Highlights
Group performance supports further dividend increase
First half pre-tax profit before exceptional restructuring cost up 23.0% to £94.1m (2013: £76.5m).
Adjusted earnings per share up 24.6% to 54.2p (2013: 43.5p).
Interim dividend per share up 10.0% to 34.1p (2013: 31.0p).
Robust funding and liquidity position
Group fully funded until the seasonal peak in 2017.
Gearing reduced to 2.9 times (2013: 3.1 times).
Strong growth and returns in Vanquis Bank
UK pre-tax profit up by 36.1% to £68.3m (2013: £50.2m) and Polish start-up loss of £4.6m (2013: £3.6m).
UK customer and average receivables growth of 17.3% and 32.4% respectively from addressing the under-served, non-standard credit card market.
UK risk-adjusted margin of 33.6% (2013: 34.4%), well ahead of minimum target of 30% with arrears at record lows.
Development of Polish pilot operation showing encouraging momentum.
Repositioning of CCD progressing well
Pre-tax profit up 2.5% to £37.0m (2013: £36.1m).
Significant improvement in credit quality and collections from tighter underwriting and standardised arrears processes with annualised impairment to revenue ratio reducing from 38.7% to 35.2% in the first half.
Annualised risk-adjusted margin of 62.9% at June 2014, up from 58.9% at December 2013.
Deployment of technology to support step change in agent and branch productivity and reinforce compliance progressing ahead of schedule, resulting in a further proposed headcount reduction of 225, delivering savings in a full year of £4.0m at a one-off cost of £4.0m.
Build-out of Satsuma's online instalment lending capability progressing well.
