IPF on track for year

Emerging markets lender International Personal Finance said it remains on track for the full year after continued progress in the fourth quarter."With three significant weeks of trading to go before the year end, IPF is on track to report full year results in line with our expectations," it said in a company statement.The group, which issues cash loans and collects weekly repayments from customer doorsteps with debt agents, said fourth quarter trading to date has been good with strong year on year growth in customers, credit issued and receivables. "Collections performance remains strong, impairment has continued to improve and costs remain well controlled," it added.IPF also pointed out that a reduction in corporation tax in Hungary from 19% to 10% from 2013, whilst beneficial in the medium term, will result in a reduction of £4-5m in the group's deferred tax asset. "As a result, we expect this one-off charge to increase the group's effective tax rate for 2010 to around 33% but that the effective rate will revert to around 28% in 2011," IPF explained. Inter. Pers.