Paragon eyes acquisitions as growth continues
MORTGAGE group Paragon today said it remains on the lookout for acquisition opportunities as it announced a strong performance over the last quarter.
In an interim management statement, the Solihull-based group said that its third quarter financial performance had remained strong, boosting pre-tax profits to £59.5m in the nine months to June 30, inclusive of a credit of £0.6m for fair value hedging items.
The company said performance since the end of the third quarter had continued to be good and its loan portfolio is performing in line with expectations with redemptions across its loan books low and customer payment performance in buy-to-let and secured loans both “superior to industry data”.
It said in a statement: “During the period, the group has continued to build on the excellent progress made during the first half of the year, successfully managing the existing and acquired loan books whilst attracting increasing new lending volumes, portfolio investment and loan servicing opportunities. We continue to pursue portfolio acquisition opportunities and loan administration contracts to supplement our growth potential.”
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Paragon said arrears in its buy-to-let portfolio in the three months to June were 0.69%, down from 0.75% at March 31 “continuing the downward trend in the percentage of the portfolio experiencing payment difficulty”.
Paragon said that free cash balances were £178.8m at the end of the quarter after investing in new business flows and acquiring assets.
It added: “Following the group’s return to new lending in September 2010, application levels have increased as the distribution base has been expanded.
“As we anticipated at the half year, new lending completions grew strongly over the third quarter, with £65.7m of completions in the quarter, taking the total advanced to 30 June 2011 in respect of the group’s new products to £95.3m.
“In addition, £3.7m of further advances were made to existing borrowers. The credit quality of the new lending business written in the period has remained excellent.”
