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Shares rose in International Personal Finance PLC on Wednesday after posting a rise in underlying profit for the first half of 2022 amid double-digit revenue growth, fostering confidence for the third quarter.
Shares in the Leeds, England-based home credit and digital business were 13% higher at 86.93 pence on Wednesday in London.
For the six months ended June 30, IPF reported a pretax profit of £33.8 million, down 22% from £43.3 million the same period a year before.
The decline was attributed to the prior year including a £20 million gain through Covid-19 impairment provision releases, which was not repeated in the current period.
On an underlying basis excluding these provision releases however, pretax profit was 45% higher from £23.3 million a year before.
Revenue meanwhile grew 13% year-on-year to £297.4 million from £262.9 million, as customer lending increased 12% to £513.3 million, and customer numbers edged 2.3% higher to 1.72 million, attributed to growth in Mexico Home Credit and IPF Digital.
IPF declared an interim dividend of 2.7 pence per share, a 23% increase from 2.2p a year before.
‘I am pleased to report a 45% growth in underlying profit before tax, with all of our businesses being profitable in the period. We continued to successfully execute our growth strategy and have attracted more customers, increased customer lending in all of our divisions and maintained our focus on excellent credit quality. Whilst the external landscape has become more challenging due to global inflationary pressure and the uncertainties caused by the war in Ukraine, we saw a steady improvement in demand over the course of the second quarter which has continued into the third quarter,’ said Chief Executive Officer Gerard Ryan.
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