The increase was driven by a 13 per cent increase in the average number of advisers to 1,242.
The total number of advisers had grown to 1,293 as of 30 June, up seven per cent since the end of December — excluding the 90 who joined with the acquisition of First Mortgage Direct, which completed on 2 July.
The purchase price for the company was £16.5m of which £10m was funded from cash balances.
Peter Brodnicki, Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) chief executive (pictured), said: “Despite continued political uncertainty it has been a very positive six months for MAB. After a slow first quarter we are seeing strong growth in adviser numbers, putting us firmly on track to achieve our full-year objective.”
He continued: “Some of our existing appointed representatives (ARs) with direct links to the estate agency sector continue to pause their expansion plans and delay filling vacancies as a result of reduced confidence amid political uncertainty, encouragingly though, the majority of our ARs continue to hold strong growth plans for 2019 and 2020.
Housing transactions took longer to complete in H1, “impacting the timing of our banked revenue”, MAB’s statement said.
The business saw “some improvement in banked conversion” in Q2, which is continuing in July.
The firm anticipated releasing a programme of technology in the second half of 2019 and throughout 2020 and wants to broaden its “addressable market and customer offering”.
