Provident records rise in half year profits

LENDER Provident Financial posted a first-half pre-tax profit slightly ahead of last year, aided by higher profit at its credit card unit and cost cutting measures.

By The Newsroom

Published 27th Jul 2010, 10:19 BST

Provident Financial, whose consumer credit arm sells small loans door to door, reported a pre-tax profit of 54m in the six months to June 30, from 53.1m last year, and in line with analyst expectations.

The Bradford-based company posted full-year profit at the lower end of consensus in March and warned that conditions looked set to remain tough in 2010.

Emerging markets lender IPF, formerly a division of Provident, reported higher profits last week, offset by worse-than-expected bad debts in Europe in the first half.

Provident said that customer numbers rose over 7 per cent in the period to 2.3 million, while profit was down year-on-year at its main consumer credit unit.

Vanquis Bank, the group's credit card arm, reported an 82 per cent jump in pre-tax profit to 9.1m, in spite of tight credit standards remaining in place.

Shares in Provident closed at 882.5p on Monday, valuing the company at 1.18bn.