17th May 2006 12:00
Provident Financial PLC17 May 2006 AGM Statement In UK home credit, the early months of 2006 have benefited from the increasedfocus on customer recruitment with the year on year reduction in customernumbers improving from a 3% reduction at the end of 2005 to 1.5% at the end ofApril 2006. The first four months of 2006 have also seen slightly highervolumes of credit issued with growth of 0.4% compared to the same period in2005. Costs have increased due to increased customer recruitment activity andadditional expenditure on IT. Impairment charges continue to increase,reflecting growth in receivables of 6% together with continued pressure oncustomers' disposable incomes from rising fuel and utility costs. Vanquis Bank continues to grow its credit card customer numbers which now standat 185,000. Impairment charges are better than expectations following thetightening of credit criteria in 2005. This tightening, whilst successfullycontrolling impairment charges has slowed growth in customer numbers andrevenues, but we continue to believe that this is a sensible trade-off. The collect out of the Yes Car Credit receivables is progressing well with totalcollections of £58m in the first four months of 2006, £2m ahead of budget. Provident Insurance continues to trade as expected with profits continuing tobenefit from the favourable development of claims costs. In International division customer numbers and credit issued for the first fourmonths grew by 10% and 9%, respectively. In Central Europe growth was slowerwith customer numbers up 3.5% and credit issued up by 2.6%, reflecting our focuson improving the quality of lending in Poland. Our rapid expansion in Mexicocontinues and, as planned, we commenced trading in Romania in April. We said, at the time of our preliminary results for 2005, that we were at theearly stages of considering whether obtaining a separate listing forInternational, in due course, would allow the international growth opportunityto be captured more quickly and maximise shareholder value. We are discussingthe merits of this possibility with our largest shareholders and will provide afurther update on the results of our review with our interim results inSeptember. Enquiries: MediaDavid Stevenson 01274 731111 Investor RelationsHelen Waggott 01274 731111 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
PFG.L