The group said despite the negative impact of the mini Budget, it recorded a 10 per cent uplift in organic revenue growth. MAB’s acquisition of The Fluent Money Group in July added £22m to its revenue, it said.
As a result, its profit before tax should be in line with expectations. MAB will publish its final results on 28 March.
Adviser cutbacks
MAB increased its total number of advisers by 20 per cent to 2,254, including 182 from Fluent.
The number of mainstream advisers working under MAB rose by 17 per cent to 2,074.
The group saw lower levels of house purchase and remortgage activity in Q4, while buy-to-let activity was “significantly impacted”. It said this led to its appointed representative (AR) firms reassessing their staffing requirements for 2023 and resulted in cutbacks.
Looking ahead, MAB said it expected the number of advisers within its AR firms to decrease in the first quarter as headcounts are reduced to reflect purchase activity. It said lower levels of leads would also result in a “tightening of adviser numbers” and a shift in focus to productivity and maximising opportunities.
MAB said this would stabilise by Q2 and ARs would start to rebuild as business levels improve and recruitment is resumed.
A recovering market
MAB expects lending conditions to get better over the year, despite projected rises to the Bank of England base rate.
“As anticipated, our congested pipeline of written new business started completing at a faster pace in Q4 due to lower new business levels, freeing-up conveyancing capacity to process cases. We also expect this improving trend to continue through 2023,” it said.
Currently, MAB’s activity levels are down on last year but it said signs of increasing lead volumes and written business was evident towards the end of January.
The group predicts house purchase transactions to fall, but said activity would recover in the second half of the year.
“Refinancing opportunities from MAB’s client bank are at a record level for 2023.
It is forecast that product transfers will be a higher proportion of refinancing transactions than in prior years. We are ensuring our resources are deployed where our advisers and customers need them most, with lead generation continuing to be a major area of focus,” the report said.
In the long term, MAB is going ahead with planned investments to ensure the “strongest possible recovery and market share growth in 2024 and beyond”.
Staying confident
Peter Brodnicki, CEO of MAB, said: “Despite the uncertain macroeconomic outlook, MAB remains very well positioned to grow its market share strongly again through 2023. In times like these, housing transactions are typically postponed, not lost, and the opportunity these conditions generate for new AR recruitment will benefit MAB in the medium term.
“The technology we have developed to help our AR firms optimise lead flow from existing lead sources and clients will help support an H2 recovery, and boost firm and adviser performance in all market conditions. Strong and effective lead flow has a heightened importance in times where purchase activity slows.”
He added: “We anticipate a very strong year ahead for re-financing, a slow but steady improvement in consumer confidence and housing transaction levels, combined with an increase in new AR recruitment and the incremental impact of new lead generation initiatives. I am confident that whilst continuing to grow market share this year, MAB will be in a very strong position to regain significant momentum in 2024.”
