International Personal F... Share Discussion Threads

[jeffian] 01/4/2020 19:32

Should I be nervous about the 6.125% Bonds repayable in May?.......

[wad collector] 01/4/2020 18:07

Not sure I understand that "most who use this type of lender will pay", I think they won't pay , they will just borrow then not be able to pay.

[robizm] 01/4/2020 14:57

It must be a good time if you have money to lend. Most who use this type of lender will pay as they have no where else to go. No rush to buy though as who knows how rough it is going to get.

[wad collector] 01/4/2020 14:42

Latest Covid statement rather worrying as the Eastern European Govts close the noose on the lenders. IPF seem to be saying that apart from cancelling the dividend they can borrow their way out of it.
Not sure IPF will survive this event as they will be last in the queue for creditors when covid is over.

[baoman1956] 28/2/2020 11:51

Wise move not buying. The bond (IPF2) hasn't budged which is a pity as I'd like to buy some although IPF probably a bit exposed if C19 does spread and cause layoffs. Impairment figure could increase significantly.

[wad collector] 28/2/2020 10:57

Glad I didn't as hit 140p this morning. I wonder how important coronavirus will seem in a few months...disaster or hiccup..

[wad collector] 26/2/2020 12:47

6 February 2020

International Personal Finance plc

Financial Report for the year ended 31 December 2019

Ø Good Group financial performance
o Credit issued in-line with 2018
o Good credit quality - impairment to revenue ratio of
27.4%
o Group profit before tax of GBP114.0 million, an increase
of GBP4.7 million

Ø European home credit - very strong operational and financial
performance
o Credit issued growth of 1% driven by strong operational
execution
o Excellent credit quality and collections - impairment
to revenue ratio of 12.4%
o Profit before tax increased to GBP115.1 million

Ø Mexico home credit - challenging performance; recovery underway
o Prioritising credit quality over growth resulted in 12%
contraction in credit issued
o Operational actions implemented to improve credit quality:
- Impairment to revenue ratio of 41.3%, stabilised in
H2
- Recently issued loans performing significantly better
o Profit before tax reduced to GBP10.5 million

Ø IPF Digital - successfully delivered maiden profit; significant
medium-term growth opportunity
o Credit issued growth of 8%
o Strong operational and financial performance delivered
by established markets
o New markets focused on delivering more consistent credit
quality
o Maiden profit before tax of GBP3.2 million

Ø Strong funding position and strengthened balance sheet; dividend
maintained
o Continued progress in extending term of debt facilities:
GBP322 million matures after Eurobond Q2 2021
o GBP182 million of headroom on debt facilities
o Equity to receivables capital ratio of 44.8%
Ø Significant contingent risk eliminated with successful settlement
of Polish tax audit for period 2010 to 2017


Group key statistics 2018 2019 YOY change
at CER
Customers (000s) 2,301 2,109 (8%)
Credit issued (GBPm) 1,360.6 1,353.0 -
Revenue (GBPm) 866.4 889.1 3%
Impairment % revenue 26.2% 27.4% (1.2ppt)
Cost-income ratio 44.9% 43.5% 1.4ppt
Statutory PBT (GBPm) 109.3 114.0
Statutory EPS (pence) 33.8 32.2
Full-year dividend per share
(pence) 12.4 12.4



There is also some clarification of the Eastern European law changes and a potential tax rebate.
With a few caveats this all looks pretty positive to me.Slight concern that divi not rising considering covered almost 3x.
Been toying with buying some more then decided that as I am still underwater here average buy about 220p and have too many , I won't.

[wad collector] 05/2/2020 09:33

Finals 26th Feb . Too early for today's rise to be a leak. Probably.

[kop202] 17/1/2020 11:18

Whats risky?Other than not getting your money back

[baoman1956] 31/12/2019 13:07

Tempting but risky. Finals due mid / late Feb so a while to go yet. Anyone know of a comparable business who has reported recently?

