LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Home credit business provider International Personal Finance reported an increase in first half profit before tax despite strong currency headwinds.
The FTSE 250 group, which focuses on a number of countries including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, reported a 57% increase year-on-year in profit before tax to £38.6m, despite £3.3m in new business costs and an £8m loss due to weaker forex rates.

Revenue rose 4.6% year-on-year at constant exchange revenue to £372.9m, driven higher by a 10% hike in credit issued to £509.2m and by a 6% increase in customers, while earnings per share declined slightly, falling 5% year-on-year to 13.7p

Group chief executive Gerard Ryan said the performance of the home credit business division had been encouraging and responded well to the company's new strategy, while the digital business had also performed steadily.

Ryan added International Personal Finance was on track to meet its expectations, despite challenging market conditions.

"Whilst trading conditions in Europe remain challenging and potential regulatory changes in Poland have introduced some uncertainty for that market, our business in Mexico continues to deliver very strong growth and remains on track to meet our customer and profitability targets," he said.

"We are announcing another share buyback programme to move us closer to our target equity to receivables ratio of 40% and we are focussed on delivering further growth in the second half of the year."

International Personal Finance shares were up 1.31% to 386.50p at 1151 BST on Wednesday.

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