LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - S&U says its trading remained strong and in line with market expectations during the period 8 December, 2016, to 31 January, sparking an almost 4% rise in its shares.
It had approved a second interim dividend -- of 28p a share, from 23p -- taking the total to 52p a share, from 43p a year ago. This was due to current trading and future prospects.

In a year-end trading update, S&U said its motor-finance business Advantage Finance finished what was a record year very strongly.

"Cash collections in the period exceeded a buoyant 2016 by 31%, whilst both transaction numbers and loan advances comfortably beat last year," the motor finance and specialist lender said.

This year, S&U said Advantage achieved 20,000 new transactions for the first time, beating the previous record by nearly 5000 deals. It now had a record 43,000 live customers.

"Loan quality remains good and, as reported in our last Trading Statement, is both stable and within our expectations."

S&U said this fully justified the additional £33m invested in the just-finished year.

"Within the last quarter, Advantage has received confirmation of its full licence authorisation from the FCA and has continued to introduce further refinements to its renowned underwriting and book analysis capabilities."

S&U also said that, as expected, its Aspen bridging finance operation had now received all necessary approvals, and was now open for business. "We confidently expect a successful pilot over the next fifteen months."

At 13:50 GMT, shares in S&U were up 3.81% to 2235p each.

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