LONDON (Alliance News) - 1pm PLC Wednesday said it expects pretax profit for its recently completed financial year to be significantly ahead of market expectations, with revenue slightly ahead, due to strong demand for finance from small- and medium-sized enterprises and lower costs from bad debts.
1pm, which provides finance to SMEs, issued the trading update ahead of reporting results for the year ended May 31, which are to be published in the second part of July.
The company said its asset finance and loan portfolios wrote more than GBP9.2 million of new business in the second half of the year, compared with GBP5.7 million in the corresponding part of prior year, helping the total for the year as a whole to increase to GBP16.1 million from GBP10.8 million. Its overall portfolio amounted to GBP30.0 million at the end of May, compared with GBP30.0 million at the end of the prior year.
"This is a strong financial performance for the financial year and all the more pleasing given that it has been a year of investment for the future and expansion of resources. The relocation to new offices is complete, recruitment is on-track and additional expenditure has been incurred in business development. All of these initiatives are beginning to yield anticipated growth, as shown in the fact that new business origination of GBP5.5 million over the last quarter of the year was a record achievement," Chairman Ian Smith said in a statement.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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