Access Financial Services (AFS) is reporting a 32 per cent return on investment (ROI) following its acquisition of Florida-based loan company Embassy Inc — a company that is said to have a strong online presence and ranked as the number one title loan provider in Florida.

Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting held on Wednesday (September 11) at the Knutsford Court Hotel, Marcus James, chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director said AFS is happy with the acquisition which took place in November 2018.

“Since the acquisition, Embassy has contributed $212 million to the group’s revenue with pre- translation profits of $70 million, reflecting a credible performance with returns on investments of 32 per cent for the year”, he said.

“In addition to the positive financial return that Embassy has provided, the company will also serve as the spring board for expansion into the lucrative North America market,” James added.

Embassy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Access; currently Christopher Williams and Marcus James, directors of Access are both directors on the board of Embassy loans.

In the company’s report to shareholders it was stated that “Access recorded net profit after tax of $477 million for the 2018/19 financial year.

“The company’s asset base grew from $3.5 billion to $4.8 billion. This is an increase of $1.3 billion or 37 per cent resulting from an $803 million or 27 per cent increase in the loan portfolio. The increase resulted from the inclusion of the Embassy portfolio which amounted to $523 million and the incremental growth in the company’s loan portfolio. Intangibles also grew by 48 million to $443 million which is directly associated with the Embassy acquisition”, the report read.

“Embassy contributed $523 million to the increase while Access recorded an incremental increase of $280 million in its loan portfolio. Provisioning for loan loss saw an increase of 10 per cent moving from $458 million to $502 million as a result of the inclusion of Embassy’s financial results,” it further stated.

With the acquisition of Embassy combined, the group employs 244 team members. In agreeing with chairman of AFS, Rex James, Access’s CEO [Marcus James] also noted that “AFS has performed credibly during its 2019 financial year given that they were operating in a challenging local environment for financial institutions; however, there is no doubt that there is room for us to improve our performance,” he said.

To further strengthen its financial position, the company has outlined some primary objectives that they will be focusing on for the 2020 financial year.

“To return AFS’s performance towards revenue growth and improve profit margins, retaining customers by offering best-in-class service and maintaining the flexibility required in meeting customer needs and also engaging the continued use of innovative marketing strategies to enhance awareness of products and services,” were among some of the key objectives singled out by Marcus James.