LONDON (Alliance News) - PCF Group PLC on Wednesday reported an increase in profit in the first half of its 2018 financial year, boosted by its Business Finance unit.
The financial services company said pretax profit in the six months to the end of March rose 20% to GBP2.1 million from GBP1.7 million for the same period a year earlier, despite the GBP600,000 cost of new banking infrastructure and resource.
This was helped by a 32% rise in interest income, which grew to GBP6.8 million from GBP5.2 million the year before.
The largest increase came from the Business Finance division, where new volumes more than doubled to GBP41.0 million from GBP19.0 million. Meanwhile, Consumer Finance division was up 81% to GBP28.0 million from GBP16 million.
Portfolio value also grew by 40% year-on-year to GBP179.0 million from GBP128.0 million.
PCF, formerly named Private & Commercial Finance, said the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority have lifted the initial restrictions on the bank's activities.
The vehicle and asset finance lender has launched the retail bank under the name PCF Bank following a three-year project.
In eight months as a bank, the group said it achieved customer deposits of GBP108.0 million from 2,400 clients.
"This has been a rewarding period," said Chief Executive Scott Maybury. "We set ourselves ambitious targets for our first year as a bank and have made excellent progress towards achieving those objectives."
Shares in PCF Group were trading 8.2% lower at 39.00 pence each on Wednesday.
