International Personal Finance hikes dividend as FY profits rise

In the year to 31 December 2022, reported pre-tax profit rose 14.3% to £77.4m, with all three divisions delivering good lending growth and a profitable performance. This was ahead of consensus expectations for £75m.

Excluding the benefit of Covid-19 impairment provision releases of £32m from 2021 reported profits, underlying pre-tax profit was ahead 117% in 2022.

Revenues rose 17.6% to £645.5m and the company proposed a final dividend of 6.5p a share, up from 5.8p in 2021 and resulting in full-year dividend growth of 15% to 9.2p.

IPF said there had been a strong recovery in lending following the Covid-19 pandemic and hailed a "very good operational performance despite the challenges of the macroeconomic landscape".

"All three divisions have made a good start to 2023 with no discernible impact from cost-of-living increases on customer demand or repayment performance," the company said.

At 1015 GMT, the shares were up 13% at 108.09p.