PensionBee assets surpass £3bn as post IPO growth continues – but retirement app has still not achieved profitability
- PensionBee looked after around £1.65bn of assets when it initially listed last year
- The company was founded by friends Romi Savova and Jonathan Lister Parsons
- People can use the service to consolidate their pension plans into a single pot
PensionBee Group’s assets under administration have risen above the £3billion mark, nearly double the amount the firm managed when it listed last year.
The online pension provider said the milestone had been achieved through a mix of steady net inflows and high customer retention levels against a background of increasing economic unpredictability.
When the financial services group’s shares began trading on the London Stock Exchange in April 2021 at 165p each, at a value of £365million, it looked after around £1.65billion of assets.
Feat: PensionBee said the milestone had been achieved through a mix of steady net inflows and high customer retention levels against a backfrop of increasing economic voltaility
Proceeds from PensionBee’s initial public offering, which raised £55million, went towards funding its expansion, particularly through spending on marketing and improving its technology platform.
In a trading update released last month, the London-based company revealed the invested value of its pension assets had climbed by just under a quarter to £2.8billion over the year ending September.
This came on the back of active client numbers surging by 70 per cent to 265,000, many of whom are older people with larger-than-average pensions, and customer retention rates staying elevated at 97 per cent.
Romi Savova, the group’s co-founder and chief executive, said the feat ‘results from our commitment to delivering outstanding customer service and helping more people prepare for a happy retirement.’
She added: ‘We are growing the business in line with our ambitions while helping to meet the country’s ever greater need for long-term retirement planning and preparedness.’
Bulgaria-born Savova, 36, started the retirement savings app in 2015 with friend and tech entrepreneur Jonathan Lister Parsons after encountering difficulty transferring her workplace pension to a new provider.
PensionBee allows people to consolidate their different pension plans into a single pot, which is then managed by major financial services firms like hedge fund manager BlackRock, HSBC and insurer Legal & General.
Clients with pension plans containing up to £100,000 pay an annual fee of between 0.5 and 0.95 per cent to PensionBee, with anything over that amount commanding a lower percentage fee payment.
But despite healthy growth in customers and assets since going public, the group’s recent nine-month results showed adjusted EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation] losses expanding by 54 per cent to £18million.
It does forecast reaching ‘pre-marketing profitability’ this year before hitting positive underlying earnings by the end of 2023.
PensionBee Group shares were up 1.05 per cent to 58p just before trading closed on Monday, although their value has declined by over half in the past six months.