6 June 2017 – interim results

The specialist finance group has reported underlying pre-tax profits of £2.3m (2016: £2.0m) for the period as the loan book has increased in size to £128m (2016: £112m).  As can be seen from these results, the group continues to make good progress in its core businesses of motor finance and business finance.  The group continues to make strong progress towards its goal of commencing retail banking operations and incurred exceptional costs of £0.6m during the period in this regard.  Earnings per share after these costs amounted to 0.8p.  The launch of the PCF Bank remains on course for summer when the first retail deposits are expected to be received.  These will provide an additional source of funding for the group.  We maintain our recommendation of BUY.