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(Alliance News) - International Personal Finance PLC said Wednesday its profit for 2019 rose on revenue growth, even as the number of customers declined as well as the amount of credit issued.
Also on Wednesday, the Leeds-based group - which provides unsecured consumer lending - said it will appoint Stuart Sinclair as chair with effect at the annual general meeting on April 30.
He will be replacing Dan O'Connor, who is stepping down on the same date after six years in the role. Sinclair will be appointed to the board with effect on March 16, and subject to election at the AGM will become chair.
Sinclair is a non-executive director at Lloyds Banking Group PLC for four years since 2016, and his most recent executive role was at GE Capital, as chief executive officer for its Consumer Finance division in China.
IPF said its pretax profit for the year increased by 4.3% to GBP114.0 million from GBP109.3 million the year before, on revenue that grew by 3% to GBP889.1 million from GBP866.4 million.
This was in spite of impairments increasing by 7.2% to GBP243.5 million from GBP227.0 million.
IPF's cost-to-income ratio for 2019 decreased to 43.5% from 44.9%. During the period, the group issued GBP1.35 billion in credit, down 0.7% from GBP1.36 billion in 2018, while the number of customers dropped by 8% to 2.11 million from 2.30 million.
Although the group reported credit growth in its European Home and IPF Digital business segments at 1% and 8% respectively, in Mexico Home, issued credit declined by 12%, which IPF attributed to prioritising credit quality over growth.
IPF declared a final dividend of 7.8 pence per share, bringing the annual dividend to 12.4p, in-line with the year before.
"We delivered a good financial performance in 2019 increasing profit before tax to GBP114.0 million, driven by strong operational execution in European home credit and our established digital businesses. We are also very pleased to report IPF Digital's maiden profit, demonstrating our ability to profitably serve customers with digital credit. Looking ahead, we are focused on improving performance in Mexico home credit and IPF Digital's new markets before accelerating growth in 2020," said Chief Executive Officer Gerard Ryan.
Shares in International Personal Finance were up 0.6% at 164.00 pence on Wednesday in London.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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