23rd Feb 2016 07:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Subprime lender Provident Financial PLC on Tuesday said it has made a "good start" to 2016, with its Vanquis Bank credit cards business and vehicle finance provider Moneybarn trading strongly and "very satisfactory" collections for its home credit business.
The update on trading in the first few weeks of the year came as Provident reported that pretax profit grew to GBP273.6 million in 2015, from GBP224.6 million in the prior year. The lender increased its dividend for the year as a whole by almost 23% to 120.1 pence from 98.0p.
"Vanquis Bank produced another excellent set of results which saw UK profits up 22.8%. With credit standards unchanged, the business has continued to generate strong growth and margins through developing the underserved non-standard credit card market," Chief Executive Peter Crook said.
"Consumer credit division profits increased by 1.4%, delivering on its plans to maintain profits whilst repositioning the Provident home credit business and funding the start-up of its Satsuma online instalment lending business which represents a substantial market opportunity and will be developed further in 2016," Crook said.
"Moneybarn has performed extremely well in its first full year of ownership, with access to the group's funding lines supporting a 69% increase in new business volumes and 42% increase in profits," he added.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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