2nd May 2019 11:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - International Personal Finance PLC said Thursday it has made a "solid" start to 2019 and its outlook for the remainder of the year is unchanged.
The doorstep lender said its credit issued in the first quarter is up 9% year-on-year, with particularity strong growth from its IPF Digital unit - which saw its credit issued increase 33%.
The company said it traded in line with expectations in the quarter.
International Personal Finance's European business reported a 2% rise in credit issued and its Mexican unit recorded 3% growth.
International Personal Finance said its credit quality on collections in the period was "good", with annualised impairment as a percentage of revenue ending the period at 26.6% compared to 26.4% the year earlier.
"International Personal Finance made a solid start to 2019 and traded in-line with our expectations at group level with a strong operational performance in European home credit and a more challenging performance in Mexico," the company said.
In Europe, the company said its customers numbers decreased but it made "good progress" in improving the "sustainability" our the business. International Personal Finance said its credit quality "remains very strong" in its European businesses.
This reflects "good agent collection performance together with further improved post-field collections," the company said.
In Mexico. the company said it took a "more cautious stance" on credit settings reflecting the "slight softening" of the macroeconomic outlook in Mexico for 2019. As a result, the company was "restricted" to 3% credit growth.
International Personal Finance now expects its credit growth in Mexico to be lower than originally anticipated.
IPF Digital "delivered another strong top-line performance" in the quarter. The units new markets saw a 77% rise in credit issued and, as expected, IPF Digital's established markets reported moderated growth of 2%. International Personal Finance said the unit remains on track to report a maiden profit in 2019.
At March 31, the company had GBP183 million of headroom on its debt facilities.
"We continue to improve the service and choices provided to the customers of our European home credit businesses and deliver robust returns to reward shareholders and fund growth opportunities in our Mexico home credit and IPF Digital operations. The group made a solid start to 2019 and our outlook for the group in 2019 remains unchanged," the company added.
In 2018, the company reported pretax profit of GBP109.3 million on revenue of GBP866.4 million.
Shares in International Personal Finance were down 2.2% Thursday at 182.31 pence each.
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