Amigo Holdings profits jump as customer numbers grow

FTSE 250 lender Amigo Holdings, which charges interest rates of 49.9%, posted a jump in full-year adjusted profit on Tuesday as customer numbers grew.

In the year to the end of March 2019, adjusted profit after tax increased 38.3% to £100.1m on revenue of £270.7m, up 28.4% on the previous year, with customer numbers up 23.1% to 224,000.

Analysts had been expecting revenue of £258.1m.

The net loan book rose 17.4% on the previous year to £707.6m and basic earnings per share were 52.8% higher at 19.4p. Meanwhile, the cost to income ratio improved to 17.5% from 21.9% in 2018.

Amigo proposed a final dividend of 7.45p a share, taking the annual dividend to 9.32p a share.

Chief executive officer Glen Crawford said it had been "perhaps the most significant" year in the company's history, after it successfully listed on the London Stock Exchange and gained a place in the FTSE 250 index.

"No small achievement for a business started from nothing in Bournemouth by our founder in 2005. Amigo continues to lead the provision of the guarantor product, which is a niche offering within the wider mid-cost credit sector, at a time when the demand for guarantor loans, as well as other mid-cost products, is growing," he said.

Crawford said the company had had a "solid" start to the year despite the mood of uncertainty around Brexit.

"We remain cautiously optimistic around the prospects for the full year," he said.