Personal : Response to Autumn Statement

Response to Autumn Statement

Press Release 24 November 2016

Personal Group Holdings Plc
('the Company' or 'the Group')
Response to Autumn Statement

Personal Group Holdings Plc [AIM: PGH] (or 'Personal Group' or 'the Company') notes the comments made in the Autumn Statement around future changes in salary sacrifice due in April 2017. Further clarification on the how these changes will be implemented will come from the publication of the Finance Bill on 5th December 2016.

The Company remains fully behind its Lets Connect business and does not believe the anticipated changes will impact the overall competitiveness of its Home Technology offering. A recent on-line survey of 4,000 end users of the Lets Connect offering showed that cost was ranked 5th after convenience, absence of credit checks or upfront costs, affordability and trusted provisioning from their employer.

An area of impact will be on mobile phones (given previous tax advantages were removed on home technology a number of years ago) which only makes up approximately 10% of the Lets Connect business. Pleasingly, a transition period has been given for mobile phones through until April 2018 which means that all those currently enjoying the use of a mobile phone or taking delivery of a phone before 5th April 2017 will be unaffected in the transition period.

The core insurance business of the Group continues to perform in line with expectations. Despite a further 2% increase in Insurance Premium Tax due in June next year, the Board remain confident of the longevity of the product given its importance to so many employees around the country.

The Company remains in line with expectations for full year profit and expects to announce its full year results in March 2017.

Mark Scanlon, CEO, commented: 'We welcome the clarity that the Autumn Statement brings to our Lets Connect business as it falls in line with the expectations as we understood them from the consultation published in August this year.

'The Group's salary sacrifice offering becomes much simpler and easier to understand as much of the complexity is removed.'

For more information please contact:

Personal Group Holdings Plc
Mark Scanlon / Mike Dugdale +44 (0)1908 605 000

Cenkos Securities Plc
Max Hartley / Stephen Keys (Nomad) +44 (0)20 7397 8900
Russell Kerr (Sales)

Media enquiries:

Abchurch Communications
Julian Bosdet / Tim Thompson
/ Rebecca Clube +44 (0)20 7398 7700
Personalgp@abchurch-group.com
www.abchurch-group.com

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.