[wad collector] 31/12/2019 10:14

But finishing the yr at a 6 month high; perhaps there is hope...

[wad collector] 18/12/2019 17:11

I also didn't buy , rather lost the faith in this company and Provident , I think they are both high risk .

[nick rubens] 18/12/2019 11:10

The big buying could continue. Sells are small at the moment, so if there is further 'big' size buying to come then as long as sellers don't willingly volunteer this level then the bid/offer should start rising again.

But what do I know? I paid much higher than this earlier this year beleiving it was the bottom.

"we are on track to deliver full-year profit before tax in line with consensus expectations."

Anyone know what the expectations are? The dividend level could be safe and it's yielding 8.8% at the moment.

Can't believe the share price was a real giveaway just a few months ago and I didn't average down (through fear, namely because of the other companies that failed to deliver on the wider market, causing shareholder wealth destruction).

[kop202] 17/12/2019 17:16

Is that the uncrossing eod trading?

[nick rubens] 17/12/2019 16:45

Huge £186,212.90 buy @170p ? Someone with deep pockets.

[wad collector] 17/12/2019 16:16

I like the start of a good bid rumour! Seems more likely this is just a bit of post election optimism to follow the rest of the market. But the volume is high for IPF so you never know!

[nick rubens] 17/12/2019 16:10

The market must know something or perhaps just bargain hunting a high yield stock with a presumably safe and sustainable dividend.

Still a bit off my buy price, which I thought was cheap before it tanked, but seemingly recovering.

Any chance a predator is looking in the same business area?

[deadly] 17/12/2019 13:34

11% rise today so far on a down market. Any news?

[wad collector] 06/11/2019 12:33

I have posted in full as advfn link is broken

31 Oct 2019
Q3 2019 trading update

Highlights

On track to deliver full-year 2019 profit before tax in line with consensus expectations
Q3 credit issued growth of 1%
European home credit growth of 6% driven by continued strong operational performance
Mexico home credit contracted by 12% due to continued prioritisation of credit quality over growth
IPF Digital delivered growth of 3% - on track to deliver maiden profit in 2019
Group impairment in middle of target range at 27.8% of revenue
Settlement of Polish tax dispute for the period 2010 to 2017
Strong funding position - £197 million of headroom on debt facilities

Group Q3 overview
We delivered a solid Group performance in Q3. Year-on-year, we delivered a 1% increase in credit issued with a continued strong operational performance in European home credit offset partially by Mexico. Group impairment as a percentage of revenue was in line with the 2019 half-year and in the middle of our target range at 27.8%, reflecting a combination of very strong credit quality in European home credit and more challenging performances in Mexico home credit and IPF Digital's new markets.

European home credit
We continue to deliver well against our strategy of improving the sustainability of our home credit businesses in Europe by creating more modern, efficient and better credit quality operations. The excellent operational execution delivered by our teams in these markets resulted in 6% growth in credit issued year-on-year reflecting our strategy of issuing slightly longer-term loans to our better-quality customers. Customer numbers were 1,012,000 and the rate of contraction of 9% is consistent with the 2019 half-year. Credit quality is very strong due to continued good agent collections performance alongside stable post-field collections and this delivered a 1.5ppt improvement in annualised impairment as a percentage of revenue since the half year to 14.2%.

Mexico home credit
As reported in our 2019 half-year financial report, we are currently prioritising improving credit quality over growth and delivering greater execution consistency in order to improve our financial performance in Mexico. To support this we implemented a series of operational actions to improve agent collections and there have been some encouraging signs in early lead key performance indicators. Year-on-year, customer numbers reduced by 7% to 837,000 and credit issued contracted by 12% due to the focus on credit quality and significantly stronger comparatives. Annualised impairment as a percentage of revenue of 41.2% was broadly in line with that reported at the half year. We will continue to focus on delivering consistency of execution to improve the credit quality and we expect to recommence growth in 2020, allowing us to benefit from the significant growth opportunities that this market presents.

