Lender Impact Holdings conserves its cash
SPECIALIST lending business Impact Holdings said it is maintaining a strategy of conservative lending and cash conservation, as it posted a 2.7% fall in half year profits.
Its pre-tax profit of £190,950 for the six months to the end of September 2008, was down on the £196,250 posted at the same time last year. Revenue, however, was up 73% to £1.18m, against £680,000 last year.
The business, which is based in Manchester and offers short term loans to property and legal markets, has predicted a flat second half of the year.
Impact has reduced lending and is maintaining a strategy of only lending on low loan to value, low risk transactions.
Chairman Richard Kilsby said: “The group remains concerned in particular about the volatility in the property market and the knock on effect to other sectors, including the legal profession and this has led us to take a very conservative approach to funding all transactions until the market returns to a more stable environment.”
He added: “Our short term objective is to continue to bolster the credit and risk management controls within the group as well as ensuring present exposures are actively managed to a successful conclusion, whilst conserving cash for the group during these uncertain times.”
In September, the company said that market conditions had left it contemplating “restructuring” and “re-alignment”.
It said the future strategic objective of the group in relation to its solicitor disbursement funding business was being assessed with the potential to become, “a vertically integrated group that controls the risk of funding personal injury claims from the sourcing of claims to the completion of the legal case”.
At the end of September, cash balances stood at £865,000, compared with £1.35m at the same time last year. The company said that despite the reduced availability of funding in the market place, Impact has continued to secure banking facilities to operate on a day-to-day basis.
It said that increased facilities are under negotiation but these facilities will only be taken and utilized on a selective basis because of economic uncertainty.
