Charter Court profit more than doubles in debut results

Charter Court Financial Services reported a more than doubling of annual profit in the buy-to-let mortgage lender’s first set of results since floating on the stock market and joining the FTSE 250.

Pre-tax profit for the year to the end of December jumped to £111.7m from £48.9m as Charter Court’s loan book rose to £5.4bn from £3.8bn. The 2017 profit figure excludes £5m of costs related to Charter Court’s initial public offering in October. The company joined the FTSE 250 rankings in February after its shares had climbed following the float.

The company specialises in mortgages for landlords, the self-employed and borrowers seeking bridging loans or to raise funds against their property. It also operates a savings business to fund its lending, making it a challenger to Britain's high-street banks.

Chief Executive Ian Lonergan said: "We delivered strong origination volumes and balance sheet growth in 2017, increasing our economies of scale and enabling us to more than double our profit before tax. Charter Court ended 2017 with a robust pipeline and has enjoyed a strong start to 2018."

Charter Court’s shares, priced at 230p when the company floated, rose 2.8% to 317p at 09:19 GMT.