Lender’s consumer finance division reports record £80m pre-tax profits

Leeds-based lender Hitachi Capital (UK) has recorded a tenth consecutive year of growth.

The Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance team, operating from Leeds with 579 employees, achieved a record £79.7m pre-tax profit, accounting for 64.7% of overall group profits for the wider Hitachi Capital (UK) group. The pre-tax profits for the whole group stood at £123.1m for FY18/19 – up 5.8% on the previous year.

Over the past decade, the company has achieved a compounded annual growth rate of 22%, demonstrating the continued success of its investment in excellent customer experience.

The firm added that it secured £4bn of new business  in previous 12 months across five business units.

Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance, which provides retail point of sale, motor finance and personal loans, lent more than £2.47bn to 640,000 customers and serviced over 1.34 million UK customers in FY18/19. Hitachi Personal Finance’s strong customer proposition means that personal loans lending grew by 8.8% to over £876m.

Vincent Reboul, Managing Director of Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance, said: “Amid a challenging landscape for the retail sector, with a prevailing lack of consumer confidence and major concerns for the health of the UK’s high streets, we have continued to deliver outstanding growth.

“This has been driven by the provision of a frictionless experience at all points of the customer journey. Whether that’s retailers looking for fast integration of point of sale finance, to customers applying online for the best loan, the ability to transact quickly and deliver a great customer experience is essential. That’s what we do best.

“The past year has seen the start of a multi-million pound investment in technology to transform our digital platforms across all channels meaning the business is primed for continued growth as one of the leading lenders of consumer credit in the UK.”

For the first time, Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC ended the year with net earning assets of more than £5bn (£5.6bn a 16% rise from the £4.8bn reported in FY17/18.)

Robert Gordon, CEO of Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC, added: “The performance of our Consumer Finance division is integral to our success, delivering two thirds of the group’s overall profits.

“These outstanding results for both the division and the Group are the culmination of 10 years of sustainable growth, where Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC has consistently outperformed the average growth of many of the leading companies in the UK.

“Despite the challenging financial climate of the last year, we’ve continued to grow both profits and new business in our core UK market, while also expanding our footprint in Europe, which is a significant achievement.”

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