Funding Circle Holdings plc

Share Repurchase Programme

Embargoed until 7.05am, 7 March 2024

Funding Circle Holdings plc (“Funding Circle”) announces a discretionary programme to purchase ordinary shares of £0.001 each in its share capital (the “Ordinary Shares”) up to a maximum consideration of £25 million (the “Programme”). The Board of Directors considers that the current trading price of Ordinary Shares materially undervalues Funding Circle’s business and a share repurchase will improve balance sheet efficiency by returning excess capital to shareholders. It is expected that, unless terminated earlier, the Programme will end on the date on which the total GBP purchase price of all Ordinary Shares purchased by Funding Circle pursuant to the Programme is equal to, or as close as possible to, £25 million. It is intended that any purchased Ordinary Shares will be cancelled. The Company has appointed its broker, Numis Securities Limited (“Deutsche Numis”), to manage the share buyback programme to repurchase Ordinary Shares on its behalf.

Any purchases of Ordinary Shares by Funding Circle in relation to the Programme will be carried out on the London Stock Exchange in compliance with the relevant conditions for trading, restrictions regarding time and volume, disclosure and reporting obligations, and price conditions. The Programme will be carried out in accordance with the parameters prescribed by the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014 (as it forms part of UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) and Chapter 12 of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Listing Rules using the average daily volume of Ordinary Shares traded in February 2024, being the month preceding the month of this announcement. However, there may be circumstances where Funding Circle conducts purchases up to 50% of this average daily volume.

Subject to available distributable reserves, an initial tranche of the Programme will be conducted by Funding Circle in accordance with and under the terms of the general authority granted to the Board of Directors of Funding Circle by its shareholders at its Annual General Meeting held on 11 May 2023 (the “2023 AGM”), which authority will expire at the end of the next Annual General Meeting of Funding Circle in May 2024 (the “2024 AGM”). Pursuant to the 2023 AGM authority, the maximum number of Ordinary Shares that can be bought back by Funding Circle is 36,130,314, representing 10% of Ordinary Shares in issue at today’s date. Following the expiry of the 2023 AGM repurchase authority, or to the extent that Funding Circle meets the limit of that authority prior to the 2024 AGM, Funding Circle will seek further repurchase authority at the 2024 AGM or an earlier General Meeting.

Contacts:

Funding Circle Investor Relations

Tony Nicol

Joint corporate brokers

Deutsche Numis: Stephen Westgate / Jamie Loughborough ( 0)

Investec: Bruce Garrow / Kamalini Hull ( 0)

Headland Consultancy

Mike Smith / Stephen Malthouse ( 2)

About Funding Circle:

Funding Circle (LSE: FCH) is the UK’s leading SME lending platform. Its mission is to build the place where small businesses get the funding they need to win. 

Funding Circle enables small businesses to access funding – offering an unrivalled customer experience powered by data and technology.

For institutional investors, Funding Circle provides access to an alternative asset class in an underserved market, with robust and attractive returns.

Globally, Funding Circle has extended more than £16bn in credit to c.150,000 businesses.