5 December 2018 – final results

The group has recorded excellent results for the year to 30 September 2018 with the loan portfolio increasing by 50% to £219m (2017: £146m), helped by a 75% increase in new business to £148.4m (2017: £84.6m).  This resulted in a 44% increase in profit before tax, as this rose to £5.2m (2017: £3.6m), whilst earnings per share rose by 33% to 2.0p (2017: 1.5p).  The group has declared a final dividend of 0.3p (2017: 0.19p) as a sign of confidence in the future.  These are the first full year results as a bank and the group reckons it is one year ahead of schedule in its targeted ambition to have a loan book of £350m by September 2020.  The bank now has retail deposits of £191m (2017: £53m) as this source of capital continues to increase, providing the funds for the loan book at favourable rates.  We continue to believe that the company has excellent long term prospects and that the shares are a BUY.