Ed Boyle and Rob Spence from Interpath Advisory have been appointed joint administrators to Nottingham-based Morses Club Limited and Shelby Finance Limited.
The two companies provide short-term consumer loans, with Morses Club providing home collect credit and Shelby Finance providing loans online under the ‘Dot Dot Loans’ brand.
The companies have been under sustained financial pressure for some time, a situation which was exacerbated in recent years by Morses Club facing a significant number of customer redress claims for unaffordable lending.
In order to address these issues, the management team worked strenuously in seeking to restructure the businesses. As part of this restructuring, in May 2023, Morses Club entered into a Scheme of Arrangement to provide a mechanism to maximise redress payments to customers and to also allow the businesses to continue to operate.
However, Morses Club has been unable to complete the refinancing of its existing debt facilities and therefore the directors took the decision to appoint administrators to the businesses.
As a result of the insolvency of Morses Club, the Scheme automatically terminates early.
Shortly prior to the appointment of the joint administrators, all new lending ceased, but the companies continue to collect outstanding loans from customers.
The company employed approximately 373 staff who worked remotely. While the joint administrators have retained 272 staff across the two businesses to assist them while they assess options for the businesses, 101 redundancies have been made.
The joint administrators will be working with the employees affected over the coming days to provide them with any support they need.
