(Alliance News) - Irish lender Permanent TSB Group Holdings PLC on Wednesday reported a sharp profit surge, despite a fall in net interest income.
In 2019, pretax profit rose to EUR42 million, multiplying from EUR3 million after 2018's result was almost completely wiped out by impairment costs and charges related to legacy legal cases. Impairments related to the "deleveraging of non-performing loans", fell by 77% to EUR16 million, while expenses related to legal cases were down 85% to EUR3 million.
Net interest income was down 6.1% to EUR356 million from EUR379 million.
Total new lending volumes rose 14% to EUR1.7 billion in 2019, from EUR1.5 billion in 2018. New mortgage lending was 13% higher at EUR1.5 billion, beating market growth of 10%.
Permanent TSB also decreased its exposure to non-performing loans by 38% to EUR1.05 billion from EUR1.70 billion in 2018.
Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Masding said: "Our strong performance in 2019 reflects the attractiveness of our customer offering and the progress we are making in growing our business while managing costs rigorously. The bank continues to outperform the market for new mortgage lending and thereby increasing its market share."
The bank's CET1 ratio rose to 17.6% from 14.7%. Permanent TSB's risk-weighted assets decreased by 17% EUR10.0 million from EUR12.0 million.
Shares were down 5.8% at EUR0.86 each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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