Private & Commercial Seeks New Funding; FY10 Pretax Profit Doubles

LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. finance house Private & Commercial Finance Group PLC (PCF.LN) Tuesday reported a jump in full-year pretax profit as it cut costs and said it is actively looking for new sources of funding. P&C, which provides vehicle and plant equipment finance, posted a pretax profit of GBP528,000 for the year ended March 31, compared with GBP263,000 in the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell slightly to GBP60.2 million from GBP62.9 million. P&C said that although new funding isn't easy to obtain, it will continue its search, as it would improve operational gearing. It added that if the funds were found, it would be able to process "substantially increased" levels of new business and maintain a much larger loan book with very little increase in costs. During the year P&C wrote GBP43.4 million of new business compared with GBP60.6 million in the previous year, as it remained cautious on lending. -By Rachael Gormley, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9308; rachael.gormley@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 29, 2010 04:30 ET (08:30 GMT)