Equals : Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2021

Equals Group PLC

Contents

COMPANY INFORMATION

• 1 About Equals Group

• 2 Directors and advisors

• 3 Financial summary and highlights

STRATEGIC REPORT

• 6 Chairman's Statement

• 7 Chief Executive Officer's Report

• 15 Chief Financial Officer's Report

• 28 Statement on section 172, Companies Act 2006

GOVERNANCE

• 31 Report on Corporate Governance

• 36 ESG report

• 49 Report of the Audit Committee

• 52 Report of the Risk Committee

• 55 Directors' Remuneration Report

• 60 Directors' Report

• 63 Statement of Directors' responsibilities in respect of the annual report and financial statements

• 64 Independent Auditors' Report to the Members of Equals Group Plc

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

• 71 Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

• 72 Consolidated and Company Statements of Financial Position

• 73 Consolidated and Company Statements of Changes in Equity

• 74 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

• 75 Company Statement of Cash Flows

• 76 Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements

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WWW.EQUALSPLC.COM

Equals Group PLC

About Equals Group

Equals develops and sells scalable payment platforms to enable organisations to move and easily manage their money flows through its payment and card products.

Its core brands are:

Equals Money - an international, domestic and card payment platform comprising the "Spend" and "Pay" products for 'just-in-time" expenditure needs of our customers who range from Hollywood studios to dynamic start-ups and fast growing businesses.

Equals Money Solutions - an enterprise scale-up of the Equals Money platform serving large corporates and financial institutions with complex payments needs.

Equals Connect - a white label platform serving smaller FX providers.

FairFX - a travel card and international payment product covering the needs of high-net-worth individuals, international holidaymakers, and their families.

CardOneMoney - UK focused product to meet the needs of small business and individuals for everyday account processes, allowing them to run their payments, direct debits, and cards via their account.

Equals Group PLC (the "Company") is a public limited liability company incorporated in England and Wales and domiciled in the UK whose shares are admitted to AIM, a market operated by The London Stock Exchange.

In addition to be regulated on AIM, various group companies are regulated by FCA and HMRC . Through one group company, the Group has access to real-time settlement accounts with the Bank of England and is a member of the UK Faster Payments Scheme, meaning customers can transfer and receive funds with immediate effect.

The European Payments Council has accepted a group company to belong to "SEPA" - the "instant" fund transfer mechanism for the Euro zone. Membership of SEPA allows Equals customers to receive instant Euro credits to their own-name multi-currency IBAN and instantly send Euro payments to other SEPA scheme members. These connections, complimented with SWIFT, allow the group to provide a true multi-currency account to its customers.

These consolidated financial statements comprise the Company and its subsidiaries (together referred to as the 'Group'). They were approved by the Board after stock market trading hours on 29 March 2022.

Our Values:

Make it happen	Succeed together	Be the customer	Go beyond
Do the right things,	We are one team and	We walk in our	If we all went that extra
do them right and own	with common goals.	customers' shoes and	mile, just think how far
the outcome	When we work together	we always strive to	we could go
we can achieve more	make our customers'
lives simpler

EQUALS GROUP PLC

Directors and Advisors

Directors

Advisors

A R F HUGHES

(Non-Executive Director and Chair)I A I STRAFFORD-TAYLOR (Chief Executive Officer)

R Q M COOPER

(Chief Financial Officer)

S A HERBERT

(Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit and Risk Committee)

C J BONES

(Non-Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration Committee; appointed 9 April 2021)

Company Secretary

ONE ADVISORY LIMITED (appointed 1 August 2021)

Registered Number 08922461 (England and Wales)

Registered Office

3rd Floor Thames House Vintners' Place,

68 Upper Thames Street, London, EC4V 3BJ, England

Principal Bankers Barclays Bank PLC 1 Church Hill Place, Canary Wharf, E13 5BH, England

Independent Auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP No 1 Spinningfields,

1 Hardman Square, Manchester M3 3EB, England

Solicitors

Browne Jacobson LLP 6 Bevis Marks, London, EC3A 7BA, England

Nominated Advisor and Broker

Canaccord Genuity Limited 88 Wood Street,

London, EC2V 7QR, England

Investor Relations Buchannan Communications Limited

107 Cheapside, London, EC2V 6DN, England

Registrar Link Group

Unit 10, Central Square, 29 Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 4DL, England

Telephone [phone]

STRATEGIC REPORT

ANNUAL REPORT 2021

Financial summary and highlights

FY-2021 Financial SummaryFY-2021 operational and product highlights

• • Total Revenue increased by 52% to £44.1 million (FY-2020: £29.0 million), supported by:

  • • Focus on B2B and non travel-related revenue streams successfully continued

• ✧ Like for like transactional values increasing by 63% to £5.7 billion (FY-2020: £3.5 billion)

  • ✧ Business customer revenue increased to represent 81% of total revenues (FY-2020: 70%)

• ✧ Immediate success in the Solutions Platform which contributed £0.8 billion in transaction values and £3.6 million in revenues

  • ✧ Non-travel revenue represented 94% of the total, up from 91% in FY-2020

• • Gross profits increased 31% to £24.0 million (FY-2020: £18.3 million)

  • • Group continuing to attract larger corporates: won a significant mandate to transact a single but complex trade yielding £1.5 million of revenue and £0.8 million of gross profits

• • Cash-based expenditure fell a further 7% (£1.6 million) to £21.2 million (FY-2020: £22.8 million)

• • 'Own-name' multi-currency IBAN launched mid-year

  • • Adjusted EBITDA** increased to £6.7 million (FY-2020: £1.1 million)

• • Improved sales and data focus through both staff hires and CRM; a significant contributor to increased revenues

• • Year-end cash increased 31% to £13.1 million (FY-2020: £10.0 million)

• • R&D continued throughout the year, with further technical developments including 'Confirmation of Payee' and Linked cards

• • Operational improvements through greater reconciliation automation and client onboarding

FY-2021	FY-2020
£ millions	£ millions	Change*
Underlying transaction values
- FX	4,352	2,672	+63%
- Banking	1,331	821	+62%
- Solutions Platform	846	-
- Total	6,529	3,493	+87%
Revenue	44.1	29.0	+52%
% of revenue from B2B	81%	70%
Gross profits	24.0	18.3	+31%
Adjusted EBITDA	6.7	1.1
EBITDA	5.7	(2.0)
Loss after taxation	(2.3)	(6.9)
*based on underlying, not rounded, figures.
FY-2021 Financial Highlights