Challenger bank OneSavings has reported it grew its loan book by 16 per cent in 2016.
The group, which was created when US private equity firm JC Flowers invested in Kent Reliance, was admitted to the stock market in 2014.
OneSavings recently disposed of securitisation vehicle Rochester, which flattered the figures for this year. It said that it expects net book growth in the mid-teens this year.
”We have once again met or exceeded all of the financial objectives we set at IPO despite a number of regulatory and tax changes,” CEO Andy Golding said.
The bank, which aims to challenge the supremacy of Britain’s high street lenders and still uses the Kent Reliance brand along with InterBay and Prestige Finance , said in August that it was focussing on professional landlords and had tightened lending criteria for small residential developments after Brexit.
It posted profit before tax of £163m. However this included a £34.7m exceptional gain on the disposal of its interest in the Rochester 1 securitisation vehicle of and an exceptional loss of £9.8m related to hedged legacy interest rate swap cancellations.
Underlying profit before taxation was up by 29 per cent to £137m, with underlying earnings per share up 20 per cent to 41.7p. A final dividend of 7.6p per share gave a full year dividend of 10.5p.
“We entered 2017 with a strong pipeline of new business and are seeing very strong application levels in our core businesses,” Mr Golding said. “We expect to deliver net loan book growth in the mid-teens in 2017.”
The group recently made changes to its buy to let rules, following new rules from the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA).
These include incentivising landlords to borrow towards a buy-to-let property through a limited company structure by demanding lower rental cover than people borrowing in their own name.
