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City of London Group posts £3.6m pre-tax loss after absorbing banking licence costs

Theo Osborn | 14:30 Monday 15th July 2019

City of London Group PLC (COLG) has reported a pre-tax loss of £3.6m for the year ended 31st March 2019 after absorbing £1.7m of costs associated with applying for a UK banking licence and acquisition of Acorn to Oaks Financial Services Limited.

This comes after the group reported a £1.1m pre-tax loss last year following the absorption of banking licence application costs.

As part of the UK banking licence process, its subsidiary Recognise has progressed the recruitment of its executive team and appointed five independent NEDs.

Recognise hopes to receive authorisation to accept deposits by late 2020 and is working to submit a banking licence application to the regulator by the end of 2019.

Following that, it will launch an institutional fund raise.

Recognise will target lending between £100,000 and £2.5m, with retail and business savings up to £85,000, while it will offer a range of products, including unregulated bridging, commercial loans, BTL and asset finance.

Michael Goldstein, CEO at COLG (pictured above), said: “We have continued to focus on implementing our long-term growth strategy of serving the UK SME market and increasing the financial strength of the group.

“We have built a very high-calibre NED team for Recognise, and we remain confident that we will be able to submit an application to the regulator by the end of 2019, after which we will embark on an institutional capital raise. 

“Overall, looking forward, through the evolution of our business, we are well placed to deliver on our strategic objectives and to deliver value for our shareholders.”

The results also revealed that the group’s newly acquired financial services intermediary, Acorn to Oaks Financial Services Limited, has set up a commercial finance broking division.

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