3rd Mar 2016 08:56
LONDON (Alliance News) - Arrow Global Group PLC, which buys and manages European debt, on Thursday lifted its dividend after annual pretax profit rose on the back of higher income from purchased loan portfolios.
Pretax profit rose to GBP39.3 million in 2015 from GBP24.1 million the prior year, as revenue rose by about half to GBP165.5 million. Arrow Global lifted its total dividend for 2015 to 7.1 pence from 5.1p.
Revenue was boosted as income from loan portfolios purchased by the company rose by GBP41.9 million, due to an increase in the size of the portfolio assets. There also was a GBP12.8 million increase in income from asset management, due to a full year of results from the company's UK collections specialist, Capquest, and the acquisition of its Portuguese collections specialist, Whitestar, in April 2015.
Arrow Global said 2015 was a year of "record" growth, with a total investment of more than GBP216.3 million, of which GBP180.3 million represented portfolio acquisitions. Purchases were made in Portugal and the Netherlands. In addition, the Whitestar and Gesphone servicing businesses were acquired in Portugal.
Income from asset management, which includes commission income, debt collection, due diligence, real estate management and advisory fees, was 8.9% of total revenue in 2015, and Arrow Global expects that to increase to about 15% in 2016.
"We are a well diversified business with a strong origination pipeline - starting 2016 with awarded purchases of GBP71 million," Chief Executive Officer Tom Drury said in a statement.
"We are confident in maintaining portfolio investments at approximately twice our average annual replacement rate of GBP78 million. This combined with the continued delivery of the Capquest and Whitestar businesses, supports continued high earnings growth in 2016, and we remain confident of our ability to deliver a medium-term ROE percentage in the mid-twenties and a progressive dividend policy," Drury added.
Separately, Arrow Global named Maria Luís Albuquerque as a non-executive director. Albuquerque, who will join the board on Monday, was most recently Minister of State and Finance in the Portuguese government up until the end of 2015.
In addition, the debt purchaser said Phil Marsland will be its UK chief operating officer from March. He is joining most recently from Lloyds Banking Group PLC, where he was strategic analytics director.
The stock was up 3.3% at 232.00 pence on Thursday morning.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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