IPF Digital
IPF Digital remains on track to deliver its maiden profit in 2019. Year-on-year credit issued growth was 3% comprising a 7% increase in our established markets and a new market performance that was in line with Q3 2018. Additionally, customer numbers increased by 18% to 316,000 driven by growth in the new markets. Annualised impairment as a percentage of revenue increased by 2.0ppts since the 2019 half year to 43.7% driven by the new markets. Our focus on improving credit quality in these markets and our response to tighter rate caps recently introduced in Finland and Latvia means that credit issued in the second half of 2019 will be broadly similar to the first half.

Taxation
As announced on 24 October 2019, the Polish tax authority closed its audits of the 2010, 2011 and 2012 financial years for our Polish home credit company which included a challenge to the pricing of an intra-group arrangement with a UK Group company. In view of the ongoing nature of this arrangement, the tax authority also proposed adjustments to the tax base for later years. We did not contest these findings and accepted the tax authority's proposed adjustments for the years 2010 to 2017 inclusive. This gave rise to an overall payment of £3.8 million for these years. The court proceedings with respect to the 2008 and 2009 financial years continue to be stayed pending the outcome of a process involving the UK and Polish tax authorities aimed at ensuring that the intra-group arrangement in question is taxed in accordance with international tax principles. Having agreed the treatment of the matters challenged by the Polish tax authority for 2010 to 2017, we remain very positive of reaching a good outcome for 2008 and 2009.

Funding
We further strengthened our debt funding position by adding £20 million of new bank funding in Q3, and at 30 September 2019 we had total debt facilities of £912 million and borrowings of £715 million, with headroom on undrawn bank facilities of £197 million. We made further progress on extending debt facilities and now have £326 million of facilities extending beyond the Eurobond maturity in the second quarter of 2021. The settlement of the Polish tax dispute removes a significant liquidity risk for IPF. This will allow more flexibility in the refinancing of the Eurobond, which we aim to complete by the end of 2020.

Regulation
There has been no material update on the Polish Ministry of Justice's proposals to reduce the existing cap on non-interest costs that may be charged by lenders in connection with consumer loan agreements - details of which were provided in our 2019 half-year results statement.

UOKiK, the Polish competition and consumer protection authority, is conducting a comprehensive review of rebating practices by banks and other consumer credit providers on early loan settlement, including those of the Group's Polish businesses. In light of this and a recent European Court of Justice declaratory judgment on the matter, we expect new market standard rebating practices to evolve in Poland and, potentially, other markets in the EU. When we have clarity on the new emerging standards, we will conform our rebating practices in line with these standards and update the market on the potential financial impact.

2019 outlook
Our outlook for the Group in 2019 remains unchanged since the half-year report and we are on track to deliver full-year profit before tax in line with consensus expectations. We expect European home credit to continue to deliver a strong operational performance. We continue to focus on delivering an improved operational performance in Mexico alongside greater execution consistency to deliver progressive improvements in profitability and create the platform to recommence growth. In IPF Digital we remain on track to deliver a maiden profit in 2019.

[baoman1956] 24/10/2019 23:03

Yes, very good news. Jump in share price reflects it nicely!

[2000tober] 24/10/2019 20:16

Yes, I think the tax bill was expected to be a very much higher

[wad collector] 24/10/2019 19:48

Yes that Polish Tax bill closure news is excellent. £3m bill is clearly less than worst case scenario. The 2008+9 tax bills remain unresolved but at least they are so long ago that they can argue that they have binned the paperwork , like the IR tell me with my Income Tax !
I think this is the first good RNS from IPF for about 5 yrs!

[2000tober] 24/10/2019 14:32

GREAT NEWS !

[wad collector] 27/9/2019 20:17

Dare I say it , but there does seem to be a bit of a share price recovery in last 2 months , with a couple of director buys. Or a lull before the next bad news?

[baoman1956] 06/9/2019 06:55

I wonder if he knows something about reduced tax liabilities. Tempted to buy a few but high risk yielding 12%....