Debt management specialist ClearDebt has cheered shareholders with a chipper trading statement ahead of its annual results to June.

Chief executive David Mond has announced quarter on quarter growth of 86 per cent and describes trading as ‘very positive in the period’. He adds that ClearDebt is also in the process of evaluating a number of corporate ventures which would ‘significantly enhance its position’ within a fast-growing market.

The group was formed when former cash shell Carrwood acquired ClearDebt Ltd last December in a reverse takeover valued at £3 million. The company's principal activity is to provide an internet-based service for IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements), as a solution to high levels of debt.

Where IVA is not appropriate, Cleardebt advises the debtor on alternative solutions such as debt management, debt consolidation or bankruptcy. With customers increasingly looking towards insolvency as an alternative to bankruptcy, ClearDebt, which has now arranged a total of 188 creditor-agreed IVAs since it began trading, is in a good position to maintain growth.

Around 78,000 IVAs were processed in the UK in 2005 – up from just over 35,000 in 2000. This shows that debt is growing and debt relief a growing market.

It is now thought that two million workers in the UK are overdrawn immediately after their salaries are paid and some 3.5 million are permanently overdrawn. UK credit card debt stood at £56 billion at the end of April 2006 – estimated to be twice as much as the rest of the European Union.

With the 2005-06 results due to be published in early September, Mond's trading statement has sent ClearDebt's shares surging 88.23 per cent today to 4p, valuing the company at £10.28 million. They could go further.

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Cleardebt Group	AIM	£1.28m	0.42p	0.00p
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