For Immediate Release

14 March 2022

Zaim Credit Systems Plc

("Zaim" or the "Group")

Fourth quarter and full year 2021 trading update

Zaim Credit Systems plc (the 'Group' or 'Zaim'), the Russian focused fintech group, announces a post period end trading update from its wholly owned subsidiary, Zaim-Express LLC, ('Zaim Express') in respect of the fourth quarter and the full year ended 31 December 2021.

Fourth Quarter 2021 Highlights ^[1]:

·    Strong quarterly performance with impressive growth in loans issued both on quarter-on-quarter (14%) and year-on-year (105%) basis to £7.8m for Q4 21

·    Loans issued online reached £7.2m growing by 18% quarter-on-quarter and 148% year-on-year

·    Online continuing to be the key engine for growth representing 92% of loans issued; and

·    The Group continued to trade profitably in Q4 2021

Full Year 2021 Highlights:

·    First full year completing the successful transition from offline to online-focused business model with a lower fixed costs base and greater flexibility

·    Increase in loans issued to £26.0m representing unprecedented growth of 154% vs. 2020

·    Growth of loans issued online to £23.1m, which is 4.9 times higher than in 2020

·    Decrease in loans issued offline by 47% to £2.9m due to closure of stores and transition to online-focused business model

·    Increase in weighted average default rate for the first nine months of 2020 to 22.7% (2020: 14.1%) in line with management expectations due to greater portion of first-time clients. This is a direct result of the rapid growth of the online business.

Siro Cicconi, Zaim's CEO commented:

"It is very hard talking about business in such unprecedented and difficult times. Despite this we are firmly committed to adhering to all our duties to our stakeholders and our customers. These results show that the fourth quarter of 2021 became the sixth consecutive quarter of profitable growth. Our operational results demonstrate the effectiveness of the online-focused strategy that we employed in the middle of 2020. 

We are significantly overperforming a very fast-growing market: the Russian microfinance market grew by 35% year-on-year^[2], whilst the amount of loans issued by Zaim Express more than doubled ^[3]. We are investing in growth, being careful to maintain cash generation and profitability.

Quarter-on-quarter growth remains strong at 14%, showing acceleration vs. the previous quarter.

The business continues to be cash-generative, which we are carefully reinvesting in order to serve a wider base of clients with our online business. Our online-focused strategy allows for lower fixed costs and faster growth that makes us confident in the long-term development of our business. Our investment in our proprietary platform and process delivered impressive results and I would like to thank the whole team for their dedication in these uncertain times."

Fourth quarter 2021 trading update

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

Zaim Express continued to see strong growth in loans issued by 14% QoQ, driven by expansion of the online platform.

The weighted average default rate decreased slightly to 22.7% in Q3 as a result of more conservative approach to the credit scoring in line with the management expectations.

Loans issued for the financial year:

The Company looks forward to releasing its audited results for the year-ended 31 December 2021 in due course.

Notes: 

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

² According to the Central Bank of Russia's latest available data, growth of the portfolio of microloans in Q3 2021 was 35% compared to Q3 2020

³ Loans issued by Zaim Express in Q4 2021 increased by 105% vs. Q4 2020

⁴ Default rate is defined as no payment received after 120 days of the origination of the loan

⁵ Data is not yet available for the quarter ended 30 September 2021 as the earliest time to determine default rates is 120 days after the end of the period

*Ends*

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