IPF sets new records

Door step lender International Personal Finance (IPF) is finding no shortage of customers as consumers worldwide continue to experience hard times.

Customer numbers in 2011 rose to 2.41m from 2.21m in 2010, an 8% year-on-year increased. Credit issued rose 10.5%, or 11.5% using constant exchange rates (CER), to £844.5m from £764.5m in 2010, while average net receivables (money owed to the company excluding bad debts) improved 10.2% (CER: 10.7%) to £565.5m from £522.0m.

Revenue, net of increased cost of early settlement rebates of £13.3m, increased by 6.7% (CER:6.4%) to £649.5m from £608.7m the year before.

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The bad debt situation improved a tad, with the impairment number narrowing to £167.7m from £168.1m the year before. Impairment as a percentage of revenue reduced by 1.8 percentage points to 25.8% of revenue.

Underlying profit before tax rose 9.1% to £100.5m from £92.1m, driven by good growth in customers and credit issued, improved credit quality and continued cost control.

The group's biggest market, Poland, put in a strong performance, increasing profit by 34.7% to £66.0m from £49.0m the year before, despite the country finally falling into line with most of the rest of Europe and introducing regulations that obliged lenders to pay more generous early settlement rebates.

Mexico, on the other hand, saw profits more than halve to £1.5m from £3.5m the year before, though the second half of the year saw a much improved performance in this country.

Earnings per share increased by 9.6% to 28.6p from 26.1p the year before. The full year dividend has been bumped up to 7.1p from 6.27p in 2010.

"Despite challenging global economic conditions, IPF delivered record results in 2011 and has made an encouraging start to 2012. Whilst the economic background continues to be uncertain, we have good prospects for growth and are confident that the business will continue to perform well," said IPF Chairman, Christopher Rodrigues.

The market gave a big thumbs-up to the figures, with the shares rising 13.1p to 237.3p.

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