Talk about complicating things... Understanding each of the...

Talk about complicating things...

Understanding each of the revenue streams and the structure of the finance arrangement from Secure Trust Bank is a pain. The CDS they have in place essentially allows the company to appear debt free, when in fact they are liable for ~$43m of loans.
Of course, these securitization arrangements are very common in this industry, but Silverchef, Flexigroup and Thorn Group don't overcomplicate it. My understanding was the companies write the loans through their retail front, then sell off the packaged loans - not use derivatives to remove liabilities from the balance sheet.

As for revenue breakdown, they have a list of items but understanding what they refer to is not easy.

If the margin of safety were sufficiently large to make up for my lack of knowledge on UK retail and consumer finance, I would have been interested. But over-complicated financials does not sit well with me.

Of course, I'm no expert, so it could be that I just don't have the knowledge to properly digest the figures. Nevertheless, I have to pass on this one.