4 December 2019 – final results
The specialist bank has announced its results for the year to 30 September and these have come in as expected. Operating income rose 51% to £22.2m (2018: £14.7m) with pre-tax profit up 54% to £8.0m (2018: £5.2m) whilst earnings per share were up 35% to 2.7p (2018: 2.0p). The group’s loan portfolio had risen to £339m at the year end from £219m a year earlier with new loans during the year up by 86% to £276m (2018: £148m). At the end of the financial year the group had over 6,250 retail customers with total deposits of £267m (2018: 191m). A final dividend of 0.4p has been proposed (2018: 0.3p). These are clearly excellent results with the group close to its portfolio target of £350m a year ahead of schedule. The next target is a loan book of £750m by September 2022 and the group is well on track towards this. Although the current political situation remains a risk we believe that medium term prospects are very encouraging and maintain our recommendation of BUY.