29 July 2015 – interim results
The group has announced its interim results for the six months to 30 June and these have come in pretty much as expected with pre-tax profit before exceptional items falling slightly to £43.3m from £47.1m. Earnings per share on the same basis declined to 13.7p from 14.5p and the interim dividend has been increased to 4.6p from 4.2p. The group revealed a 6% increase in customer numbers and a 10% rise in the amount of credit issued and revenues rose 5% as a result. Clearly, the potential issues in Poland relating to the amount that the company can charge its customers are having an adverse impact on the share price as discussed in the main feature on the company last week, but we arev optimistic that the company can overcome these hurdles and therefore rate the shares as a BUY.