27th Feb 2019 09:26
LONDON (Alliance News) - International Personal Finance PLC on Wednesday reported a rise in annual profit on reduced impairments as the company increased its credit issued.
The company - which provides unsecured consumer lending - said its pretax profit in 2018 increased 3.5% to GBP109.3 million from GBP105.6 million in 2017.
International Personal Finance's revenue increased 4.9% to GBP866.4 million from GBP825.8 million. The company's impairments in 2018 decreased 11% to GBP201.1 million from GBP227.0 million.
The company's cost-to-income ratio in 2018 decreased to 44.9% from 45.2%.
International Personal Finance issued GBP1.36 billion in credit in 2018, up 4.6% from the GBP1.30 billion issued in 2017. Its number of customers increased slightly to 2,301.
The company attributed the increase to its IPF Digital and Mexico Home Credit units, which reported a rise credit issued of 35% to GBP311.8 million and 6.3% to GBP291.0 million, respectively.
The rise was offset partially by a 5% contraction in its European Home Credit unit to GBP757.8 million. The company blamed the "intense" competition in Europe for the decrease.
The company maintained its 12.4p full-year dividend, flat on the year before.
"I am delighted with the excellent progress we made against our strategic objectives which delivered a very strong financial performance in 2018," said Chief Executive Gerard Ryan.
The company's European Home Credit business reported a 1.3% increase in profit to GBP113.8 million. International Personal Finance's Mexico Home Credit unit saw a 22% growth in profit to GBP15.7 million.
International Personal Finance's IPF Digital unit narrowed its loss in 2018 to GBP5.6 million from GBP16.3 million in 2017.
Ryan added: "We are particularly pleased with IPF Digital's profit trajectory, with a strong contribution from established markets and reduced start-up losses within new markets, driven by both excellent customer acquisition and strong credit growth."
International Personal Finance said Non-Executive Director Tony Hales will step down at the company's annual general meeting in May. He will be replaced by Richard Moat as senior independent director. Moat has been on the company's board since 2012.
Looking ahead, International Personal Finance said it expects the regulatory and competitive landscape to "remain challenging".
The company said it will continue to focus on the "sustainability" of its European unit by investing to create a "higher credit operation". The same products, the company said, "deliver good returns" in its Mexico and IPF Digital units.
In Mexico, International Personal Finance hopes to continue to invest in growing its business through geographic expansion and micro-business lending.
International Personal Finance expects a maiden profit for its digital unit in 2019 on a further reduction in impairments.
The stock was up 4.9% in early trading Wednesday at 203.00 pence each.
Related Shares:
Inter. Pers.