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(Alliance News) - Small consumer loan provider International Personal Finance PLC said Thursday it delivered a "solid" third quarter, with full year 2019 profit anticipated in line with market expectations.
During the three months ended September, credit issued growth stood at 1%. This was driven by "strong" 6% growth from its European business, offset by a 12% decline within the Mexican unit. Its digital unit also delivered 3% credit issued growth.
In Mexico, IPF - which owns the Provident, Hapiloans and Creditea brands - has been focusing on improving credit quality rather than pursuing growth. The firm said there had been some "encouraging" signs in early lead performance indicators.
Group impairments during the third quarter was in the middle of its range, at 27.8%. This was primarily due to the 41.2% impairments level in Mexico, with European impairments at 14.2%.
"Our outlook for the group in 2019 remains unchanged since the half-year report, and we are on track to deliver full-year profit before tax in line with consensus expectations," Leeds-based IPF said in a statement.
"We expect European home credit to continue to deliver a strong operational performance," IPF added. "We continue to focus on delivering an improved operational performance in Mexico alongside greater execution consistency to deliver progressive improvements in profitability and create the platform to recommence growth. In IPF Digital we remain on track to deliver a maiden profit in 2019."
Shares in IPF were 0.7% lower at 127.77 pence in London on Thursday.
By Ahren Lester; ahrenlester@alliancenews.com
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