation to its proprietary Stellare™ platform.

FY21 FY22 Change
Total income (NZ$m) 79.1 86.0 (8%)
Cash NPAT (NZ$m) (0.4) 2.8 n/a
Net interest margin 10.6 10.6 0 bps
Net lending margin 6.8 5.8 100 bps

Our direct model and proprietary technology work together to create real cost efficiencies (Fixed opex/Rev: FY21: 22%). Thanks to Stellare’s™ end-to-end automation of the loan application and approvals process, revenue can grow rapidly without needing to increase staff or operating expenses as more traditional lenders do. This creates highly scalable growth opportunities for Harmoney. Additionally, Stellare’s™ straight through processing provides further benefits, with the ability to temporarily moderate the automated settings to take into consideration macro conditions.

Harmoney’s transition to warehouse funding remains on track with 61% of the book warehouse funded at 30 June 2021, undrawn committed warehouse funding lines of NZ$205 million.

BOARD: Paul Lahiff takes over as Chair.

Harmoney advises Paul Lahiff will be stepping into the role of Chairman of the Board of Harmoney following the decision by David Flacks to step down as Chair. David has been instrumental in assisting management in guiding the direction and strategy of the Company from its early days as a peer-to-peer lending start-up to the recent listing on the ASX and NZX. David helped establish Harmoney as one of Australasia’s leading personal lenders and, following the appointment of Paul Lahiff to the Board earlier this year, felt that it was an appropriate time to transition from the role of Chair and the Board appoint Paul as his replacement. Paul has significant governance experience in the Australian financial services sector and has the requisite skills to guide management as they grow the business.

David Flacks will step down from the role as Chair effective today but will remain as an Independent Director while a suitable replacement is identified to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of Board oversight.

OUTLOOK: Scaling for Growth.

Harmoney’s unique consumer-direct lending model provides a scalable platform for growth. The Company is forecasting for FY22:

  • Growth of at least 20% in the Group loan book;
  • Group pro-forma revenue growth of at least 16%;
  • Net lending margin to increase by at least 0.2%;
  • Fixed operating expenditure-to-pro-forma revenue ratio to decrease by ~2%; and
  • Transition to warehouse funding to be ~90% complete by June 2022.

Growth is forecast to be predominantly driven by Libra® 1.7 in Australia (released in February 2021) and Libra® 1.8 in New Zealand (released in June 2021) alongside 3Rs™ customer originations growth off the back of higher Australian and New Zealand new customer originations.

Commenting on the outlook, CEO & Managing Director David Stevens said:

“We value the support of our employees, shareholders and customers over this transformational and challenging year. Harmoney is positioned to execute on a clear strategy of growing high margin receivables across Australia and New Zealand, where the total addressable market continues to expand as traditional financiers are contracting and more customers are going online for their financial services. In FY22, this strategy will lead to additional revenue for the Group and add to our existing scale as we further grow our Australian and New Zealand businesses.”

Investor Webinar at 9:30am AEST / 11:30am NZST today

CEO and Managing Director, David Stevens, and CFO, Simon Ward will host an investor conference call and webcast including a Q&A Session today at 9:30am AEST / 11:30am NZST.

Participants are encouraged to register before the start of the call using:

https://services.choruscall.com.au/webcast/harmoney-210831.html

Registered participants will receive their dial in number upon registration.

This release was authorised by the Board of Harmoney Corp Limited.

For queries please contact:

Investors

David Stevens
CEO & Managing Director
investors@harmoney.co.nz

Media

Stephanie Ottens
Investor Relations
stephanie.ottens@marketeye.com.au
+61 434 405 400

About Harmoney

Harmoney is an online direct personal lender that operates across Australia and New Zealand providing customers with unsecured personal loans that are easy to access, competitively priced (using risk-adjusted interest rates) and accessed 100% online.

Harmoney’s purpose is to help people achieve their goals through financial products that are fair, friendly, and simple to use.

Harmoney’s proprietary digital lending platform, Stellare™, facilitates its personalised loan product with applications processed and loans typically funded within 24 hours of acceptance by the customer. Stellare™ applies a customer’s individual circumstance to its data-driven, machine learning credit scorecard to deliver automated credit decisioning and accurate risk-based pricing.

Business fundamentals

  • Harmoney provides unsecured personal loans of up to $70,000 for three or five year periods to customers across New Zealand and Australia
  • Its direct-to-consumer and automated loan approval system is underpinned by Harmoney’s scalable Stellare™ proprietary technology platform
  • During FY20, 65% of originations were “3R” (repeat) customers, with losses on repeat loans approximately 40% lower than first time loans
  • Harmoney is comprised of a team of ~60 full-time employees across Australia and New Zealand, half of whom comprise engineering, data science and product professionals
  • Harmoney is funded by a number of sources including two “Big-4” bank warehouse programs across Australia and New Zealand and a facility from M&G Investments